Not Just a Movie (Selma: Maureen Dowd labels depiction of LBJ as "Artful Falsehood)

The New York Times ^ | 17 Jan 15 | maureen dowd

[SkyPilot]

I WENT Friday morning to see “Selma” and found myself watching it in a theater full of black teenagers.

Thanks to donations, D.C. public school kids got free tickets to the first Hollywood movie about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on his birthday weekend — an effort that was duplicated for students around the country.

The kids did plenty of talking and texting, and plenty of fighting over whether there was too much talking and texting. Slowly but surely, though, the crowd was drawn in by the Scheherazade skills of the “Selma” director, Ava DuVernay.

The horrific scene of the four schoolgirls killed in the white supremacist bombing of a Birmingham, Ala., church stunned the audience. One young man next to me unleashed a string of expletives and admitted that he was scared. When civil rights leaders are clubbed, whipped and trampled by white lawmen as feral white onlookers cheer, the youngsters seemed aghast.

In a delicately wrought scene in which Coretta Scott King calls out her husband about his infidelities, some of the teenage girls reacted with a chorus of “oooohs.”

DuVernay sets the tone for her portrayal of Lyndon Johnson as patronizing and skittish on civil rights in the first scene between the president and Dr. King. L.B.J. stands above a seated M.L.K., pats him on the shoulder, and tells him “this voting thing is just going to have to wait” while he works on “the eradication of poverty.”

Many of the teenagers by me bristled at the power dynamic between the men. It was clear that a generation of young moviegoers would now see L.B.J.’s role in civil rights through DuVernay’s lens.

And that’s a shame. I loved the movie and find the Oscar snub of its dazzling actors repugnant.

[SkyPilot]

But the director’s talent makes her distortion of L.B.J. more egregious. Artful falsehood is more dangerous than artless falsehood, because fewer people see through it. DuVernay told Rolling Stone that, originally, the script was more centered on the L.B.J.-M.L.K. relationship and was “much more slanted to Johnson.”

“I wasn’t interested in making a white-savior movie,” she said.

Sounds like a lot of fun: entitled black teenagers getting free tickets, texting, talking, shouting, rude behavior, anti-white propaganda, history revisionism......good times, good times.

[Crazieman]

“I’ll have those N-words voting Democrat for 200 years.” ~ LBJ

[tet68]

Total propaganda made only to influence the young
and impressionable, it certainly won’t make box office.

I wonder if these tickets were included in the gross?

[Paladin2]

LBJ was a crook.

[Texas Eagle]

When civil rights leaders are clubbed, whipped and trampled by white lawmen....acting on the orders of DemocRAT politicans,

There. Fixed it.

[Texas Eagle]

By all means, MoDo, correct the record. While you're at it, why don't you edumucate us on the political affiliations of those who supported and opposed the Civil Rights act as well as those who stood in the doorways of schoolhouses and turned water hoses on marchers, etc.

Take your time. We'll wait. The forecast doesn't call for cold weather in Hell for quite some time so no hurry.

[ItsOurTimeNow]

>>Thanks to donations, D.C. public school kids got free tickets to the first Hollywood movie about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr<<

Did children of Scottish ancestry get the same when Braveheart was in the theater? RACIST!!

[Lazamataz]

Isn’t it odd that these people named the movie after the act of peddling your mother?

Sell-Ma.

[knarf]

JUST WAIT’LL YOU EXPERIENCE THE REACTION OF THE WHITE KIDS THAT GET TO SEE THE OBOLA MOVIE ... FREE ... PAID FOR BY “DONATIONS”

[abb]

Indeed. Anything that dirties up his reputation cannot be all bad.

[Former Proud Canadian]

Didn’t Roosevelt say it first?

[tophat9000]

The point of the movie ...IS... propaganda.... not truth..

that is the problem... and also the danger ...

The truth will set you free, both black and white.....

propaganda is how you enslaved.

the more important subject the more important meticulous truth over propaganda

[DJ MacWoW]

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[ClearCase_guy]

I read stuff like this and I find that I can't believe a word of it. Did she really like the movie? I know that she has to say that she did. But did she? Were the performances Oscar-worthy? Doesn't matter. You have to say they were. Did a black teen near her say he was scared? Probably not. Were any of the teens "bristling"? I doubt it.

Truth does not matter to the Left, so I don't trust them on anything.

They just say stuff.

[Lazamataz]

Oh look. This thread violates FR guidelines. Allow me:

[Tigerized]

Despite the massive efforts made to counteract past discrimination in the last 50 years, let’s all forget that and keep the black grievance industry front and center in the nation’s psyche.

And while we’re at it, let’s give young black teens more reasons to engage in violent black on white crime.

It seems to have tapered off lately. Can’t have that...

[knarf]

NO ONE IS PICKING UP ON THE FACT THAT ONE, DEMOCRAT BLACK MAN HAS SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT

[BilLies]

......Among other nefarious endeavors.

[jocon307]

“the crowd was drawn in by the Scheherazade skills of the “Selma” director,”

What on earth does Scheherazade skills mean?

I know it’s a movie, but I’ve never seen it. My impression is that Scheherazade is a mythical land where no one ages.

[tumblindice]

Oh Mr. Leahy! Oh my, I mean, Mr. Lazamataz, Mr. Lazamataz?