Did you know that this is the whitest year for Oscar nominations since 1998? Or that in the Academy’s eighty-seven years, only four women have ever been nominated for Best Director? This year women and people of colour were notably absent from virtually all major categories, with the majority of people expressing particular outrage at the lack of recognition given to Selma, a biopic on Martin Luther King Jr.’s campaign to get black people the vote in the United States: despite all round artistic brilliance, it only managed to garner nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Song. Did the Academy voters think the film just made itself?
Rather than presenting us with an unnecessarily sweeping birth-to-death narrative, Selma chronicles a small – but no less significant – part of the late minister’s life: the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. Despite the fact it was technically legal for black people to vote in the United States at this time, the majority were unable to due to white registrars denying their attempts to register. King (magnificently played by David Oyelowo) attempts to get President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) to put in place federal legislation for black citizens to register for voting unencumbered, as well as to try and put an end to all the senseless acts of violence against them; Johnson, however, is more concerned with the country’s poverty levels. Along with his fellow civil rights activists, King therefore comes up with a plan that will hopefully put the movement into the spotlight and “raise white consciousness”: the marches.
These marches exemplify King’s reputation for using nonviolent means as a way of protest, although in the White House he is still referred to as a “degenerate” due to his mere presence causing even more tension in the racially divided South. The government keep tabs on King and his family and decide it would be in their favour to cause friction between him and his wife: Coretta (Carmen Ejogo), as their relationship has started to weaken due to continuous threats towards them and their children. The scenes between King and Coretta have particular significance, in part due to the fantastic performances from Oyelowo and Ejogo, they allow an extremely important and idolised figure to be humanized. Though Oyelowo portrays King with the deepest respect and director Ava DuVernay never dismisses the fact that he was and remains a hero, the film still manages to remain humble, acknowledging that in spite of everything he accomplished he was still a human being capable of conflicts and moments of weakness.
Yet neither does the film twist King’s character in order to content viewers ignorant of his true principles. One of the most important aspects of Selma is that while, yes, King did promote nonviolence when protesting, not once did he promote forbearance towards the deplorable situations black people were – and continue to be – subjected to. The scene depicting the infamous “Bloody Sunday” – when white troopers brutally attacked protesters attempting to participate in the Selma to Montgomery march – is one of, if not the most, harrowing in the whole film. Indeed, Selma contains many horrific moments that will leave you speechless and sick to the stomach and DuVernay handles them masterfully, as does cinematographer Bradford Young (another criminal snub). Though some may find the use of slow-motion in the more violent scenes somewhat hackneyed, it certainly heightens emotions while also highlighting the shocking brutality of real life events that need to be acknowledged, especially by white people.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6t7vVTxaic]
Despite the fact that the Oscars clearly don’t represent the crème de la crème of film-making so much as they do of white men, it’s still a damn shame to see a film of this much quality and importance dismissed almost completely. The shocks and fury over the snubs are more than justified but none so much as David Oyelowo’s: the British actor delivers such a powerhouse performance that in one scene towards the end of the film his passionate speech on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol could easily be confused with that of the real Dr King.
Though it occasionally falters and slips into the typical tropes of biopics, Selma is nonetheless a monumentally powerful and deeply moving account of a vital time in American history, as well as a profound reminder that we still have a long way to go before King’s dreams are truly realised.
Selma is out in cinemas nationwide now.
Words by Samantha King