Life & Work

Luther King’s biographical film set to be a blockbuster

BDselma

Scene from the film SELMA: Martin Luther King (David Oyelewo) leads the march on Edmund Pettus Bridge. PHOTO | COURTESY

This biographical film is a popular format in Hollywood and quite a few such films have been widely acclaimed like Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” or Angela Bassett’s portrayal of Tina Turner in “What’s love got do with it” or Will Smith in the title role of “Ali” as the former boxing champion of the world.

In the last two years, there have been successful films in the biopic genre like Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom” and “Get on Up” the story of the godfather of soul music, James Brown.

Until now, besides fleeting appearances in other films, the life of American Civil Rights leader and one of history’s outstanding figures, Dr Martin Luther King has not been fully subjected to the celluloid experience.

Civil Rights

Released in U.S theatres in December 2014, “Selma” is the story of an epochal event in the Civil Rights Movement: the campaign for voting rights among blacks, which climaxed in a march led by Dr King from the city of Selma, Alabama to the state capitol in Montgomery in 1965. The film spans three months from Dr King’s acceptance speech of the Nobel peace Prize in December 1964 to the march on Montgomery three months later

The film was shot in Selma itself at the location where protests against the denial of basic voting rights to blacks in the Southern states took place. Two attempts at the protest march aborted.

One, violently broken up by the police and the other time when King led the marchers in turning back rather than risk violence by the authorities. By the time the third and successful march took place, the U.S government, pushed to the wall, had introduced the Voting Rights Act that made discriminatory voting practices illegal.

With the current uneasy race relations in some parts of the U.S triggered by the killing of unarmed black men by white police officers, this film will obviously have a strong resonance in the States.

Its release at this point in U.S history offers a powerful reminder that some of the tense racial prejudices of 50 years that Dr King and his comrades campaigned against are still very alive.

Personal life

“Selma” is a balance between the hectic times King spent in the trenches with behind-the-scenes moments of the black leaders struggling with the pressures of devising strategy against an obstinate system unwilling to grant voting rights to African Americans.

The film does not shy away from the human portrayal of Dr King’s personal life, including his well-documented infidelities and the resulting impact, fuelled by deliberate leaks from the FBI, on his troubled marriage to Coretta Scott King, played by Carmen Ejogo.

The director employs powerful cinematography right from an early scene, showing the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama where Dr King and other leaders regularly held meetings. The death of four girls aged 11 to 14, inside the church, marked a turning point in the 1960s civil rights movement.

Equally powerful is the portrayal of Bloody Sunday, the day in March 1965 when anti-segregation marchers were violently attacked by police on Selma’s Pettus Bridge, a scene filled with potent imagery and sound that conveys all the horror of that infamous confrontation.

Nigerian

Starring in the role of Dr King is David Oyelowo who was born in Oxford, England to Nigerian parents. Oyelowo comes to this role with a stellar C.V that includes performances in films like “The Butler’ “A Most Violent Year” “Lincoln” and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.”

He was the first black actor to play Shakespeare’s Henry VI at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the U.K but the role of Martin Luther King is a huge step up from anything that he’s done in the past.

It’s a demanding task playing an iconic figure like Dr King who is so well known and no doubt once this film begins the rounds of cinema halls around the world, millions of people will be watching and judging Oyelowo’s performance against their expectations. To his credit, he doesn’t try too hard to replicate the celebrated oratory of Dr King. Instead, his performance is measured while still conveying the depth of his character’s personality.

It’s been a long journey to this role since he first read the script in 2007 at a time when he had just moved to the US.

You will spot famous faces in this film including Oprah Winfrey who plays the voting rights activist Annie Lee Cooper and Cuba Gooding Jr as lawyer Fred Gray. Selma is directed by Ava DuVernay and is a joint production of Brad Pitt’s company Plan B. and Oprah’s Harpo films.

Film critics have generally been astounded that the Academy Awards, whose 2015 nominations were announced last week snubbed Oyelowo for a best actor nomination while DuVernay also missed the opportunity to become the first African American woman to be nominated for best director.