Selma, AL: A Snapshot of the Civil Rights Movement

Selma, AL I jumped on board after seeing the Golden Globes. I consider myself wise about history, but I couldn't have told you what occurred in Selma, AL in 1964. It's utterly impossible to understand what the 1960's (and anytime before as well) would have been like for African-Americans. History is often written with blood and the civil rights movement is certainly an example of that. Selma was just a snapshot of the violence experienced in the South, but this film did the best job of depicting the horrific violence of the time. David Oyelowo should certainly be getting Best Actor props for his portrayal of Dr. King. Just a phenomenal job from Oyelowo. All the acting in this film is fantastic, particularly Tom Wilkinson as Lyndon B. Johnson (the B is for Baines!), Tim Roth as Gov. Wallace, Oprah, Common, Wendell Pierce (BUNK from the Wire!) Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King and Giovanni Ribisi were all phenomenal. Disappointing that a lot of the people mentioned are British actors playing americans including Oyelowo as Dr. King. The tale of Selma would be awesome in a mini-series because SO much was going on that I was completely unaware of. Selma, AL was chosen by Dr. King and his supporters as THE place to fight for voting rights. I forgot how crucial the ability to vote is. Selma was over 50% African-American, so the ability to vote= real representation immediately. Voting also= the ability to be selected to a jury, which would finally be able to convict white criminals of the atrocities against blacks. I couldn't have been more impressed with the way they handled all the historical aspects. Bottom Line: 9.2 out of 10. I was an enormous fan of this film. I'm a history nerd, so maybe this is biased, but I was very impressed with all aspects of this film. Great job all the way around. I honestly wish this would've been a longer movie so they could dive even deeper into more of the events in Selma. I'm totally cool that this was possibly "shameless" Oscar pandering, but it's awesome. Go see this in theatres.