塞尔玛

Response to Selma

          Last week, I went to see the movie Selma in the theater. The reason I went to watch this movie is not because I wanted to watch it, but because I needed to get the extra credit for my EWRT 2 English class. Before I went to the theater, I watched the trailer of this movie, so I basically knew that this movie was about Martin Luther King, Jr. I only knew a little bit about Martin Luther King, Jr., who was the leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement and delivered his famous “I have a Dream” speech. I guessed that the movie might be about what happened before and after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous speech. After watching the movie, I was surprised because this movie talked more about the speech, and it made me feel touched since it talked about the conflicts, struggles, and feelings of people. I think Selma is an amazing and meaningful movie to watch because of its story, actors, and emotion.
          The story of this movie talked about how African American people fought for their voting right and freedom by expressing conflicts between different positions of people and feelings of them, so I think this movie is a meaningful movie. In the movie, it basically talked about how Martin Luther King, Jr. appealed to Congress to pass the bill in order to protect the voting right of African American people. Besides, the movie showed a few main characters of the movement in the past, such as, Martin Luther King, Jr., his wife, the thirty-sixth president of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, and the governor of Alabama, George Wallace, etc. There were scenes that were showing speeches, demonstrations, and the brutal repressions of police. In addition, there were political conflicts between many different groups of people, such as Martin Luther King, Jr.’s non-violent movement, leaders of students, the President Lyndon B. Johnson’s white house, Alabama’s governor George Wallace, and the police of Selma. Since this movie talks about African Americans fought for their freedom and the right to vote, which is an important political history to Americans; also, people should watch this movie and learn more about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his movement.
          Selma not only has a good story, but also has a group of amazing actors who tried their best to successfully act their characters. David Oyelowo is the actor who played the role of Martin Luther King, Jr. I do not know how the real Martin Luther King, Jr. looks like. Even though Oyelowo did not particularly copy Martin Luther King, Jr., the way that he gave out the speech had the feeling and momentum of the real Martin Luther King, Jr. Also, Oyelowo really focused on some small details of Martin Luther King, Jr., which made me feel like that Oyelowo was exactly the Martin Luther King, Jr. in the movie. Moreover, Tim Roth played the role of the governor of Alabama, George Wallace. Also, Roth played this character successfully, and some words that he said make me laugh. Besides, the version of Tom Wilkinson’s President Lyndon B. Johnson is very good (“Selma (2014) Full Cast & Crew”). In the movie, President Lyndon B. Johnson became one of resistance of the bill advancing because the movie showed that the right to vote was not his primary political issues and goals, and he thought that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s movement hindered his agenda. However, he started to support what Martin Luther King, Jr. did and said after hearing the criticism and encouragement from Martin Luther King, Jr. In my opinion, Wilkinson did a great job of playing his version of President Lyndon B. Johnson. I think the President actually wanted to pass the legislation, but he did not have enough power to do it, and Martin Luther King, Jr. gave him the power or enlarged his power to pass the bill. Furthermore, there were a lot of powerful supporting actors, such as the film producer Oprah played a supporting character who wanted to vote, but could not vote in the movie. Also, Cuba Gooding Jr. acted a lawyer who only showed up twice in the movie. Even though there are many famous actors who played supporting characters in the movie, I think they did a good job to expressing each character’s emotions, and I respect them. Therefore, this movie Selma has a group of powerful and famous actors, and they all did a good job to perform in this movie.
          The movie Selma is an amazing movie, and it made a lot of people feel touched. When I went into the theater, there were a lot of African Americans and a few white people, and there were some Asian people like me. I could not pay my attention at the beginning of the movie because an African American little girl who sat in the front row kept laughing. When Tim Roth showed up at the scene, she laughed even harder than before. I did not know this girl, and I had no idea what she laughed about. Suddenly, I heard an old man walked up to her and said to the little girl, “Little girl, you better be quiet. I have been waiting this movie for many years.” I could feel how much the old man cared about this movie, and I knew that he really wanted to watch this movie carefully and intently. Also, I was glad that the little girl did not laugh again, so I could pay my attention on the movie. After two and a half hours, the movie ended with John Legend’s new song Glory, which was a nice song because I think this song helped me understand the feelings of the movie better. Suddenly, I saw the old man stood up, and he said out loud, “Remember Michael Brown, Remember Eric Garner. Our parade is not over yet.” I did not know this old man, and I did not really pay attention to what he said about. I thought this movie encouraged him something. Later, I did some research about what the old man said, and I found out that the two names that he mentioned were two African Americans who were dead because of some unfair reasons. Therefore, this movie made people sympathy because some people knew the feeling of inequality of people of color; also, I am an Asian, and some white people have treated me unfairly or looked down at me.
          This amazing movie not only made people touched, but also made me sympathy. In fact, I cried and laughed while I was watching the movie. Sometimes, there were funny scenes and dialogues that made me laugh right after some scenes made me cried. The reason I became sympathy about this movie is not only because of its powerful speech and memorable scenes, but also because I could directly feel the sadness, fear, anger, or determinations of the characters in the movie. I could see the struggles of how people fought for their freedom and equality and the feeling of how they really wanted the right to vote and freedom. Each actor put lots of emotions and effort to perform the characters, and each staff who worked behind the scenes tried their best to produce an amazing movie. Also, the background music helped me a lot to understand the feelings of the scenes. Therefore, staffs and actors put a lot of efforts into the movie, and they produced a wonderful movie that truly expresses the emotions of each character in the movie., which made me touched.
          From my point of view, I think people should go to watch this movie Selma because of its story, a group of powerful actors who accomplished their tasks on performing each character, and a group of staffs who put many efforts into the movie. This movie talked about an important political history that Martin Luther King, Jr. led a group of people to fight for the right to vote and freedom of African American. Also, there were a lot of powerful and famous actors who played main or supporting characters in the movie, and all of them perfectly accomplished their jobs to express each character’s feeling. Furthermore, staffs behind the scenes put music, set up the scenes, and edited the movie in order to make the movie powerful and emotional. Therefore, I think this movie is a very meaningful movie, and we should produce more movies like Selma.


Work Cited
“Selma (2014) Full Cast & Crew” Imdb. IMDb.com, Inc., 2014. Web. 14 March 2015.

影片集中讲述的是在马丁路德金推动领导下的塞尔玛大游行及其后美国投票权法案的通过历程，有着满满的正能量，在如今种族矛盾仍比较尖锐的美国来说是有不少现实意义。但从中看到的美国政法体制的改革与推动却是有多处值得借鉴及思考，政府允许什么形式的、什么程度的民主诉求，媒体如何可以做到在什么底线上的新闻自由，司法可以做到什么程度的独立，进而政客可以有多少程度的牵制与敬畏，从而促出符合民意及历史规律的条文，而这，几乎是环环相扣。但是，却没有普遍性，只是时势造英雄，严厉点说，这事放在美国是有可推崇的进步意义，而放在其他国家就是需要借鉴而必须严防的，而这部《selma》，最终也只是美国文化的又一次失败侵袭。

总是把马丁路德跟马丁路德金搞混了，为了加深自己对这个美国著名民权人士的印象，很高兴的看了他的自传式电影。有关美国黑人人权的电影也很多了，在这里也要提到一个人马克西姆X，也在本片中露脸。关于马克西姆也有一部自传式电影《黑潮》，原名就叫马克西姆X。马丁路德金是个温和派的领导者，虽然他们俩被暗杀的命运是一样的，但是我觉得马丁路德金是正确的。仇恨和冲突并不能让彼此的关系变得更好，就像今日缺乏马丁路德金这种领袖的美国，也依然不断爆发出种族矛盾的骚乱。在这里更要提到一部电影《美国X档案》爱德华诺顿主演的，就是对仇恨所产生的原因进行了反省，就是因为白人和黑人之间没有真正的和解。