Selma

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Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 12:10am

I looked for a thread about Ava DuVernay's film "Selma" but didn't see one on the first four pages, so apologies if I missed one.

God this is a good movie and it was really something to see in a big multiplex. It's great to see a mainstream movie with so much to say. Also, Broadway's very own Colman Domingo gets a lot of screen time. Of course there are minor quibbles, well only one from me really, and it's just the absence of any follow up about what happened to one of the architects of the black civil rights movement.

As C would say if she still had her Corner, "Selma is
a must
see!

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Updated On: 1/11/15 at 12:10 AM

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 12:19am

I am really looking forward to seeing it.

I'm a little put off by the changes to Lyndon Johnson's involvement in this, but hopefully that won't impact my feelings on the film too much.

The backlash has already gotten way out of hand, but if you are unfamiliar with here is what started it:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-movie-selma-has-a-glaring-historical-inaccuracy/2014/12/26/70ad3ea2-8aa4-11e4-a085-34e9b9f09a58_story.html

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 12:25am

Believe me, you'll see this backlash thing as a tempest in a tearoom.

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Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 3:10am

Incredible movie. The best I've seen about the civil rights movement. Every moment was great. Aside from being a great movie, it's also very timely today. Go see it. Even though I liked two other movies better from 2014, I think this should win best picture because it is just perfectly well made and the most important movie of the year. If I had seen it in 2014 it would have been on my top list of the year.

Updated On: 1/11/15 at 03:10 AM

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 7:42am

Most of what I've seen about the film agrees with FN. YES, there are discrepancies, but the film and its message us still spot on.

I can't wait to catch it.

If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 8:29am

I loved this movie, and I'll be rooting for it tonight at the GGs. Sadly, the theater was only half-full, and it's grosses for Friday were unimpressive. Regarding the portrayal of LBJ, while it was inconsistent with my understanding of his role and their relationship, I don't think portrayed him too negatively.

"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 11:15am

The theater I was in was almost full. I think historical dramas are a tough sell, which is a shame.

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Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 11:17am

I was surprised that I had a number of students looking forward to it

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 11:19am

I expected it to hit the standard biopic touchstones and instead, the movie managed to go deeper.

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#10

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 11:33am

It is on my "to see" list.

It is not a documentary, but an "inspired by" movie, which means there will be some liberties taken.

#11

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 11:38am

"I think historical dramas are a tough sell, which is a shame."

That's certainly the case with me as I prefer print matter and documentaries to feature films that treat any historical figure or event.

However, I've come to trust the judgment of most long-time posters on here and will check out this flick soon.

#FactsMatter...your feelings not so much.

#12

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 11:51am

The film is fantastic and directed beautifully. This "controversy" is silly and unwarranted.

"Girl, this cupcake is the jumpoff"- Adriane Lenox

#13

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 12:04pm

I'd hardly call that article a backlash. It is just a correction of historical fact which the movie has decided to change. I have read two others like it by journalists at that time.

I also feel that in this day and age when there is so much racial tension, it is a shame that the producers of this film chose to portray LBJ as MLK's adversary when, in fact, he was his most powerful white ally.

#14

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 12:08pm

It's not really as an "adversary" in the George Wallace sense. Or a Bull Connor sense.

It's more like a dialectic. It's a demonstration of the age-old "You're trying to change things too fast, slow it down, baby steps"/"This is activism and it's happening now and we've waited too long already" dynamic that we see in every social change movement.

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#15

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 12:09pm

The article isn't the backlash. The article is the source of the backlash.

A small, but very important distinction.

#16

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 12:11pm

"The article isn't the backlash. The article is the source of the backlash."

Yes...the article and the comment section are a package deal. That's the one thing I like about the interactive nature of the Internet these days.

#FactsMatter...your feelings not so much.

#17

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 12:14pm

Agreed. My point is that article from the Post was when the historical accuracy was corrected or brought up. The comments on the post are certainly part of it, but the article itself lead to many other people taking it various directions.

#18

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 12:17pm

"Sadly, the theater was only half-full, and it's grosses for Friday were unimpressive."

Really? It's estimated to have come in second at the box office this weekend, which I think is fairly impressive for a historical drama featuring no major names in front of or behind the camera.

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

#19

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 2:33pm

Selma number 2 at weekend box office.

LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-box-office-taken-3-selma-into-the-woods-hobbit-unbroken-20150111-story.html

"Selma" follows the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) in 1965 as he organizes and leads a march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.

The Paramount Pictures-distributed film, which cost about $20 million to make, has pulled in $13.5 million since its limited release on Christmas Day.

“It’s a really incredible movie because it’s playing so well in so many diverse places and has all of these organic grass-roots energy around it,” said Megan Colligan, president of domestic marketing and distribution. “It’s big cities, it’s small cities -- it’s touching people all over.”

Colligan said one passionate fan in Louisiana reached out to Paramount asking if she could screen “Selma” at the local gym because there was no theater within 50 miles of town.

An estimated 43% of "Selma" moviegoers nationwide were African American, and 40% were white. Sixty-one percent were female.

“The historical drama is a tough nut to crack to make it entertaining and inspiring and I think [director] Ava DuVernay figured out how to do that,” Colligan said.

Coach Bob knew it all along: you've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed. You have to keep passing the open windows. (John Irving, The Hotel New Hampshire)

#20

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 3:13pm

We just caught this yesterday at Arclight Pasadena-- (where the audience was also disappointingly half-full).

Just a terrific film, so controlled and intimate despite the big canvas events it's describing. Can't say enough good things about David Oyelowo's meticulous performance. Superb casting in most of the secondary roles as well, and the lady playing Coretta is dazzlingly beautiful and superb at capturing two emotions at once in every scene she's in. One small peeve-- I could have used a little more variation in the WHITE characters, frankly. Until the northern liberals arrive late in the film it seems every single white character shown has a beehive hairdo, cats-eye glasses, a permanent sneer, or a pickup truck with a Confederate flag.

The camera work is quiet and formal and beautiful in all the ways a small picture can be. Just when you think the film has peaked emotionally, DuVernay pulls out her most moving footage-- the actual black and white news footage of the original events. Just searing.

This is what a best picture feels like, and would that it had more momentum in the horse races now being touted around town.

#21

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 3:16pm

I'm not sure that's true about the white people, I wonder if you might see different things a second time?

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#22

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 3:25pm

"it seems every single white character shown has a beehive hairdo, cats-eye glasses, a permanent sneer, or a pickup truck with a Confederate flag"

I mean, that describes the South NOW.

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

#23

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 3:32pm

^This is one of the very few movies of 2014 I'd be happy to take a second look at, just to see if you're right.

The one other pet peeve I had while watching, was the wish that something would come out of MLK's mouth that was a little LESS than pulpit-worthy. Don't get me wrong, those set speeches before his various congregations were beautifully delivered-- but the constant plumminess of his lines put me in mind of a Key and Peele sketch, all saintly encomiums from on high without any of his profane angry translator guy ever heard from. I just wanted him to talk like normal folks every now and then, like everyone around him did.

#24

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 3:33pm

I'm definitely going to see this move later today.

I hope this leads to more high quality and entertaining feature films helmed by Ava DuVernay, with major studio backing. I'll admit that when I learned a few years ago that a certain director with ties to Oprah Winfrey and Mariah Carey was on the short list to direct it, I wasn't that enthused. Shame on me for being blinded by my prejudice.

#FactsMatter...your feelings not so much.

#25

Selma

Posted: 1/11/15 at 3:47pm

One of the best if not THE BEST film I've seen in the last 5 years.

CARMEN EJOGO deserves some kind of an award for the great work she does in it. She never fails to impress. Severely underrated and immensely talented.

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