Selma

Ava DuVernay was handed a script by Paul Webb and reckons she rewrote about 90 percent of it, yet only Webb is credited: his contract entitled him to sole credit. The speeches were rebuilt too. King’s estate had licensed them to another production in 2009 and talks never closed, so DuVernay wrote new addresses that carry the cadence without the copyright. Editor Spencer Averick describes 35 shoot days, about 2 hours of footage a day. The Edmund Pettus Bridge got 2 days, rain took one, and many in the crowd were Selma residents, not trained extras, so coverage ran short. Close-ups were picked up later in Atlanta, with effects hiding the missing bridge, and that shortfall gave the sequence its tight framing. The film has Bloody Sunday going out live, though in 1965 such footage was shot on film and cut for the evening bulletin. It took 2 Oscar nominations and won Best Music (Original Song) for Glory. Joseph Califano, once Johnson’s policy aide, disputed the portrait of the president; Andrew Young called that relationship the only thing he would question. A good fit if you want the march worked out in meeting rooms and phone calls as much as on the road. Not for you if you came to hear King’s own speeches; those words were written fresh.