I made time to get out and see "Selma" Friday night. I was disappointed when it didn't come out on Christmas Day in Chicago, and last weekend got away from me, I try to do opening weekends to make sure movies have a chance of being in the top three. The movie was well worth the wait.
"Selma" is about the advent of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This Act was recently watered down and it may be harder to demonstrate voter discrimination as a result. The movie opens up with an older woman trying to register to vote, something we should ALL be able to do - but the registrar asks her to recite the Preamble of the Constitution. When she was successful in doing that, he asks her to name the number of head county judges in the state of Alabama. When she successfully does that, he asks her to name them all - but she isn't able to name them and is send home in disgrace. The hoops they made you jump through as part of their literacy tests were ridiculous and as a result, there were very few, if any, people of color registered to vote in the south.
The challenge hasn't gone away, even though we have the Voting Rights Act in place - the recent assaults on our right to vote include making people produce a driver's license or an ID, confirming their address with a utility bill in their name, or asking people to prove they aren't felons who were justifiably removed from the voter roles. This is what's happening now, so believe me, the fight is not over at all. The tactics may have changed but the playbook from the post-Reconstruction Jim Crow era is still being followed.
So, Martin Luther King Jr. goes to meet the President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, to ask that a new law removing the impediments to voting be put in place. There seems to be some great controversy
regarding how the President received the request and his supposed opposition to introducing something at that time - so take that into account as you watch the film - but the bottom line is that MLK and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and a young John Lewis and his group, the Student Non- Violent Coordinating Comittee (SNCC) joined forces to bring attention to the need for an end to Poll taxes and Literacy tests to register to vote by marching from Selma to Montgomery.
First, tissue is a requirement for viewing this film. The first scene was hard to take, especially since I just worked to help people register to vote for the 2012 election, not just in Chicago, but in other states when they threatened not to allow people to register - like I said, it's not over! We have to remain vigilant and cannot afford to ever be complacent.
The thing that will hit you hardest is the terrorism perpetrated on the people of color in the south - the vehement opposition to the thought that anyone would dare oppose their southern traditions - the threats to jobs, the assault on humanity, the sense of entitlement and the fear that things might change. That's still going on too - look at the recent protests regarding police brutality that have taken place in the country. It's a wonder the United States Attorney General gets any sleep at all.
I don'tknow if "Selma" will win Best Picture, although it certainly is the best movie I have seen so far in the past twelve months. I certainly think "Glory" should win Best Original Song, it's really great. This will mark the second John Legend song I've ever purchased.
My only criticism of the movie is that it would have been more effective to introduce the name is the characters as the film opened - so that people would know who was who. They introduce the woman trying to vote, but not the group around Martin Luther King Jr., or the little girls who are killed In the church bombing, or any info on SNCC. if you aren't already familiar with the history and the players, read "Parting The Waters" books I, II, and III - part II deals with Selma, but they are all worth reading and give great background on the Civil Rights movement and the process.
It also would have been beneficial to release this movie before the mid-term elections, now we are looking at the after effects of a watered down Voting Rights Act, a Republican House and Republican Senate whose agenda is clear to eradicate the Affordable Care Act, make sure illegal immigrants don't receive citizenship, and dash all hopes of marriage equality - like I said, it's not over.
