Selma Is The Martin Luther King Jr. Film We’ve Been Waiting For (Watch Trailer)
Its crazy to think that we’ve never seen the story of Martin Luther King Jr. in a major Hollywood film. Sure, he has appeared as a minor character in films about the Civil Rights movement, but, documentaries aside, not a single movie has focused on just telling his story. It seems like the obvious choice for Hollywood, which seems desperate for ideas these days. Perhaps until now they’ve been too scared to get things wrong. Fortunately, a trailer has been released for the Selma, a film which follows Martin Luther King’s epic Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, which ultimately led to voting rights for Black people in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and created momentum that led to even more progress. It’s important to take a look back at the history of racial inequality in the United States, which people forget did not end with slavery. Black Baby Boomers, born in the South in the mid 1940s and 1960s, suffered and watched blatant racial injustices first hand.
Actor David Oyelowo plays Martin Luther King Jr. He is joined by a number of well-known Black co-stars including Oprah Winfrey, Cedric The Entertainer, Cuba Gooding Jr., Common, and Ledisi. Academy Award nominee Tom Wilkinson plays President Johnson, and Carmen Ejogo plays Coretta Scott King. Brad Pitt is a producer on this film which means it should be a pretty polished film. There hasn’t been any skimping on the cast, and the trailer is visually stunning. The time period appears to be captured well, the camera close-ups look fantastic, and the scenes are dramatic without appearing overly so. There is also a bit of eye candy from unknown Black actors in the film, so look forward to seeing some new faces.
The film releases in limited theaters on December 25, 2014, so it will be eligible for the 2015 film award season. The film’s wide release is scheduled for January 9, 2015. Enjoy the trailer and screenshots below.
