Selma

Selma is a film in the exact same vein as for example J. Edgar. The only difference is that it is far more sterile, more straightforward and definitely does not try to engage the audience or be too movie-like. It relies on austerity and precise documentary quality. But I’m not looking for that in a film, because if I want a documentary, I watch a documentary and not a film that is primarily intended to capture and captivate with its content. This whole time I was thinking that David Oyelowo was a good choice for the role of Martin Luther King, but I couldn’t shake the impression that the whole two hours the film lasted didn’t contain a single truly emotional moment, which would make this film get to me at least for a moment. (14.02.2015)

The attempt to do a good thing does not necessarily make a good film. Day by day and scene by scene, Selma is simply a motion-filled chronicle, in which only the atmosphere around a few songs and David Oyelowo's physically perfect transformation into Dr. King, played in the same vein as Lincoln from two years earlier, is worth paying attention to. Paul Webb's screenwriting approach annoys me not because it is necessarily boring, but because of its one-sided and calculated targeting of the collective subconscious, which does not deviate from the predictable central path throughout the entire two hours. (09.02.2015)

I have no idea where exactly the audience is getting wrong in the course of absorbing this film’s visual and auditory information, but I find it really unfortunate. Selma not only fully, and of course very subjectively, charts the basic principles of King's noble rebellion and succeeds in realistically outlining the complex political and social situation of the time, but also poignantly presents the moving story of an ordinary man who tries to rise above the problems of ordinary life and sacrifice himself for the good of others. The upside of this is both the direction, which successfully compensates for the documentary nature of the sets and the academic snobbery of the subject matter with a natural blend of human emotion and historical fact, and the actors, whose embodiment of the characters makes us fully believe in them and sympathise with everyone who tries to help King on his seemingly hopeless mission. And some of the scenes are so emotionally powerful and evocatively shot that I wouldn't even be afraid to call the direction excellent. Selma may soon be forgotten, as watching it seems to require a certain mental attachment to the subject matter in question, but the harsh criticism is unwarranted this time. 75% (22.02.2015)

I really liked this movie. Not because it realistically portrays the situation in America in the 60s, but rather because it realistically shows the kind of hatred - senseless hatred! - that one person can feel towards another. In this, and in how the film vividly depicts violence, it makes it more than just an ordinary historical and biographical film, which surprisingly does not focus on the death of Martin Luther King, but rather on a segment of his life and the lives of black people in America. (13.02.2015)