The film Selma directed by Ava DuVernay is a film that follows the civil rights movement in America, specifically the three month period in 1965 in Selma, Alabama. The focus of the film is the three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a series of marches and campaigns to secure equal voting rights. The series of events was dangerous for its participants and had a violent and reckless opposition in the people of Selma and the local and state police. The film focuses on the creation of the impactful march from Selma to Montgomery which eventually caused the signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This is one of the most important victories in the civil rights movement. However, it was unknown to many people. Selma follows march from its beginnings to its end. The film portrays all the events that led to each decision made. Linda Williams article Playing the Race Card speaks about how race plays a role into melodrama and its genre. Linda Williams explains the role and how it impacts a piece of work.
Playing the Race Card talks about the race card, and how race plays into melodrama. Williams explains how the “theatrical function of melodrama’s big sensation scenes was to be able to put forth a moral truth in gesture and picture that could not be fully spoken in words.” In Selma, the moral truth that could not be spoken into words is the whole event and the way that the African-Americans of Selma, Alabama were treated. In the film we see different events happen such citizens of Selma trying to take the civil rights opposition into their own hands, the police making their own decisions, and the police brutality that happened. The film portrayed the hate of some people towards the African-American race very well. This hate was especially shown in the attack by police during the ambush of a march in a nearby town called Marion. The police turned the lights off in the street and started to brutally attack the peaceful march. Jimmie Lee Jackson died during this march when he ran to a cafe and just acted as if he were eating there with his parents. While the police were beating him and his family, he tried to protect his mother Viola Jackson (portrayed by Oprah Winfrey) and was thrown against the cigarette machine and shot twice in the abdomen. This event alone is able to show the audience the “moral truth” that Linda Williams speaks about. Not only do we see unimaginable violence, but we are also able to see that this violence comes from hate and fear of change.
Linda Williams also explains how “Typically the ‘unspeakable’ truth revealed in the sensation scene is the revelation of who is the true villain, and who the innocent victim, of some plot.” In Selma, the film utilizes melodrama to show the “moral truth” of that time period. A lot of people in todays day do not know the story of Selma or the hardships that came with that time period. They also do not know of the immoral events that occurred during this time period. This “sensation scene” that Williams talks about causes people to understand this unbelievable event and the magnitude of it. Selma uses this “sensation scene” multiple times to really capture this unspeakable truth. The ambush scene is an example of this. Another example is the first march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. This is a great example of the “sensation scene”. The event could “not be fully spoken in words” so, a scene was created to show this event. Smoke and tear gas filled the air of the bridge and masked what the police and state troopers did to the marchers. The viewer was able to see the troopers attack on horseback and beat the marchers. During this scene we were able to see marchers beaten to a disgusting and unnecessary extent. Again we see Oprah Winfrey’s character Viola Jackson get beaten by the police and we see how she was barely able to move after this event happened. She was carried out by two people due to the brutality. This event was known as “Bloody Sunday” and ended up bringing people from all over the country that supported the cause to come to Selma for the march that eventually happened.
Selma embodies the term melodrama. The film uses music in scenes to convey and emphasize emotion to its audience. The film shows the “moral truth” that could not be spoken about or put into words. Williams speaks on race in melodramas, and how melodramas convey racial events such as Selma. With the use of “sensation scenes”, we are able to see “who is the true villain, and who the innocent victim, of some plot.” The film was created to show what happened because it could “not be fully spoken into words”. The film not only showed a truth that was unspeakable and could not be grasped by words, but it told a story that was unknown by many about an unbelievable intense and divisive time in American history.