By: Jessica Fisher, Staff Writer
The filmmakers behind “Selma” decided they wanted their audience to be a bit uncomfortable – to be directly affected by the uncomfortable subjects being played out in this movie. The use of blood and gore in this movie is not in the fashion of Quentin Tarantino. That is to say that it is not gratuitous. It is necessary, it is realistic.
Nor does Ava DuVernay, the director of “Selma,” drum up the levels or types of patriotism that can be found in movies such as “Saving Private Ryan” or “The Great Debaters.” The audience sees Lyndon B. Johnson’s speech addressing the Jim Crow laws in the South, but the movie ends with Martin Luther King Jr. giving a speech in front of the governor’s mansion in Alabama, with work still to be done.
The audience then has to deal with the explosion at the 16th Street Baptist Church – which, in the way it is presented, is the most jarring part of the movie. Even though it should be expected, it still felt sudden. There are also the more nuanced problems. The movie follows the story of Annie Lee Cooper (played byOprah Winfrey), a character based on a real woman. The story of Cooper is not only the narrative of being barred from voting, but the narrative of activism.
Watching this movie does not replace the need to study and understand the history, but it is worth a view, and hopefully will be a catalyst for many conversations.
