Movie Review: The Great Debaters

Go see The Great Debaters!

If I were going to show some movies to high-schoolers that were meaningful looks as particular times where people overcome obstacles, break through cultural norms, risk for something greater than themselves, The Great Debaters in now on that list.

This is a powerful story based on the life of Melvin Tolson, a professor at a small Black College in Marshall, TX during the 1930's.  The depiction of White/Black interaction was well done, appropriately intense and well layered.  Denzel can pretty much do no wrong in my book, who along with Forest Whitaker, I imagine, had the set silent during one subtle interaction about politics, Jesus and parenting.

It does feel a bit like a Hoosiers meets Remember the Titans, but when the story ends as it does, sometimes we just have to believe in the unbelievable.   If you do not get choked up multiple times by the powerful dialog and imagery, you just might be dead inside ;-)

Here is the trailer . . .

* A few others on that list would be

• Hotel Rwanda
• Forbidden City (USA)