Selma Movie Review & What Oprah Wants Us to Take Away From the Movie

I haven’t seen the movie Selma yet…I hope to go today but am not sure my plans will work out. I thought it would be a great way to honor Dr. Martin Luther King on his birthday. One of my best friends from college (Carolyn) is the girl that is responsible for all of the free movie passes that we give out on The Aha! Connection. Interestingly enough, she was with Oprah and several Selma cast members yesterday as they walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.

I’m reprinting the following “review” that one of Carolyn’s friends posted about Selma so that you can see what has inspired me to really want to see this movie!Reprinted from a Facebook Post by my friend Carolyn’s friend CB Hacksworth

“Let me tell you something.
I hope you see “Selma.” It is a great motion picture.
There are many brutal scenes, and some are difficult to watch. One depicts an Alabama state trooper’s unprovoked shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson as he sought refuge in a diner with his mother and elderly grandfather after “law enforcers” descended on peaceful marchers at a night march.
A friend in the audience leaned over and asked me, with a little disbelief, “Did that REALLY happen?”
Yes. It did.
Jimmie Lee Jackson’s killing, in fact, is what led directly to “Bloody Sunday” on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965, and the subsequent five-day march from Selma to Montgomery. I know the history and have seen a great deal of news footage from “Bloody Sunday” — the same news footage that shocked Americans of all colors into action on Civil Rights, yet I was unprepared for the impact of watching it re-enacted so dramatically on the big screen, and unprepared to realize some in the audience wondered if the film makers were exaggerating.
No. There’s no exaggeration. If anything, the scenes of violence are less over-the-top than what happened in reality. It’s hard to believe, 50 years later, sitting in a movie theater with an integrated audience. Yet, even that wouldn’t have been possible half a century ago. For anyone born since then, all of these things are literally hard to believe.
There were no “live” television reports. That’s one of only a few details the movie gets wrong, and it’s a small mistake. In those days, programming was sometimes interrupted with “special reports” and the promise of film to be broadcast later — as quickly as it could be rushed to a television station and developed. A fact not mentioned in the movie is that many viewers were watching the acclaimed motion picture “Judgment at Nuremberg” when it finally was interrupted with the film footage from “Bloody Sunday,” and many were confused because they thought they were still watching Nazis rather than Alabama police.
“Selma” is not a documentary (and if that’s what you want, let me just mention that Andrew Young and I made a pretty good one called “Leaving Selma,” which we’re re-releasing next week) but the inaccuracies in the movie “Selma” are minor and considerably fewer than in most films claiming to be “based on a true story.” Does it tell the entire story? Of course not. Thousands of people participated, and even some of the most instrumental players aren’t included in this telling, yet, at the same time, I’m truly impressed by how many real-life characters are portrayed.
It’s significant to realize this is the first major film ever made about Martin Luther King, Jr., and there are a lot of reasons why that’s so. My friend David Oyelowo’s performance as Dr. King is inspired and inspiring. I am so proud to know him and I’m very hopeful his years of dedication to and preparation for this role will be rewarded in the coming days.
The events depicted in “Selma” occurred 50 years ago this year. It is just one chapter of an extraordinary Civil Rights movement that is one of America’s greatest achievements and of which we all should be proud. For all our problems, this is a far better country than it was in 1965. The non-violent war led by Dr. King did not just free black Americans; it also freed white Americans.
For those not familiar with the top-notch website “Rotten Tomatoes,” it is a scoreboard of just about every review for just about every movie released. “Selma” is ranked at 100%. As a former movie critic, I am here to tell you that’s quite an endorsement.”