Review of Salma (2014) by Heatherm — 21 Jan 2015

I'm sad to say that I was underwhelmed by this movie; it's received such high praise, and there was so much anger about its general absence from the Oscar nominations, that I wanted to be blown away. I thought that the scope was well chosen and the story was effectively told, in that they chose to focus on a single episode from MLK's many accomplishments.

It was wonderful to see so much private dealing between MLK and the president, as well as the inner workings and disagreements about how to proceed within the civil rights movement itself. However, there were several scenes where things shifted from interesting discourse between characters to long, oratorical monologues that seemed aimed more at the audience in the theatre than the listeners within the film.

The formal speeches in the movie, however, were powerful and well-spaced, punctuating the other events effectively. This movie is definitely good, interesting, and undoubtedly covers incredibly important subject matter that deserves greater exposure in mainstream entertainment.