Ava Duvernay's Selma Film Analysis

Ava DuVernay’s Selma tells the story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Freedom Marches from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 to secure voting rights for African Americans. Having come out in 2014, Although any historical film is an interpretation of history, this movie accurately depicted what African Americans went through. The first scene introduces Annie Lee Cooper who was denied the right to vote after not being able to name the 67 county judges in Alabama. This was one of the many real requirements meant to restrict blacks from voting. In the film, she was asked to Cooper later joined the movement after becoming inspired after one of MLK’s speeches at Brown Chapel Church. Although minute details about events were accurate, many critics have been questioning if the representation of President Lyndon B. Johnson. In the film, Johnson is depicted as being hesitant to back the Selma march. Director DuVernay didn’t need to make big changes to the chronology of the story in order to make it more “dramatic” because of how complex the characters are and how the story has a naturally intense history. At the same time, the release of this film was very relevant to the 2014 discussions on police brutality and the marches that were happening around the world. As any movie, special effects and slight changes in chology were made to build up the tension and distress that America felt, but important historical scenes were recreated amazingly. On March 7th, 1965, Alabama state troops and local police attacked peaceful marchers. This day became known as Bloody Sunday. All of these details are easily confirmed in an article Coretta Scott King wrote in The Plain Dealer newspaper in 1970. In the film, the perspective switched back and forth from being among the marchers to watching families at home viewing the event on their televisions. As Coretta Scott King wrote, “the whole nation was sickened by the pictures of that wild melee.... Tear gas, clubs, horsemen slashing with bullwhips like the Russian czar’s infamous Cossacks, and deputies, using electric cattle prods, chasing fleeing men, women, and children all the way back to Brown’s Chapel.” One discrepancy was in the film was when the movie shows Jimmie Lee Jackson being killed instantly when caught and shot in a restaurant by white officers during the night of Bloody Sunday. According to different accounts, police troopers stormed the café, and attacked Jackson’s grandfather and mother (as shown in the film). Then after they shot Jackson, they fled. In the film, Jackson appears to die in his mother’s arms shortly after being shot, but in reality, he died over a week later in the hospital. Small changes like this were made with minor consequence to condense all of the events related to the Freedom Marches into one film. This ultimately created suspense and allows the viewer to feel the heartbreak of events. Similarly, when the film starts, King is delivering his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Since the King estate didn’t grant DuVernay permission to use his words, we hear rewritten parts of the speech which really captured MLK’s eloquence and intent. The film …show more content…
However, due to his speeches remaining under copyright, all of his distinctive phrases had to be rewritten. As the director, DuVernay said that her “goal was to capture the complexity of every character in the film, including King, who is hardly portrayed as a flawless saint.” By revealing his flaws as well as his strengths, the film portrays him as a hero rather than a perfect leader. The movie includes scenes which acknowledges his affairs after the FBI sends an audiotape to Coretta. The FBI did actually send tapes like these to the family in order to make him lose his reputation. Other sides of King’s life was shown when in jail after the first Selma protest. He states to Ralph Abernathy about how he was concerned about how men have been beaten and broken down for generation. “So what happens when they say that’s enough? They stand up to be struck down.” The was worried that white supremacists would “ruin [him] so they can ruin this movement.” Moments like these really give the viewer a peek into MLK’s mind and to the insecurities that he