Selma (2014)

Though all but snubbed at the Oscars (nominated for Best Picture and song--nothing else), this story of Martin Luther King Jr.'s leading the 1965 Alabama march is quite the tour de force for all the filmmakers. David Oyelowo is marvelous in the title role, as is Carmen Ejogo as Coretta (he was last blogged in The Butler and although she made an appearance in Away We Go--here's a photo--I didn't mention her). I don't mean to belittle the other players--all are quite good, including Tom Wilkinson (most recently in Belle) as Lyndon Johnson; Giovanni Ribisi (last in A Million Ways to Die in the West) as Johnson's advisor Lee White (one of the first times I recall seeing Ribisi not playing a buffoon); André Holland (42) as Andrew Young; Tim Roth (Arbitrage) with a spot-on accent as  George Wallace; Tessa Thompson (Dear White People) as Diane Nash; Oprah Winfrey (last blogged as an actor in The Butler--here she also produced) as Annie Lee Cooper; and Common (was in Date Night, and co-wrote and -performed the nominated song with John Legend) as James Bevel; to name a few of the 129 credited cast.

Director Ava DuVernay started out as a publicist and began her rise to fame directing Middle of Nowhere (2010), which I meant to see. She had to rewrite King's speeches because the copyrights are protected. The screenwriting credit goes to Paul Webb (his only one) but imdb says she rewrote many of Webb's words as well as King's. When I was in film school in the 1980s, many of our teachers said there needs to be conflict to make a good script. Clearly the issue of civil rights in the 1960s is rife with conflict, but some have quarreled with DuVernay's characterization of President Johnson as an additional enemy of racial equality. In any event, we all know what happened, and that it's far from solved even now.

At one point MLK phones Mahalia Jackson, waking her up, saying he needs to hear "the voice of God," and she, played by singer Ledisi, sings Precious Lord, Take My Hand, one of the most magical sequences in the movie. Listen. The original is good, too--google it--but this version is extraordinary. Here's a link to the nominated song, Glory, which plays over the end credits. Imdb lists the songs, and no composer is credited.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging an unusual 99% and its audiences 84. This is powerful.