Selma - Review

There was a round of applause at the end of this movie! That is very rare in Vancouver these days. You may get some claps here and there if you go to an event film like a Beauty and the Beast or a Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but getting one for a historical period piece is something else. You truly see how much these people had to go through. United States History shown at it's worst and most violent. Okay, maybe not MOST violent (civil war) but a dark time indeed. They don't shy away from the violence and showcasing how brutal some of these beatings were that happened during the Selma marches. I won't get into much about the story or acting or anything like that because I want to talk about one thing that the film did particularly well. All you need to know about the story elements and such is that this film does a great job of it, but I like that this film didn't go full on anti-white. For a film like this, talking about civil rights, black rights, it is easy to paint things black and white, literally. When making a film, you need some sort of antagonistic force and it is extremely easy to make all of them white and all of your sympathetic characters black. It's too easy. Give all common folk a common enemy. Some films have done this and it makes me sick. This film, however, shows us the gray areas and in my personal opinion, makes the drama that much stronger. There are some black people that disagreed with MLK Jr. and didn't like him. On top of that, there were also white supporters of MLK Jr. and his cause. Not all black people are on the same side and not all white people are evil. Sure in this scenario at this point in time in the story, majorities differed, but they gray area was explored and made MLK Jr.'s journey all the more powerful! Great film!