The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, January 21, 2015 — 5A

P ARAMOUNT PICTURES

Bad things happen when acronyms fight.
Important story
in flawed ‘Selma’

Historical drama
doesn’t add much to
the history books

By ZAK WITUS

Daily Arts Writer

In “Selma,” writer and direc-

tor Ava DuVernay (“This is the
Life”) lifts a page from your high
school
his-

tory textbook,
breathing
life

into a single
episode
that

tells a larger
story. The film
chronicles the
events
from

Dr.
Martin

Luther
King,

Jr.’s life, from
his acceptance
of the Noble Peace Prize in 1964
to his speech at the steps of the
Alabama State Capitol, which
led to the five-day Civil Rights
march from Selma to Montgom-
ery. “Selma” presents this inspi-
rational man as a representative
of the Civil Rights Movement
as a whole. However, despite
its social and political value,
“Selma” is not a great film.

While some people might

learn something new about his-
tory from this film, the story
doesn’t extend much beyond
the history one might find in the
pages of a high school history
textbook. The film does a fine job
representing what will probably
be familiar material for most of
us. What’s more, “Selma” does,
at least to some to some extent,
subvert the outmoded “great
man theory” of history that we
saw in Steven Speilberg’s “Lin-
coln.” Though the film focuses
primarily on King and his influ-
ence, it also gives credit to what
in the “great man theory” are
considered negligible sideshow
characters. “Selma” emphasizes

the importance of the people
who we’re accustomed to see-
ing as just “faces in the crowd.”
The film recognizes the fact that
though leaders like King are
important, it’s ultimately what
we call “ordinary people” who
form the basis of popular move-
ments.

Critics who call out “Selma”

for historical revisionism have
aimed their attacks at the film’s
Oscar aspirations. But many
wonder why it’s even a contend-
er in the first place — except for
the fact that Oprah Winfrey and
Brad Pitt produced it. “Selma” is
not a bad film; it’s just mediocre.
The violence in the film — the
police brutality in particular —
hits hard, provoking disgust and
anger that galvanizes the activist
within us. David Oyelowo repro-
duces King’s resounding rhetoric
and sandpiper suave magnifi-
cently. We’d have to be more cal-
lous than Michael Jordan’s feet
to not feel the film’s triumphant
glory resonating from our toes
on up.

Unfortunately,
the
story

doesn’t expand much on the
familiar
historical
material

(perhaps its greatest shortcom-
ing). For example, the film tells
us that Dr. King and Coretta
Scott King suffered from marital
strife, but it doesn’t show exactly
why, and only vaguely alludes
to it (perhaps to preserve the
respectability of the film’s pro-
tagonist). What’s more, much of
the dialogue feels inconsequen-
tial, as if we already knew what
the characters were going to say.
Granted, this is a historical film,
so anybody who read their high
school history textbook would
obviously know what the char-
acters were going to say. But that
only prompts us to see the film go
beyond the elementary version of
this historical moment.

Every movie, whether histori-

cal or not, falsifies to some extent;
that’s part of what it is to be art.

The question is: What kind of fal-
sification and how much of it are
we willing to abide?

In a recent op-ed in The

Washington Post, Joseph A. Cali-
fano Jr., one of President Lyn-
don Johnson’s top assistants for
domestic affairs, wrote, “The
film falsely portrays President
Lyndon B. Johnson as being at
odds with Martin Luther King
Jr. and even using the FBI to dis-
credit him, as only reluctantly
behind the Voting Rights Act of
1965 and as opposed to the Selma
march itself.” It’s clear from Cali-
fano’s evidence (which can be
found in his piece and in the tran-
script of the phone conversation
between King and Johnson) that
“Selma” exaggerates the extent
to which Johnson and King were
at odds with one another. Listen
to the phone conversation or read
the transcript and try to deny
that Johnson sounds like he’s
enthusiastically supportive of a
Voting Rights Act. Understand-
ably, the film would lack a major
antagonism without the conflict
between Johnson and King, but
this is, of course, no ground for
historical revisionism.

People
who
support
the

film’s social and political mes-
sage probably want to say it’s
a better film than it really is,
and people who oppose its
message will probably want to
hyper-focus on the misrepre-
sentation of Johnson to say it’s
a worse film than it really is. As
Califano wrote in his criticism,
“Selma” didn’t need to falsify
history as it did to create a great
film. By that same token, we
can still enjoy the film despite
its historical inaccuracies. The
misrepresentation of Johnson
should deter no one from see-
ing the film because “Selma” is
nonetheless a provocative rep-
resentation of a well-known and
centrally important event from
the Civil Rights Movement that
deserves to be remembered.

Turnley reflects on
inspirational career

By FRANCESCA KIELB

Daily Arts Writer

A girl behind me loudly whis-

pers, “This guy is like … a huge
deal.”

David Turnley, a Pulitzer

Prize winning photographer, is a
name often heard throughout the
halls of the University’s Penny
Stamps School of Art & Design.
I heard whispers from students
in his class on his eccentric
genius, his passion, his exper-
tise and even his anger. Rumors
of students fleeing his class in
tears from harsh critiques cre-
ated mixed associations of fear
and awe. I welcomed covering
the Penny Stamps Lecture as a
chance to see for myself what
made him tick, hoping to see the
man beneath the layers of mys-
tique.

Turnley is a storyteller. While

his medium is photography, he
is also incredibly eloquent. His
stories flow seamlessly from
one unbelievable destination to
the next. He does not spare any
details when speaking about his
accomplishments, yet any hubris
feels justified for a man who has
accomplished so much. It doesn’t
seem physically possible for a
man to witness so much, much
less capture it on film.

Turnley starts his story in

Johannesburg in 1990, where he
was covering the Apartheid for
the Detroit Free Press. He then
gets a call from the Free Press’s
Director of Photography, telling
him that Sadam Hussein invaded
Kuwait and asking him to fly to
Baghdad to cover the impend-
ing war with America. There’s
just one problem: no Ameri-
can photographers were to be
granted visas. While photogra-
phers stayed close to the airports
awaiting permission, Turnley
found another way in. He bought
a ticket for a flight with journal-
ists who were granted visas, and
snuck through security amid the
chaos. Once on the plane, how-
ever, the officer went around
collecting passports and check-
ing credentials. He was ques-
tioned by the officer, expecting
to be kicked off the plane. How-
ever, when the photographer
explained that he was working
out of Detroit, the officer perked
up. The officer had family in
Dearborn and allowed Turnley
to enter. He was the first photog-
rapher to arrive in Baghdad since
the beginning of the war.

Once there, he faced yet anoth-

er obstacle. American photogra-
phers had to be escorted by Public

Affairs Officers, who attempt-
ed to control what the media
exposed regarding the war. No
images of violence or suffering
were permitted. Turnley was not
one to play by the rules, though.
He sought out an elite mash unit
of the American Medical Corps
and asked if he could join them to
document the war. This unit did
not have a Public Affairs Officer,
but he convinced them to let him
join regardless. This freedom
gave him the ability to take pic-
tures of the war that ended up on
the cover of every major publica-
tion nationwide. To the crowd,
Turnley explained, “to allow for
serendipity you can’t force things
to happen, you have to have the
stamina to really be in people’s
lives in a full immersion.”

He was later awarded a Pulit-

zer Prize for a series of 19 photo-
graphs at Check Point Charlie as
the Berlin Wall fell. He explained
how he had hired a motorcyclist
to weave between traffic to get
him to the point in time. Again
and again, a combination of fate
and his pragmatic approach
put him in direct contact with
moments that defined the 20th
and 21st centuries.

“I have never felt comfort-

able with the notion of calling
myself a journalist. I have never
felt myself to be objective. I see
through my eyes, my heart and
my life experience. It is a priority
to try to be fair, which is why I’m
trying to touch your hearts with
the common threads of human-
ity,” Turnley said.

So, who is David Turnley?
David Turnley is:
-The first American photog-

rapher to arrive in Baghdad to

cover the first Gulf War.

-The only American photog-

rapher in Iraq traveling without
a Public Affairs Officer — allow-
ing him to document the tragedy
without governmental restric-
tions.

-One of the first western jour-

nalists to receive visas to 13 coun-
tries in the Soviet Union.

-A witness to the Rwandan

genocide in the mid-’90s.

-A witness to the fall of the

Berlin Wall.

-A witness to 9/11, document-

ing the Twin Towers’ fall from a
block-and-a-half away.

-A family friend and compan-

ion of the Mandela family for
over 20 years.

But much of his talk was not

spent on his coverage of memo-
rable events, rather, on his expe-
riences with people all around
the world, both witnessing and
joining their walks of life. From
a homeless man to an aging
farming couple and professional
dancers, Turnley stresses the
importance of building relation-
ships with a diverse swath of
people.

He summarizes the mantra of

his life and work by saying sim-
ply, “It’s not a job assignment
or a vocation. It’s a way of life, a
camaraderie, a sense of heritage
— seeing what you can do with
your camera to make a differ-
ence.”

As the event drew to a close,

the lights dimmed and he con-
cluded with a slideshow of his
photographs. The veil had been
lifted, he had been humanized.
Yet my feelings of fear and awe
not only remained — they were
amplified.

‘Parks’ prepares to
close on a high note

By DREW MARON

Daily Arts Writer

With last season’s incred-

ible, series finale-worthy end-
ing “Moving Up,” it would
be
easy
for

showrunners
Dan Goor and
Michael Schur
(“Brooklyn
Nine-Nine”)
to play it safe
for the final
season.
But

that’s not what
makes “Parks
and
Recre-

ation” one of
the
greatest

television comedies of the last
20 years. The joy of watching
“Parks and Rec” doesn’t come
from the humor alone, but from
seeing people who love one
another help each other reach
their goals. Season seven begins
by taking all of that love and

putting it through the grinder.

It has been three years since

the promotion of Leslie Knope
(Amy Poehler, “Saturday Night
Live”)
to
Midwest
Region-

al Director of the National
Parks Service, and Pawnee
has changed a great deal. The
Newport family — antagonists
throughout the series — are
selling a huge plot of land, and
Leslie hopes to convince them
to turn it into a National Park.
Unfortunately, there’s someone
standing in her way whom she
hates so much as to not even
mention his name: Ron Swan-
son (Nick Offerman, “22 Jump
Street”).

After an unexplained event

ominously
referred
to
as

“Morningstar,” Swanson has
left
the
Parks
Department

and created a new company
named Very Good Building and
Development. His client is tech
startup company Gryzzl, that
plans on using the land to build

the “Gryzzl Campus.”

Seeing the hearing where

Leslie turns around to see Ron
Swanson greet her with a cold,
“Hello, Ms. Knope,” felt like
a stab in the heart. Their dif-
ferent stances on government
have always been a source of
tension but it’s never gotten
in the way of their friendship.
With season seven, Goor and
Schur make the viewer feel
what it’s like for politics to
divide a family.

The tension is amplified by

the fact that we understand the
principles that have led both
Ron and Leslie to this point
in time. For such a surprising
twist, the Ron and Leslie face-
off feels almost inevitable as
the underlying question of the
show: What is the role of gov-
ernment? It’s almost absurd
that such a pressing question
is more intelligently posed by a
sitcom than journalists, Nancy
Grace and politicians. How-

DAVID TURNLEY

But first he took a selfie.

ever, “Parks and Recreation”
isn’t a soapbox, and showrun-
ners Goor and Schur open this
final season with gusto and
wit.

Guest
stars
Jon
Hamm

(“Mad Men”) and Werner
Herzog (“On Death Row”)
make great use of their small
roles and real-life person-
alities. Recurring characters
like Joan Callamezzo (Mo
Collins, “MAD TV”), Tammy
Two (Megan Mullally, “Will
and Grace”) and Councilman
Jamm (University alum Jon
Glaser, “Delocated”) are also
excellent, with the latter two’s
new relationship taking center
stage for the second episode
“Ron and Jammy.” Mullally,
Glaser, and Collins have pro-
vided some of the series’ most
memorable laughs and it’s
great seeing them get a last
minute spotlight as we enter
the home stretch.

“Parks and Recreation” has

provided some of the funniest
and most human moments of
television of any genre in the
last 20 years. It has made us
laugh and cry — often at the
same time — and it will be hard
to say goodbye later this year.
However, it’s also comforting
to know that the beginning of
the end was just as special as
all that came before.

NBC

Just close your eyes and think about breakfast.

WHAT’S NEW ON

B

Selma

Rave, State
Theater and
Quality 16

Paramount
Pictures

A

Parks and
Recreation

Season 7
Premiere

Tuesdays
at 8 p.m.

NBC

FILM REVIEW
EVENT REVIEW

TV REVIEW