Talk to me
A clarinet-infested score (cf. Dor) is a sure sign that a movie is out to win Oscars, not to innovate. The Great Debaters aims for the schmaltzy, unambitious mainstream, while director Denzel Washington hams like a younger Bill Cosby. But one scene redeems the movie. The final debate is held at Harvard’s Memorial Hall, the same auditorium where I watched Mira Nair accept alumnus honors with warmth and eloquence. (They debated USC in real life.) In the scene, Denzel Whitaker from Wiley College centers his 1AC on the necessity of civil disobedience and nonviolence. He talks about the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Gen. Dyer, Gandhi and Thoreau.
A smarmy-looking Harvard debater fires back that eight million dead in WWI outweighs, that directed violence is a moral imperative, while disobedience leads to anarchy. The young Wiley debater, recently elevated from their B team, recites how his team drove late one night directly into a lynching. He says justice and law don’t exist in Texas. Opposing the authorities, by violence or civil disobedience, is not only his right, but his duty — and ‘you should pray I choose the latter.’
In an earlier scene, a debater stumbles over the pronunciation of ‘satyagraha,’ and their dorm attendant, a frustrated Ph.D. type, corrects him. And before that, Denzel refers to Mississippi Masala while placating Idi Amin. He smiles into a mug and says, ‘This is good tea.’ It’s the same thing he tells Sarita Choudhury’s uncle in Masala, and then too to deflect an argument lightly.
Early team debate wasn’t much like modern, and now laptops and reference DVDs are probably widespread. But some things haven’t changed: the road trip from hell, the debater who parties all night instead of working on his ev, debaters quitting the team, guys and girls hooking up at tourneys. In one scene, Jurnee Smollett arrives late to a team meeting, sits down and gives Nate Parker a ninja thappad for fooling around on her the night before. Denzel cocks a knowing eyebrow. ‘Resolved!’ he says, and gets back to quoting Langston Hughes.
Oprah Winfrey backed Denzel on this movie, just as she backed Barack Obama, but it needed an edgier director. And it talks down to black intellect to have the characters only debate minority issues. Civil rights were no doubt the burning issue of the time, but others did exist; no other topic was shown in competition in this film. The whole point of debate training is the mental agility to argue either side even on issues near to your heart.
By showing black debaters arguing only black issues, and then too only on the black side, the movie conflates tabula rasa argumentation with real life, and makes Wiley’s debaters into affirmative action competitors rather than outright winners. Of course, in ‘35 Texas, when even driving to tournaments invited peril, that may have been a legitimate remedy.
on Tuesday, December 25th, 2007, 9:08 pm in Film, Issues › 
Email this
› 
Facebook this
› 
Reddit this
› Link
› Reader links
I took my parents (because what other fillum are you going to see with the folks on Christmas day?) but I have to say that some of the historical errors drove me insane. One of the Harvard students cites Adolf Hitler in the final debate, and as of 1935, Hitler would be neither a well-known figure nor a reviled enemy. Either that, or I am completely stupid about historical facts, which is always a possibility. Blerg.
The thappad was nice though. ;) It’s just that the whole thing was so by-the-numbers, feel-good-family formula that I would not normally stomach it.
I really enjoyed the film and applaud Denzel and Oprah for making it. I believe that the purpose of films of this nature transcend entertainment; as it is used to remind african-americans of the struggles and triumphs of their people.
“Of course, in ‘35 Texas, when even driving to tournaments invited peril, that may have been a legitimate remedy.”
I don’t think this point can be stated enough. 1935 American South: if you were a black person there, how could you NOT be focused on civil rights? Be it safety, legal justice, or basic job opportunities, what would be more important, and what in your daily life WOULDN’T tie into that particular fight?
Of course, if the film were set in 2005, then yes I would very much expect them to debate a plethora of other issues. But the timing and place and people involved make a huge difference.
thanks Manish for the review. Iam so looking forward to seeing this movie on my fav topic debating, oprah denzel combination.. I dont know if this is denzels first directorial venture but oprah produced a lot of good movies over years…sometimes good actors dont make good directors..I waited for a movie on debating for years.looks like u are not very impressed with the movie, but no movie can be that bad which has intellectual debating right…are there any other movies on debating/debators?
manish, you answered your own question with your tail-end sentence.
somehow, the initial practice debates were more ‘intellectual’ than the final at Harvard. In other terms, the emotional story build-up(which was great) didn’t lead to a suitable pay-off. Of course, i was mildly smiling when they spoke about Gandhi. Overall, decent entertainment.
i took literature classes in memorial hall and remember it fondly… but i don’t know why they didn’t use usc as the school since that is what really happened..harvard isn’t all that.
Finally I saw the movie tonite..me and mom both felt that topics they choose for debating and the debates were the weakest in this movie except for the final debate and that final sentence “u are lucky if I choose the later”. we both thought the texas landscape and picturization was great..denzel and forrest did a great job but rest of the actors did not live upto the mark..Direction was ok, it could have been tighter..Inspiring movie..But again debates involved emotional personal accounts of incidents I dont know if it is permitted in debating to do that..In India whereever I debated people dont generally bring up personal experiences in debates..I never debated in US..To me the houses, costumes, cars and racial descrimination all reminded me of 1930’s , thought the director took care of all these little little details well..
I love watching movies produced by oprah, they always have a positive message..The movie story can take it to oscars but no one gave oscar calibre performances to me..
Are there any other movies around debating? I would love to watch them..