The Great Debaters

“The Great Debaters” is an enjoyable movie if you don’t mind predictable: predictable in plot, predictable in character development, predictable in themes. The one element that is not predictable is the slap-you-in-the-face racism that the characters in this story confront on a daily basis. We like to think that our country has moved beyond the racism inherent in the Jim Crow South, but we really haven’t. Racism exists today and it is no less insidious in its effect. “The Great Debaters,” based on a true story, is about Wiley College’s impressive debate record in 1935. Mel Tolson (Denzel Washington), an English professor and social activist, forms a debate team. Initially, he intends to compete against black colleges, but when the team goes undefeated, which includes toppling one of the best black college debating teams in the country, he sets his sights on National Champion Harvard. If Harvard agrees, it will be the first time the debating team from a black college will face off against a national champion. The three young actors cast as the debate team, Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett and Denzel Whitaker, are effective as students who come to understand the power of words. The debating sequences, which touch on issues of race, civil rights and civil disobedience, are presented with passion and fervor as the students wield words as weapons. Forrest Whitaker has a small role as the father of one of the debaters and professor at Wiley College. “The Great Debaters” is ultimately a story of individual achievement, of triumph against steep odds. Predictable? Certainly. But uplifting nonetheless. (12/31/07)