Went to see the Dr. Martin Luther King dramatic flick Selma. I call it a drama and not a biopic because the movie doesn’t try to do the generic biographical film thing of showing early formative life, rise to power, romance, and all the usual stuff. This flick starts with him getting the Nobel Peace Prize and then meeting LBJ in the white house. Skip to the chase, as they say. So the movie covers the decision to make the voting registration problems in Alabama after he couldn’t get LBJ to pass some laws. It doesn’t cover his death, the march on Washington, Birmingham, and the other usual touch points.

Which is refreshing though the movie does have the habit of assuming, going in, that we already know a lot of history. As as reasonably smart person, I did know a lot (though I still learned more) but I can imagine a younger audience maybe needing a little more hand-holding. It’s kind of a minor complaint but given there’s a number of kinda draggy scenes in the film, I think some of those could have been shortened for the benefit of those behind on their 50 year old history (ugh… 50 years).

Besides those slightly draggy scenes, this is a well-acted and powerful film that is just as happy showing protesters getting beaten down by the cops as it does the power play between King and the president (and the president and George Wallace in a pretty great scene). The movie doesn’t pretend LBJ is a perfect man nor does it mount King on too big of a pedestal (though it’s hardly a hit piece on the guy). The movie was particularly good at handling the political wrangling that most people wouldn’t have seen while watching cops with batons on tv.

Also of interest is that the movie is also just as much about the planning and staging of the protests. Not everything was perfectly handled and there’s interesting conflicts between the groups (not the least of which is Malcolm X showing up).

So, yeah, this is a good film. It’s a little long in spots though so that drives it down from the heights of praise others are giving it in my unprofessional nobody book. I’d still say check it out as a historical document and as a reminder of where we were…. and a reminder of where we are now.

Score: 85