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Product Description: Denzel Washington directs and stars in this uplifting drama based on a true story about a small East Texas all-black college in 1935 that rises to the top of the nation's debate teams in a duel against Harvard. A poet and debating coach at Wiley College Professor Melvin Tolson (Washington) sees debating as "a blood sport" and recruits the meanest and brightest including troubled Henry (Nate Parker) driven Samantha (Jurnee Smollet) and the 14-year-old prodigy James Farmer Jr. (Denzel Whitaker). Oscar winner Forest Whitaker (no relation) plays Farmer's father the initially unsupportive president of the school. There's tough training romantic heat over the attentions of fiery Samantha (the first girl on the team) and some no holds-barred racism (including a witnessed lynching) before the big match-up against the Ivy League school adding to the overall emotional force.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/CLASS DIFFERENCES Rating: PG-13 UPC: 796019811583 Manufacturer No: 81158 Amazon.com: Inspired by real events, the fascinating The Great Debaters reveals one of the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement in its story of Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington in a captivating performance) and his champion 1935 debate club from the all-African-American Wiley College in Texas. Tolson, a Wiley professor, labor organizer, modernist poet, and much else, runs a rigorous debate program at the school, selecting four students as his team in ’35, among them the future founder of the Congress of Racial Equality, James Farmer Jr. (Denzel Whitaker). Washington, who directed The Great Debaters from a script by Robert Eisele (The Dale Earnhardt Story), anchors the story with the team’s measurable progress, but the film is also about the state of race relations in America at the height of the Great Depression. With lynchings of black men and women a common form of entertainment and black subjugation for many rural whites, the idea of talented and highly intelligent African-American young people learning to think on their feet during debates would seem almost a hopeless endeavor. But that’s not the way Tolson sees it, as his students serve themselves and the cause of racial equality in America with energetic arguments in favor of progressive government and non-violence as a viable social movement. There are some startling moments in this movie, particularly the sight of a man found lynched and burned to death, and an extraordinary moment in which we see black sharecroppers and white farmers engaged with Tolson in arguments about unionizing together. Forest Whitaker is outstanding as Farmer’s emotionally-reserved father, also a Wiley professor. This is the kind of film where one hopes two great actors such as the elder Whitaker and Washington will have a scene together, and when it comes it’s as powerful as one might hope. --Tom Keogh Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-08
Outstanding movie
This movie is one of the best films I have seen this past year. It is quite thought provoking and so well done. Rating:
Date: 2008-07-06
A truly inspirational film
A truly inspirational film...
By now, we have seen this film several times, but last night... Lisa and Pablo Moreno, Alessandra Prado, Nadya, Alex and I watch because we were engaged on a rather deep debate over the political contenders for this year's election... and we decided to share with them a movie that truly explains the meaning of a debate... A war of ideals, perceptions and opinions... where our weapons are... words!!!
After seeing this movie for the first time, I researched the story only to realize that the story is based on a real life story that inspired a change of the way our Nation thinks and planted the seeds for the Civil Rights movement in the United States.
Melvin B. Tolson, played by one of our favorite actors, Denzel Washington is a professor at a college in Texas that encourages young people to participate in the discovery of the fire within... as he tells one of his students during a training lesson: "we are here to challenge your thinking process to make sure you regain your mind."
Professor Tolson creates a debate club that goes from school to school testing their wits with the best, but they debate and he writes their opinions, something that teaches these young people to think provocatively, but in essence, the messages are not truly theirs.
While he is a professor during the day, he champions causes at night but organizing sharecroppers and laborers. He is seen as a communist by some, a radical by others and a danger to many by those in power because he is inspiring change.
Among those he selects for the 1935 team we find James Farmer Jr. masterfully played by Denzel Whitaker, Henry, played by Nate Parker and Samantha, the first female to ever join the debate team, beautifully played by Jurnee Smollet.
James is only 14 years old and already in college, the best researcher the team has ever had, eloquent, vivacious and always hopeful and happy. Many experiences chisel away at their beliefs until they find their own voice and what a voice it becomes. The debates are inspirational, the struggle to understand simply magnificent, and the real life lessons reveal the trauma experienced by African Americans that grew at a time when lynching a man in Texas was common place.
There are moments of joy but plenty of moments where the viewer is left in shock at the atrocities inflicted by rural whites on African Americans whose only crime was to be different.
One of my favorite moments comes when James Farmer Jr. realizes that there is no hope, they are debating in a world where they are nothing more than "negroes" in a world that does not accept or welcomes their ideals, and troubled Henry givens him strength again, crying out loud: "don't give up James, not you!"
They win wherever they debate and Harvard becomes aware of this team and invites them to debate on their campus, and this debate is the ultimate climax to an inspirational film, where they are no longer allowed to say the words prepared by their professor, but told they must prepare their arguments themselves. After a period of rigorous soul-searching they argue from the heart, and while the Harvard team was brilliant, they spoke from the conviction of those who had never lived the reality of the south... Simply magnificent to see a body of highly educated intellectuals rendered silent by truths that were abhorrent but the truth of the south none-the-less.
Rating:
Date: 2008-07-05
The Great Debaters
A superb film. Brings the viewer into the 1950s reality of the Jim Crow South and the struggle for equality by Black Americans. The lessons communicated are applicable to all races, cultures, and communities. We are engaged by intriguing characters obviously bright and articulate and yet flawed. It is the flaws that we see them strive to overcome as well as the ills of our society. The students stretch their skills to become great debaters with the help of a charismatic and learned professor who pushes his students and himself to be the change agents in their community and the society at large.
A true joy to watch over and over. Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-27
nothing special
Although Denzel Washington directed this capably, with a good feel for pace and timing, the script is predictable and formulaic: it's really nothing more than another flick about a teacher making a difference in the lives of disadvantaged students, something we've seen a few too many times.
The only divagation from the formula is that the students in this film actually want to learn. Rating:
Date: 2008-06-26
Awesome, Inspiring & Hopeful for today.
The Great Debaters is now on my list of great Movies! It ranks with Casablanca, To Kill A Mockingbird and White Christmas. When Professor Melvin Tolson chooses his first Wiley College Debating team it includes Samantha, Henry, James Farmer, Jr and Hamilton who wishes to be the Teacher's pet!
Since there are many excellent reviews, I will not repeat the awesome listing of great actresses & actors like Denzel Washington & Forest Whitaker & Denzel Whitaker! For my top choices of the debaters, I choose Samantha & James Farmer Jr. The young man who plays the part of Henry is a tremendous actor who makes powerful speeches for his arguments & resolutions. I am turned off by his weakness for drinking & fast moves with women!
There is a powerful contrast between white sharecroppers, who seem to be in authority with the local Sheriff and the Debaters who play the part of defenders as origins of the Civil Rights movement in the 1930's! Those first debates with other African American Colleges are soon overcome with the debates with white Oklahoma City U. and finally the climaxing debate with the Harvard's top notch debating team!
There is included as special events, some older students of Wiley College who were the original members of the first debating team! These older men & women provide quite the vivid contrast for the original debaters! Especially, the man who is portrayed by Henry, whose last name was Heights is said to be "arrogantly intellectual!"
Some of the most potent scenes are speeches from the debaters against the white college students! There is tremendous writing of those speeches quoting Gandhi, Thoreau & Du Bois! All-in-all this is one outstanding portrayal of the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement later by Matin Luther King, Jr!
Gratefully from Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood. |
