REVIEW - Selma

I know I'll get lambasted by my wife - who loved this film, and my African-American friends - who'll no doubt be too committed to the subject to let me get away with an "it was dull" comment. But it was. Dull.

I know Martin Luther King is almost a Saint to most Americans. I know, therefore, that everything he did and said is hallowed by the same side of America. Therefore, it is important to hear again the story of his organization of the march from Selma, Alabama to the state capital of Montgomery to protest the South's prevention of its black population registering to vote - even though the recently passed Civil Rights Act legalized and allowed them to register.  And then there's Governor George Wallace's (Tim Roth) hastily enacted law preventing marches, and President Johnson's (Tom Wilkinson) hemming and hawing saying his plate was too full to do anything about the black vote.

One would have thought there were enough elements to the story to make it somewhat more gripping than the limp makeover this film gave us.