SELMA

'Selma is a 2014 American historical drama film directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Paul Webb and DuVernay. It is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches led by James Bevel, Hosea Williams, and Martin Luther King, Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference  (SCLC) and John Lewis of  the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) The film stars British actors David Oyelowo as King, Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon Johnson, Tim Roth as George Wallace, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, and American rapper and actor Common as Bevel.' (Wikipedia)
    To those who were born post-equal opportunities legislation, it may seem anachronistic that black people in the United States despite having the right to vote were obstructed from doing so by State bureaucracy in the south as late as the 1960s. This film gives us real insight into the beliefs and courage of not only black people who marched peacefully against the state storm-troopers of Alabama, but also the white people who joined them, and who were attacked and in one instance in the film killed for their belief in the right of all people, despite colour or creed, to place their vote and by doing so, elect their own politicians to represent their best interests. 
     The part of Martin Luther King, is played with sincerity and veracity by David Oyelowo. We see the tensions and stress that leadership demands of him and its effect on his family. However, I wanted more variety in his tone and at times the anguished Christ-like scenes could have done with more editing. Apparently, in one particular area the film falls down on accuracy; that is King's relationship with Lyndon Johnson., who is portrayed as an obstacle to progress. The writer says she's a story teller and not a custodian of history, but surely it is unfair to the legacy of both men to falsify the relationship in the guise of a good story?
   Thoroughly recommended. Selma is on general release now.