Given the civil rights subject matter, the greatness of Martin Luther King as the man at the centre of the story, and relevance today it's surprising Selma isn't a bigger, flashier film. It's to director Ava DuVernay's credit that she recognised this story didn't need further embellishment, grandiose shots or an overwhelming score.
Better still, she doesn't try to tell Martin Luther King's whole life story. DuVernay focuses on one historic event to represent King's work: the 1965 voting-rights marches from Selma, Alabama to the state capital Montgomery. As far as historical dramas go, this one follows a formula more similar to Lincoln than The Butler as King uses protest and demonstration, the media and his political connections to convince President Lyndon Johnson to sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
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Screenwriter Paul Webb cleverly captures the political machinations of King's movement, led by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, over three months. The landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act had already desegregated the South but, under the leadership of racist governors such as Alabama's George Wallace (Roth), African Americans were threatened and intimidated if they attempted to register to vote.
We see King and the SCLC at work on the ground, choosing the racist town of Selma to demonstrate because there's a good chance law enforcement will react violently to their protest, and give the movement much-needed media attention. Selma also shows King working at the higher levels of politics, refusing to compromise with a supportive but rattled President Johnson, played by Tom Wilkinson.
