Why the debate over factual accuracy in 'Selma' is silly

Selma

Now that mainstream audiences are finally getting a look at Selma, hopefully a silly but raging debate over whether the film misrepresents history will fade away.

I was scheduled to speak about this topic on Janet Mock's new digital TV show So Popular this Friday, but unfortunately the tragic breaking news at France forced me to cancel.

So I thought I'd take an opportunity to say what I would have said on this blog.

As I've mentioned earlier, Selma is one of the best films of the past year. It's not a documentary and it's not pretending to be. Make no mistake about it -- every Hollywood movie about a historical subject or person fudges facts. I don't care if it's Lincoln or Argo or another would-be Oscar contender, The Imitation Game. Selma changes some things in terms of timing, and perhaps exaggerates some interactions and characters to create dramatic tension.

That said, most critics have acknowledged that the film -- which dramatizes Martin Luther King Jr.'s fight for voting rights in 1965 -- gets the major facts completely right. And civil rights icons, John Lewis and Andrew Young, who are both portrayed the film, have wholeheartedly backed it.

Still, a small minority of aides and experts associated with the late President Lyndon Johnson feel that the film unfairly casts LBJ as an antagonist to the civil rights movement and downplays his role in the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

Oprah Winfrey in Selma

First of all, Johnson was an incredibly complex and nuanced figure. This is a man who bitterly fought civil rights bills for his first twenty years in Congress only to become a great champion for the cause in the late 50s. He may not have authorized the FBI's illegal wiretaps on MLK, but he was an accessory after the fact, looking the other way while King's life was intruded.

Is this film entirely fair to him? I think so. Yes, he may be played as something of a calculating politician but in the end the movie is redemptive of LBJ. In the film's most powerful scenes he takes a definitive stand against segregationist George Wallace, saying he doesn't want to be associated with "the likes of you."

Plus the debate over LBJ diminishes the martyrs of the film -- who are the true heroes of Selma. This is film is about the people in the trenches who were able to rally the public consciousness and raise moral indignation. One of the best things about the film is that it makes plain and accessible what was at stake in the voting rights fight and how uphill the battle was for King and his followers.

The film also humanizes MLK in a way we've never seen before. A whole new generation of people will be more acquainted with his story, which is inspirational and more important now than ever, at a time when there are very real attempts to curtail the vote again, which appear to be specifically targeting communities of color.

Selma is a film that deserves to be seen on its own merits. Sometimes audiences are more savvy than they're often given credit -- no one is going to walk out of this film thinking LBJ is a bad guy. More importantly, they will walk out with a renewed appreciation for how far we've come as a society, considering the events of the movie take place just 50 years ago.