Selma - Movie Review

Selma

“Selma” is an amazingly well done movie. When the movie came out in 2015 it received the NAACP image award for outstanding motion picture, which is not surprising because the film is a prime example of how history can make a great movie. Throughout the movie Martin luther King Jr. struggles with the government as well as with the people in and around selma as he pushes to get a march from selma to montgomery. His persistence as well as the civil rights supporters that he called to help him is the main reason that they got to march.

    This movie really pressed how government is a large and important part of a movement. In one of the first scenes Dr.King is seen talking to president lyndon B. Johnson in the White House about how allowing blacks to vote uninhibited would help the civil rights movement greatly because of the impact people have on their community when they are able to be a part of choosing the officials. As he put it “if only whites vote, they will elect only white officials.” and that was a very true statement for that time period because of the popularity of racial prejudice amongst whites at the time.

    One very pivotal scene in this was the night demonstration. While a group of blacks are peacefully marching in protest at night, governor George C Wallace sends state troopers to “teach them a lesson” by which he means beat them senseless and even kill some of them. Jimmie Lee Jackson, a young boy raised by his mom and grandfather was one of the few to be killed. This was the moment in the film where everything started to