What is it like to be a leader?

Selma (2014)

This movie did not garner much publicity even though it earned many accolades to its belt probably because it is a black movie made by blacks about something close to the blacks. 

It tells about a tumultuous time in America which they have not come in terms with. The relationship between the slaves and the slave-owners which had gone through many rough patches, again and again, all through the civil war, black rights movement and even to date with the rampant cases of police racial profiling as in Ferguson incident.

In 1964, the right to vote in the southern states was made extremely difficult by the Little Napoleons of the civil service.

Without the right to vote, the blacks do not get a right to stand as jury in court, and without that, a black convict is not deemed to get a fair trial.

Martin Luther King Jr, a Nobel prize winner in 1964 for Peace, argues with President LB Johnson and Governor Wallace of Louisiana towards this end. As a political statement, people organised a peaceful march from the town of Selma to Montgomery, the capital.

A touching movie which gives a 3-dimensional feel of a leader giving him the very qualities that make him a mortal. He too has his uncertainties of what to do when his helpless followers demand from his the next course of action when the plan is derailed. As if he has all the answers! And the leaders have to take all the brickbats for all his shortcomings.

There was a scene at Selma when things were getting ugly - the marchers and the hostile patrolmen and onlookers. As if to gain guidance from the divine forces, the good reverend knelt, prayed and commanded the marchers to retread much to the chagrin of the blacks. By doing so, he had, in fact, averted much bloodshed. Interestingly, up to a third of his marchers were whites and religious leaders of different faiths.

The actor who acted in the role of MLKJr, David Oyelowo, did an excellent job of mimicking MLKJr's style of speaking so well that the speeches sounded like voice-overs. The film ends with another one of his heart-wrenchingly and neatly crafted speech.

Critics of the film complained that LBJ had been painted as a conniving two-faced racist politician who made things difficult for MLKJr. Historically, LBJ, being a Southerner, had been praised for being a champion for civil rights' movement. However, in this film, he is portrayed as a reluctant leader who partnered FBI chief Hoover, to give hell to King, his family and his followers.

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