| The Great Debaters | | | | are essential to the film since they help us understand |
| Director: Denzel Washington | | | | the characters better and the feelings that go into their |
| Producers: Oprah Winfrey, Joe Roth, Bob Weinstein, | | | | debate arguments. Black life is all about segregation |
| Harvey Weinstein | | | | and discrimination and the audience have to see that |
| Writers: Jeffrey Porro, Robert Eisele | | | | black achievement and victory are not easily obtained. |
| Starring: Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Nate | | | | The Great Debaters shows how the black realized |
| Parker, Denzel Whitaker, Jurnee Smollett | | | | that education was the key to their success. Mr. |
| Music: James Newton Howard | | | | Farmer, James's father, is the first African-American |
| Cinematography: Philippe Rousselot | | | | who manages to get a doctorate degree in Texas. He |
| Editor: Hughes Winborne | | | | very much wants his son to follow his path and urges |
| Release date: December 25, 2007 | | | | him to study hard. Also this emphasis on education and |
| Running time: 126 min | | | | knowledge is seen in the scenes where Mr. Tolson is |
| Country: United States | | | | giving instructions to the debate team. He tells them |
| Language: English | | | | that the whites have tried to keep their body, and kill |
| Budget: $15 million | | | | their mind. They want to keep them psychologically |
| Gross revenue: $30,236,407 | | | | dependent so that they can never improve and Tolson |
| The Great Debaters is a 2007 American drama film. | | | | tells them that his is "trying to help save their righteous |
| Denzel Washington, the director of the film who plays | | | | mind." |
| the role of Melvin Tolson, Wiley College English | | | | The issues selected for debating are interesting. Long |
| professor, has won the Academy Award twice. Also, | | | | scenes are allotted to the young debaters expounding |
| Forest Whitaker is the other African-American playing | | | | on school integration, civil disobedience and other big |
| in this film who has won the Academy Award for | | | | Issues. Although the speeches are prepared by Tolson, |
| best actor in The Last King of Scotland. The film is | | | | at the end we see the success of the team when |
| based on a true story taken from the article written | | | | they are left on their own to prepare themselves for |
| about the Wiley College debate team by Tony | | | | the debate with Harvard. |
| Scherman for the 1997 spring issue of American | | | | Tolson's being endangered by working as a covert |
| Legacy. Wiley College is a black college situated in | | | | labor organizer for local farmers and the team being |
| Marshall, Texas. Melvin Tolson, English professor of the | | | | threatened by lynch mobs remind the audience of the |
| college, inspired by the Harlem Renaissance and his | | | | volatile politics of the time, when a black man could be |
| clandestine work as a union organizer, coaches a | | | | attacked for simply owning a suit and a car. This gives |
| debate team in the college. The story takes place in | | | | the movie a nice political undertone. The climactic |
| 1935 when Jim Crow laws were common and lynch | | | | debate at the end of the movie is between the Wiley |
| mobs were a great fear for blacks. | | | | College and Harvard University. However, based on |
| There are four people in the college team including, | | | | the real story it should be between Wiley and the |
| Samantha Booke, the first female in the college debate | | | | University of Southern California. This is done |
| team and James Farmer, a precocious 14 year-old | | | | deliberately in order to highlight the great achievement |
| boy. The team, trained well by Tolson, defeats most of | | | | of Wiley debate team. |
| the other debate teams from different colleges and | | | | Overall, I think The Great Debaters is an honest look at |
| enters into the first debate between U.S students from | | | | the 1930s Jim Crow south. It enjoys believable |
| white colleges and black colleges and the winner is | | | | characters with solid acting and invokes emotional |
| Wiley. Having gained a lot of victories, the team is | | | | reactions in viewers. You can share the feelings of |
| eventually invited to face Harvard University | | | | fear, shame, disgust, pride and happiness with the black |
| champions. This final debate is another victory for the | | | | people especially the debate team. Also this film |
| Wiley College debate team. | | | | shows us the great efforts of people who paved the |
| The film beautifully portrays the Jim Crow south of | | | | way for civil-rights movement to happen. Tolson, the |
| America during the 1930s when the blacks were | | | | strong debating teacher, teaches the team members |
| suffering so much from racism and lynch mobs. There | | | | how to stand up for their rights and at the end of the |
| are some moving scenes in the movie like the | | | | film we learn that James becomes one of the leaders |
| humiliation of a black doctor, James's father, in front of | | | | of the civil-rights movement and founds the Congress |
| his family over a dead pig or the scene where a black | | | | of Racial Equality. Finally I think that this movie is |
| is lynched by a white mob who set his body afire. | | | | emotional, educational, and uplifting and arouses our |
| Although some people may think that these scenes | | | | feelings of sympathy for the black people. |
| take the focus off of the debating at times, I think they | | | | |