Selma
Selma. Accurate or Romanticized?
4 of 5 Stars
In Matthew 10:16, Jesus tells His followers, "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves." When we hear about the Civil Rights Movement and King's obligation to civil disobedience, we focus on how he strained how imperative it was to take the moral high ground: Protestors should not fight back, no matter how much they might be roughed up and abused. That dovelike attitude also was really discerning, though. As Selma tells us, King's "passive" posture wasn't just about taking the high road. It was about showing the world you're taking it. King's policy was reliant on drawing consideration—and television cameras—to places like Selma, and letting everyone realize the barbarism being doled out to the protesters. King needed the protests to be "in the newspapers every morning, on TV every night." No one wanted innocent people to get hurt, least of all King. But he knew that if protesters were seen on national television being attacked and abused, outrage would supervene, which in turn would be followed by change. Selma is the story of a movement. The film chronicles Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. leading a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The ambitious protest from Selma to Montgomery climaxed in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Selma expresses the real story of how the illustrious groundbreaker and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his brothers and sisters in the movement provoked revolution that forever altered history. Selma is the dramatic depiction of a 3-month period in the American Civil Rights movement – not a documentary or an historical retelling of the events leading to the enacting of the 1965 Voting Rights Law by President Lyndon Johnson. The film takes liberties with
4 of 5 Stars
In Matthew 10:16, Jesus tells His followers, "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves." When we hear about the Civil Rights Movement and King's obligation to civil disobedience, we focus on how he strained how imperative it was to take the moral high ground: Protestors should not fight back, no matter how much they might be roughed up and abused. That dovelike attitude also was really discerning, though. As Selma tells us, King's "passive" posture wasn't just about taking the high road. It was about showing the world you're taking it. King's policy was reliant on drawing consideration—and television cameras—to places like Selma, and letting everyone realize the barbarism being doled out to the protesters. King needed the protests to be "in the newspapers every morning, on TV every night." No one wanted innocent people to get hurt, least of all King. But he knew that if protesters were seen on national television being attacked and abused, outrage would supervene, which in turn would be followed by change. Selma is the story of a movement. The film chronicles Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. leading a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The ambitious protest from Selma to Montgomery climaxed in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Selma expresses the real story of how the illustrious groundbreaker and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his brothers and sisters in the movement provoked revolution that forever altered history. Selma is the dramatic depiction of a 3-month period in the American Civil Rights movement – not a documentary or an historical retelling of the events leading to the enacting of the 1965 Voting Rights Law by President Lyndon Johnson. The film takes liberties with