Skip to main content
Displaying 1 of 1
Selma
2015
Availability
Annotations

"Selma chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Acclaimed all-star cast includes Golden Globe nominee David Oyelowo (Lee Daniels’ The Butler), Oscar nominees Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton), Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction) and Oprah Winfrey (The Color Purple), and Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. (Lee Daniel’s The Butler). Academy Award winner for Original Song, “Glory” performed by John Legend and Common. Produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B (12 Years a Slave) and Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films." - (Alert)

Dramatizes the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches. - (Baker & Taylor)

SELMA is the story of a movement. The film chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Director Ava DuVernay's SELMA tells the real story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history. - (Universal Studios Home Entert.)

Large Cover Image
Trade Reviews

Video Librarian Reviews

Ava DuVernay's Best Picture-nominated historical drama about the voting-rights struggle during 1965 begins with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) receiving the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, after which he meets with President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson), urging him to support passage of a national Voting Rights Act. To underscore the need for change, Dr. King and his Southern Christian Leadership advisors travel to Selma, AL, in March 1965, for a peaceful, non-violent protest, and then boldly march 50 miles from Selma to the state's capital of Montgomery. Stressing that raising white America's consciousness is as crucial as organizing black communities, King outlines his three principles of protest: "Negotiate, demonstrate, resist." Hideous brutality erupts, with opposition coming not only from Sheriff Jim Clark (Tim Houston) and his posse on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but also Alabama's Gov. George Wallace (Tim Roth). Determined to discourage King by monitoring his movements and disrupting his marriage, J. Edgar Hoover (Dylan Baker) leaks secret FBI recordings of King's adulterous liaisons. Co-producer Oprah Winfrey cameos here as an elderly churchwoman unable to register to vote. Oyelowo's powerful, provocative portrayal is electrifying, aptly reflecting King's oratorical cadence and canny political strategy. Although plagued by controversy over the depiction of President Johnson, this is an inspiring and impassioned film that delivers King's reverberating and sadly still necessary message of perseverance against racism. Highly recommended. (S. Granger) Copyright Video Librarian Reviews 2015.

Librarian's View
Displaying 1 of 1