Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Asad Almond A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

leethomas-11621 Magnificent re-telling of struggle for recognition of black voting rights. Incredibly it wasn't awarded an Oscar. Only real qualm is the soundtrack which is all over the place. Oyelowo's central performance holds everything together. Film doen't try to be over-ambitious with result that it isn't over-blown.

don2507 The 15th Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing all Americans the right to vote was ratified in 1870, and yet almost a century later (1965) when the events of "Selma" transpired, no more than 2% of African-American citizens were registered to vote in many deep-South counties. And as we see in the beginning of Selma, you practically had to memorize the U.S. Constitution to satisfy the county registrars, but that still might not be good enough. So, as depicted in this dramatically stirring film, Martin Luther King has to mobilize his marchers in Alabama and incur horrendous beatings from the Alabama troopers, and thereby dramatize the injustice of the voting impediments that are brought to bear on black Alabamans. This elicits the nation's political attention and white sympathy. All of this culminates in the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.The British actor, David Oyelowo, seems to be the reincarnation of ML King. He looks remarkably like him, and even sounds like him, even when he's portraying King's masterful oratory. In Selma, King's tactical shrewdness is depicted to great effect. He protected the safety of his followers, to the extent he could, but he realized that the Bull Connor's (Birmingham) and Sheriff Clark's (Selma) were, in a macabre sort of way, the best arguments for the 1960s civil rights movement. I wonder how long segregation would have persisted in the south with national television.There's a debate in all historically-themed films on how much scope to give to artistic / dramatic license and how much faithfulness a film should give to the historical record. I'm not a strict pedant on historical accuracy, and thus I acknowledge that films can appropriately push their dramatic momentum by slight or modest revisions in the historical record. But Selma goes too far in its unfairness to President Johnson. Sure, it makes for more dramatic tension to have an quasi-adversarial relationship between LBJ and King, but they were far more partners than adversaries. LBJ wanted a voting rights act as soon as the Democrats piled up huge Congressional majorities in the 1964 Goldwater election. Not a lot of things went right for LBJ in his 2nd term; let's at least give him some credit for working with King to get the voting rights law enacted.A final delicious moment that Selma reminds me of: in the special Alabama senatorial election in December of 2017, Doug Jones defeated the noxious Roy Moore largely with the votes of black Alabamans, especially black women, who had the voting power they sorely lacked in 1965.

maoenjoyhappy Martin Luther King Jr., who is a black minister, calls for a vote rights of black people in Selma, Alabama. As he marches with black people collectively, the white attack violently black people. Resisting the white's violence, the black led by King Jr. expands civil rights movement to the whole America including the white and the President Lyndon Johnson. Every single person in the world knows that King Jr. is the greatest and the most influential hero who approaches the world to indiscrimination. This film is depicted in detail how he stirs up the world little by little. When he speaks out in public, he is just viewed as an eloquent and brave figure; however, the film tells us that King Jr. is at times afraid of resisting his antagonists. In addition, some of the core members of demonstration decide who should be in the very front in marching by scissors-paper-stone. If I were in this situation, I would hope not to be the one in front to death. They are of course fearful for their action, but they end up with overcoming the fear. I believe that their brave must be respected and admired profoundly.

alindsay-al I have heard allot of good things about Selma and I have finally seen it and it is a fantastic film. The film documents an important part of Dr martin Luther king jnrs life as he tries to get the vote for all black people. David oyelowo plays king and he was absolutely amazing in this film. He was so good that I truly believed that king was on the screen in front of my eyes and that is huge credit to this incredibly talented actor. Tom Wilkinson plays the president and he also did a great job in this film. I actually felt like his character had development and was an interesting character. Tim Roth plays a villain in this film and he did a good job in coming across as a bad guy. Everybody around the civil rights movement was great as well and connected with MLK. The story had a great development with mlk and how he was just a normal guy and that he had problems. Also seeing some bad things in this film really makes you want to root for the movement. However, there are some side plots that aren't developed that much and thus leave you asking a few questions. The script was really good with the drama involved making sense for the time. It is one of those films where the lack of humour works. The style was really good, the brutality shown feels real and it really makes you root for mlk. Overall this is a fantastic film that if your interested in the subject matter is worth a watch.