Selma

[Content Note: Descriptions of violence and racism; spoilers for the film Selma.]


Yesterday, Iain and I went to see Selma. Reviewing is a particular talent, and it's a talent I lack; there are also plenty of terrific reviews of the film written by people who write them well, and please feel welcome to link to your favorites in comments.

I will share some of my impressions of the film, for those who haven't yet seen it, and to start the conversation for those who have.

The thing about movies like Selma, which are important films about important subjects, is that sometimes they are indeed important but not entirely good films. Selma is both. It is a powerful, eminently watchable, transfixing film, the subject matter of which director Ava DuVernay presents flawlessly.

I know the Oscars are garbage, but it is a genuine offense that DuVernay was not nominated for Best Director, and that there were zero acting nominations. David Oyelowo, who plays Dr. King, is amazing—he is not doing an impression of Dr. King so much as fully inhabiting him. And Stephan James, as a young Rep. John Lewis, and Oprah Winfrey as Annie Lee Cooper, deserved Best Supporting Actor and Actress nominations, respectively.

Though I'm singling them out, everyone in the film was amazing: Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King and Henry G. Sanders as Cager Lee were two other stand-outs.

I loved the arc of the story, where it begins and where it ends. The film concludes before Dr. King's assassination, on the triumph of the march to Montgomery and the proposal of the Voting Rights Act, which made for a different sort of film, and a different sort of feeling walking away from it, than if the story had moved forward several years to include a scene of his death. His imminent assassination is a specter, haunting the film, but this is a film about his life, and the urgency of his work as he is chased by his own ghost.

And the exploration of his work is extraordinary. I loved that the film showed how strategic he was. He was a brilliant activist not just because he was a radical theorist and brilliant speaker, but also because he was an immensely clever strategic thinker, who knew when to compromise and when to be unyielding, and how to work his notoriety to his advantage.

Lastly, I will quickly note that the complaints about the portrayal of President Lyndon Johnson are sooooo shit. SO SHIT. It is indeed true that there were times LBJ essentially served as a symbol of white resistance to change, but he was shown in his own moment of triumph: When he announced his proposal of the Voting Rights Act, the theater in which we sat—a crowd split almost exactly in half between black and non-black audience members—erupted into applause.

(I cannot remember the last time I saw a film during which there were moments of applause during the film, and that happened twice during Selma, as well as a round of huge applause at the end of the film.)

On LBJ, Iain said afterward, "He looked like a competent politician." Yup. Oh the humanity, etc.

Selma shouldn't be a tragedy, but it is: Fifty years later, we need look no further than Ferguson, Missouri (or New York City, or Chicago, or...) to see the same harassment and harm of protesters advocating for their rights and safety. And it is heartbreaking and rage-making to contemplate that the Supreme Court is rolling back the protections of the Voting Rights Act, which was so hard won.

We can do better than this. We must.