Selma (revised)

"Our lives are not fully lived if we're not willing to die for those we love, for what we believe." - Martin Luther King Jr. 

Selma, is a film based on events that occurred in efforts to end suffrage among African Americans.  Events were led successfully led by Martin Luther King Jr but not without much adversity. I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Watching the film with not much prior knowledge but plenty of interest allowed me to watch the film with no biased opinions. 

 Many of the history classes that I have been in over the years seemed to only scratch the surface on this curtail period in history. Of course, I have been introduced to Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King JR but I found my ignorance to cause me somewhat of an issue.  While watching the film, I was unfamiliar with the characters and was only able to rate their importance based off of how it was portrayed in the film.  Hollywood tends to alter historical films for entertainment purposes, so because I had very minimal knowledge of the events and characters before seeing the film I had no way of differentiating fact from fiction. 

I am one for equal rights so in no point in the movie did I ever disagree with Martin Luther King JR. Regardless of whether the extent of the violence was as severe as it was portrayed in the film I was still taken back by the severity of the cruelty. I found myself often becoming upset with many of the white authority figures and the corrupt government system. However, I was surprised to see the collaboration and cooperation that President Lyndon Baines Johnson had with Dr. King. I do think that measures could have been talking a lot quicker in regards to opening the poles to African American voters, but that is far beyond the filmmakers control because for all I am aware that is just how history panned out. 

Overall I was very pleased with the film, to some extent I enjoyed watching the film with very little prior knowledge because it allowed to interpret the story as it was being told to me.