Riassunti e analisi dei film: inglese B2

Riassunti e analisi dei film visti durante il corso di inglese

SELMA

WHAT IS IT ABOUT? Selma is a passionate movie about Martin Luther King and his civil rights march in 1965 from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital Montgomery. It is also about King's role in the walk from Selma to Montgomery, and his role in American politics. At some level, it is also about King's dark premonition of a sacrificial destiny. It is a film that honourably deals with race issues in the USA. With the southern states in the 1960s still deliberately obstructing black citizens who tried to register for the vote, and with jury membership and other forms of public once open only to registered voters, a de facto white supremacist confederacy was in operation. King and fellow campaigners realised that the only tactic they had was to force a public confrontation – a march from Selma to Montgomery to demand the right to vote. Black protesters risked injury or death from cops, state troopers, racist

groups whose violence was encouraged by some politicians. This confrontation took place on the Edmund Pettus bridge. The movie director shows that this was a military engagement between the armed and unarmed and that Selma was effectively the last battle of the American civil war, the final confrontation erupting fully 100 years after the south surrendered.

SUMMARY: In 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King (a pastor who leads a little church), accepts his Nobel Peace Prize. Four African American girls walking downstairs are killed by a bomb set by the Ku Klux Klan. Annie Lee Cooper attempts to register to vote in Selma (in the documents she must specify her race: negro), Alabama, but is prevented by the white registrar (who asks her very hard questions in order to allow her to vote, in the end her voting right is denied). King meets with President Lyndon B. Johnson and asks for federal legislation to allow black citizens to register to vote without impediments. Johnson says he has already signed the

Civil Rights Act of 1964 which outlaws discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin. King replies that black citizens technically have the right to vote but they can't because their right is denied by the registrars and asks the President to stop this illegal denial. The President says that this issue has to wait and asks King to help him fight poverty. King says that this fight won't stop, not after so many black people had died and not one white supremacist has been convicted since they are protected by the authorities.

King travels to Selma with some other black people, where he immediately gets punched in the face by a white man. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover tells President Johnson that King is a problem, that he is a political and moral degenerate, and suggests they disrupt his marriage. King calls singer Mahalia Jackson to inspire him with a song. During a preach in his church King says it is unacceptable that 50% of the population of Selma was

black and only 2% of them could vote. He says that they want to keep African Americans away from voting because this way they are voiceless. King shouts: “Give us the vote. We are not asking, we are demanding”. King, other activists, and black Selma residents march to the registration office to register. After a confrontation in front of the courthouse fighting occurs as the police go into the crowd. The Sheriff is knocked on the ground, leading to the arrest of some black men, including King himself.

King’s plan of action is to negotiate, demonstrate and resist: he says that this plan will raise white consciousness. He also says that some dramatic scenes are required to be continuously on the news.

Alabama Governor George Wallace speaks out against the movement. Coretta, King’s wife, meets with Malcolm X. Two supremacists decide to use force at an upcoming night march in Alabama using state troopers to assault the marchers since King is out of town which means that

There are less cameras. A group of protesters runs into a restaurant to hide, but troopers rush in, beat and shoot Jimmie Lee Jackson. King meets with Jackson's grandfather, at the morgue. King asks people to continue to fight for their rights and invites everybody black or white to join their fight because those who do not join are responsible for Jimmie's murder just as much as the state troopers who shot him. "We will vote... We will not let it go; we will do it" even if the President doesn't take action. He then criticizes Johnson for spending billions of dollars in war for liberty in Vietnam but doesn't protect his own citizens in America. He then decides to march from Selma to Montgomery (50 miles). King receives harassing phone calls leading to an argument with Coretta, who can't get used to the fog of death in front of them all the time and to the threats to kill him, her and their children, and is criticized by members of the

StudentNonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). As the Selma to Montgomery march is about to begin, King talks about cancelling it, but eventually agrees to continue, but decides to join the march on its 2 day. The marchers cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge and approach a line of state troopers who put on gas masks. The troopers order the marchers to turn back, and when they hold their ground the troopers attack with clubs, horses, tear gas, whips and other weapons. Several are badly injured. The attack is shown live on national television and it's seen by 70 million Americans: some people cry in their homes after seeing such violence. President Johnson demands that King and Wallace stop their actions and wants to convince King to postpone the next march. King says that no citizen is blameless, white, black, and others, if they don't join the fight. He invites everyone to march with them against these acts of injustice and inhumanity. White Americans and white clergy arrive from all

over the USA to join the second march. This time 1/3 of the participants are white Caucasians. Marchers, led by King (we can see white clergy in the first row), cross the bridge again and see the state troopers lined up, but the troopers are ordered to withdraw. King, after praying, turns around and leads the group away, and again comes under sharp criticism from SNCC activists. That evening, one white priest is beaten to death by white racists on a street in Selma for supporting the negros.

King meets with the President once again and incites him to take action: he tells him that nobody will remember his Civil Rights Act, but everyone will remember the march in Selma.

Finally, judge Johnson allows the march. President Johnson speaks before a Joint Session of Congress and promises a bill to eliminate restrictions on voting, praising the courage of the activists; he states: "We shall do this, we shall overcome". The march from Selma to Montgomery takes place, and when the marchers

reach Montgomery King delivers a speech on the steps of the State Capitol.

BEST MOMENT: The greatest moment is the depiction of King's appearance at the second march, after the violent chaos of the first. He appears at the head of a gigantic crowd, swelled by white well-wishers from all over the world. The state troopers make a sensationally unexpected move.

What King does in response stuns his followers. Was this a loss of nerve, a mysterious dark moment of the soul? Was it an act of strategic cunning, seeing that he was being led into a trap? Was it an appeasement of the courts, in whose view their march was not yet lawful? For me, what DuVernay does is show King's act as something else: an act of Zen mastery, a refusal not merely of violence, but of the gloating display of triumph. It was an act that somehow enigmatically secured his moral authority: an extraordinary and absorbing scene.

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT: The Civil Rights Movement, or 1960s Civil Rights Movement, was

Alabama.• Freedom Rides, where activists rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to challenge the non-enforcement of Supreme Court decisions that ruled segregated buses unconstitutional.• voter registration drives and efforts to increase African American political power, such as the Mississippi Freedom Summer (1964).The movement also included influential figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, and many others. Their efforts and sacrifices played a crucial role in bringing about significant legislative and social changes, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Alabama.• and a wide range of other nonviolent activities.

Important legislative achievements during this phase of the Civil Rights Movement were:

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin in employment practices and ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace, and by public accommodations.
• The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which restored and protected voting rights.
• The Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, which dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional Northern European and Germanic groups.
• The Fair Housing Act of 1968, which banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.

African Americans re-entered politics in the South, and across the country young people were inspired to take action. A wave of inner-city riots in black communities from 1964 through 1970 undercut support from the white community.

The emergence of the Black Power movement, which lasted from about 1966 to 1975, challenged the established black leadership for its cooperative attitude and its nonviolence, and instead demanded political and economic self-sufficiency.

Many popular representations of the movement are centered on the leadership and philosophy of Martin Luther King, who won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the movement; however, some scholars note that the movement was too diverse to be credited to one person, organization, or strategy.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. (1929–1968): Martin Luther King was one of the 20th century's best-known advocates for nonviolent social change. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, King's exceptional oratorical skills and personal courage first attracted national attention in 1955 when he and other civil rights activists were arrested after leading a boycott of a Montgomery transportation company which required non-whites to surrender their seats to whites, and stand.

can Americans. His leadership and advocacy played a crucial role in the Civil Rights Movement and ultimately led to significant changes in American society. King's most famous speech, "I Have a Dream," delivered during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, is considered one of the greatest speeches in American history. In it, he eloquently expressed his vision of a future where racial equality and justice would prevail. In addition to his activism, King also played a key role in the organization of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a successful campaign against racial segregation on public buses in Montgomery, Alabama. The boycott lasted for over a year and ultimately led to a Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation on public buses unconstitutional. Tragically, King's life was cut short when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. However, his legacy continues to inspire and his work continues to be celebrated and honored. Martin Luther King Jr. was a true champion of equality, justice, and peace. His tireless efforts and unwavering commitment to the cause of civil rights have left an indelible mark on American history.