Review of The Great Debaters (2007) by Jacobborssen — 11 Sep 2014

We’re in the middle of the 1930’s. The great depression, the rasism flows in the south, black people get lynched without having any protection by the law. The black fighter James Braddock has recently defeated the white, mighty Max Baer which 70 years later results in the movie Cinderella Man. Denzel Washington is about to do the same thing as the director of Cinderella Man: he takes on a true story of the eventful 1930’s. The movie is called ’’The Great Debaters’’ and it’s about a black debate team in Texas. Lead by the engaged and strong-willed english teacher Melvin Tolson (Denzel Washington), this personality-strong debate team starts to experience success no one could even imagine. The movie is well made, rich on details and tells us about an interesting time-period which contributes to the success within an already proven genre.

At the time of the action American Universities were still race-regulated and the black Wiley College in Texas had a successful debate team. The purpose with this debate team is to travel and meet other debaters from others schools in a form of a contest in rhetorics and argumentative techniques. Mr. Tolson, the teacher, handpicks a little group of smart students to represent the school. He declares, quite frankly, that he chooses this team for best possible balance: Two ordinary debaters, one researcher and one substitute. Henry Love, a drinking buffoon which is strongly intelligent. Hamilton Burgees, a fat superb debater. Samantha Booke, the substitute and the only female debater in the movie in all matters. James Farmer Jr., the extremely talented researcher, a boy who’s four years younger than everyone else in the group.

During Tolsons capable leadership and strongly pathos based arguments, this debate team starts to win. First against other black colleges and eventually they start winning against white universities. Their winning streak grows and in the end they get the privilege to debate against the reigning champions, the famous Harvard University. The road to get there was long and lined by troubles, sprung from the intolerant social society and Mr. Tolsons radical personality and what he does on his free time.

I would lie if I didn’t say that this movie is one of those ‘’win against all odds’’ kind of movies. But it’s not only that, it’s something much more. It’s a movie based on a true story which depicts the hectic relationships between the black and the white society, where the protagonists are exposed to rasism and even lynchings. The movie also touches questions about love, nurture and gender during a time where people had a really conversative view against these phenomenons.

It can seem hard to do debates, where the questions and responses already have been assigned, thrilling in a movie - but that’s something that the director has thought about. The debate scenes are kept short and have one bad peculiarity: our Wiley team always draws for the ’’good side’’ which makes the movie so political correct. It would have been intriguing to see the Wiley team debate against something that represents themselves.

The joint between The Great Debaters and the movie Cinderella Man as mentioned earlier, is many. The composure is similar and the narrative in both movies is something extraordinary. Both movies unfolds during the eventful 1930’s and shows us about the large racial differences, the inequality between men and women and the money crisis during that time. The largest dividing points are that The Great Debaters also showed us about the big differences in the school system at that time.

Washington really knows how to control the genre of serious drama. The composure is flawless but predictable. The writers did bring all the actual events into the movie, added some fictitious scenes and places the scenes is the perfect order to make a good movie. The slow beginning of the movie has the ability to capture us, much thanks to Denzel’s authority. The controversy comes somewhere in the middle of the movie and follows by a brilliant second half. The recess comes during the second half of the movie and it’s what makes the movie so great. The final argument we hear in the last debate , strongly based on events that happened during the movie, still rings in that crammed Harvard courtroom. Not necessarily peaceful and humble, but strong. Perhaps even radically.

Based on a true story, the director and writers have made a unique and capturing narrative. The story about Wiley College is something I take with me every time I think about, write or discuss anything about racial differences or the 1930’s. The final argument made by James Farmer Jr. still gives me goosebumps and is probably one of the best ending scenes I’ve ever seen. Denzel Washington, have with this movie, proved to the film industry and the audience that he can do more than just acting.