Black People Always Knew ‘Selma' Was Significant, Why Did It Take Everyone Else 10 Years?
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As the country celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 95th birthday yesterday, you probably saw the 2014 film “Selma” airing on one or more channels. Star David Oyelowo recently reflected on the turmoil surrounding the movie’s release, revealing that it was one of the project’s famous producers who gave him advice on handling all the controversy it attracted.
When “Selma” was released, there were some Lyndon B. Johnson historians/experts who felt that the film didn’t do enough to portray the former president’s support for Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement. Because in a film about Black people fighting for voting rights, the hero still needs to be the white guy?
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“‘Don’t worry about any of that. You don’t know what your film is until 10 years after it’s been made,’” Oyelowo said. “And I remember him saying that and me thinking, ‘Yeah, you’re Brad Pitt. You can say that. I don’t know about that.’ But he used the example of one of my favorite films of all time, which is ‘Fight Club.’”
Like the rest of us, he sees scenes from the movie pop up online every year on Dr. King’s birthday, but because “It was a real full-immersion thing,” he’s never re-watched the entire movie.
During a conversation with The Root about his fantastic, engrossing Paramount+ series “Lawmen: Bass Reeves,” Oyelowo expressed how honored he is at the impact of “Selma” and what it means to the Black community.
“It’s extraordinary to me how many people now have ‘Selma’ as their frame of reference for who Dr. King was and the significance of his work and the things he achieved,” Oyelowo told The Root. “It’s become the jumping point for a lot of people. That’s something I will take to my grave.”
No one is suggesting you get your history from Hollywood. However, in a world where some lawmakers and so-called “activists” want to literally rewrite history and pretend that slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and any other form of racism didn’t happen, these stories have to be told somewhere, and right now Hollywood is the best option. And no matter what headlines say, we know the impact it has when projects like “Selma,” “Malcolm X,” “42” and “Glory” hit the big screen.
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