Becoming King
Becoming King
Becoming King: Many hours in a week for me are lost as I try to search for things that would otherwise get lost in the incessant onslaught of fresh content that is unleashed on a regular basis.
This is where the Black History Month observation becomes necessary because in every other year, at least one such title is always dropped with some sort of connection to it and there is pretty much no context as to why you should be watching this thing apart from the fact that it is about a person of colour or there is a person of colour in it.
Which sucks because one of two events would have been worthy of being given time to see on November however, they are not necessarily such projects that at first sight says, ‘come, watch me! What this looks like to the author that is talking to a projectionist.
However, that was certainly my feeling based on the logline I saw for Paramount+’s new documentary Becoming King:
A heartbreaking picture of David Oyelowo’s preparations for the role of Martin Luther King, which immortalized him in the film SELMA. Directed by Jessica Oyelowo, with never-seen-before home footage and a wealth of interviews with David’s friends, including a number of Hollywood directors such as Ava DuVernay, Lee Daniels, George Lucas, and Oprah Winfrey, the film tells the story of a young boy growing up in Nigeria who goes on an epic quest to fulfill the most important role of his life.
The description selling me the hour-long feature just situated it as something nice to pass the time with on a boring evening where there were no more interesting pursuits. Even though it would surely not win any awards for marketing, most importantly it did not convince me why I ought to go out of my way to schedule for it.
But thank god I did find time for it – because Becoming King is a staggering, often painful biopic about the life of Oyelowo the actor who took up the mantle of casting himself as King in Selma for the seven long years. The movie got resurrected from the dead more times than your average vampire flick, and as for his wife, since she was filming pretty much for the entire time, that is all these scenes in which he looks like complete crap: swollen and red eyes looking bleary with self-doubt, and an internal tumult and many more distractions of life that might have derailed the film on many occasions.
And even then! And even finally when Selma was pretty much ready to finally start shooting Selma, so he put in a personal blow that made him somehow wonder if he was about to quit — and obvious he did continued since here is this doc called Becoming King. And so again watching Selma after watching becoming king which is also up paramount man it gave me a total different perspective.
I’m telling you man there’re really good secrets about the making of this series — I mean even the way Oyelow met Ava DuVernay is one of the most absurd so about her in the Oray of coming to America. I mean he got her on board after Lee Daniels had to back out (that Daniel himself admits was heartbreaking, Lee Daniels in Becoming King included) and this was just one of the many other strange ways that turned into expected.
Nevertheless, it is worth taking a look at Becoming King since it focuses on one of the most overlooked actors of our time. The film begins when Oyelowo returns to Nigeria and goes to the small one-bedroom apartment house built by his family at the time of his birth.
It tells about his career development, with a particular emphasis on the days when audiences and critics even dared to speak out openly and object that it wasn’t right for an African-American to be the first man to rule ‘the King’ in the Royal Shakespeare Company. This guy is a fighter in the industry who has had a rough road to everything he has achieved as an actor and it is important on any month of the year when so ever you feel like it.
If you are wondering what civil rights films to watch, watch Selma. If you are contemplating rewatching too, Becoming King is one originally filmed by Oyelowo. But more importantly, look at this profile of an international performing arts who needs no introduction and is underappreciated for what she has brought to the industry.
Watch free movies like on Fmovies
- Genre: Documentary
- Country: United States
- Director: Jessica Oyelowo
- Cast: Ava DuVernay, Martin Luther King, David Oyelowo
