The Great Debaters

By Nathan Young

A film does not have to have an accomplished cast to be great. 'The Great Debaters' is proof of that.

That is not to say the cast is without talent. After all, the film boasts a pair of Academy Award winners in Denzel Washington (who is also the director) and Forest Whitaker. It's the lesser known actors who steal the spotlight, however.

This is a fantastic film that I feel was egregiously snubbed for a Best Picture Oscar nomination. I am giving it a big 'thumbs up'.

Melvin Tolson (Denzel Washington) is the debate coach at tiny Wiley College in Marshall, Texas in the mid-1930's. He whittles down his team to four from 45 and sets out to create the best team in the land.

The team takes some time to gel, but things eventually take off. Samantha Booke, (with an "E", as she points out to Mr. Tolson at the tryout) is the first girl to ever make a Wiley squad. Henry Lowe (Nate Parker) is a street smart kid who overcomes his stubborness and pride to make the team. James Farmer, Jr. (Denzel Whitaker) is the baby faced newcomer who has a crush on Samantha despite being just 14. James is also the son of a famous preacher, James Sr. (Forest Whitaker), who has major influence in town.

The team starts out on fire, winning its first 10 debates. After the departure of a key team member (Jermaine Williams), Samantha (Jurnee Smollett) is forced to be one of the two "starting" debaters. She more than holds her own, delivering an impassioned defense of a black person's right to attend a predominantly white college. The team goes through ups and downs (including the movie's defining moment when it witnesses a lynching on the way to a match) but ultimately lands a chance to debate the best white school in America: Harvard.

Some might cast aside this movie as just another underdog story, but it is so much more than that. The cast is great from top to bottom. The credit for that goes partially to second time director Washington. He gets the most out of his actors and paces the story well, without going overboard on sentimentality.

The brilliance of screenwriter Robert Eisele's script is that it gives all three debaters a chance to shine. They are all so good, in fact, it's hard to say which one stood out.

Samantha's aforementioned speech, given at Wiley's first debate against a white school, is moving and convincing. Smollett portrays Samantha as a firecracker who takes a backseat to no one. Parker brings a potent mixture of defiance and erudition to Henry. He goes from being a top notch debater one minute to a drunk playboy the next. As James Jr., Denzel Whitaker is my favorite character. Despite his baby face, he is a bulldog when the lights go on. James is a likeable character and is the backbone of the team. An interesing aside is that the young Whitaker has the same names of both Oscar winners in the movie (spelled exactly the same) but is related to neither.

This movie is funny, interesting, thought provoking and inspiring. The script is good, Washington's direction is brilliant, and the acting is on a plane which I have not seen from an entire ensemble in any 2007 film (it opened Christmas Day). And that is without even mentioning Forest Whitaker's performance, which is layered and pitch perfect. This movie is right there with the best movies of the year. I highly recommend it.