Selma

My movie watching has slowed down recently because I am spending more time reading. I watched Selma on Friday. This was nominated for Oscars this year and I had bookmarked it. 

The movie stars David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Tim Roth, Carmen Ejogo and Common. It has been directed by Ava DuVernay and is based on the voting rights marches of African Americans in 1965.


If you don't know American history and about the marches the movie can be a little confusing at first. Basically, African Americans did not have voting rights in the 60s. In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr won the Nobel Peace Prize. He, then, started campaigning for voting rights for African Americans. He even met the President Lyndon B. Johnson regarding this but the President had other priorities and refused to get involved. 

Martin (David) organizes a series of marches from Selma to Montgomery. In the first march, a student is killed by the cops and this enrages the entire community. Another march is organized and again the marchers have to face violence by the government but this time it is telecast live. In the third march, whites join the African Americans on their march and the state withdraws but Martin asks everyone to turn back since the march was not legal. He goes to court and is allowed to march legally. After the third march, President appeals to his government to pass the bill for voting rights.
The movie also highlights how FBI taped Martin's phone, spied on him and tried to disrupt his marriage with Coretta (Carmen). 

The movie is very, very touching. It reminded me of our freedom movement. Well, atleast in our case the oppressors were not our own countrymen. It also reminded of how bloody USA's history is. It is funny whenever that country preaches about equality and acts like it is morally superior. 

David as Martin Luther King Jr is superb. Some of his speeches are very moving and hard hitting. 

Selma is a wonderful movie and am very surprised it didn't win more awards because it deserved to.