The Great Debaters | 
| Actors: Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Damien Leake, Gregory Nicotero, Brian Smiar
Studio: Genius Products (TVN)
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.95
Buy Used: $5.99
You Save: $23.96 (80%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  64 reviews
Sales Rank: 1066
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Ntsc, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 124
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 81070
UPC: 796019810708
EAN: 0796019810708
ASIN: B00125WAWS
Theatrical Release Date: December 25, 2007
Release Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Inspired by real events, the fascinating The Great Debaters reveals one of the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement in its story of Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington in a captivating performance) and his champion 1935 debate club from the all-African-American Wiley College in Texas. Tolson, a Wiley professor, labor organizer, modernist poet, and much else, runs a rigorous debate program at the school, selecting four students as his team in '35, among them the future founder of the Congress of Racial Equality, James Farmer Jr. (Denzel Whitaker). Washington, who directed The Great Debaters from a script by Robert Eisele (The Dale Earnhardt Story), anchors the story with the team's measurable progress, but the film is also about the state of race relations in America at the height of the Great Depression. With lynchings of black men and women a common form of entertainment and black subjugation for many rural whites, the idea of talented and highly intelligent African-American young people learning to think on their feet during debates would seem almost a hopeless endeavor. But that's not the way Tolson sees it, as his students serve themselves and the cause of racial equality in America with energetic arguments in favor of progressive government and non-violence as a viable social movement. There are some startling moments in this movie, particularly the sight of a man found lynched and burned to death, and an extraordinary moment in which we see black sharecroppers and white farmers engaged with Tolson in arguments about unionizing together. Forest Whitaker is outstanding as Farmer's emotionally-reserved father, also a Wiley professor. This is the kind of film where one hopes two great actors such as the elder Whitaker and Washington will have a scene together, and when it comes it's as powerful as one might hope. --Tom Keogh
Product Description
Two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington (American Gangster) directs and stars with Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland) in this important and deeply inspiring page from the not-so-distant past (Richard Roeper, At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper). Inspired by a true story, Washington shines as a brilliant but politically radical debate team coach who uses the power of words to transform a group of underdog African American college students into an historical powerhouse that took on the Harvard elite. DVD Special Features:
Deleted Scenes
The Great Debaters: An Historical Perspective. That's What My Baby Likes; Music Video.
My Soul Is A Witness; Music Video
Theatrical Trailer
Sneak Peeks: Grace is Gone, Cassandra's Dream, I'm Not There, Hunting Party
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| Customer Reviews: Read 59 more reviews...
 One of year's best October 2, 2008
Great cast, even the student actors, but Washington and Whitaker bookend the whole movie. Strong and challenging script with several emotionally charged scenes. Mixes history, logic, rascism, workers rights, and drama with convincing authority. Excellent.
 Paid for - never received!! September 22, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I never received the DVD that I paid for. I waited two months, emailed them and NEVER even received a response from them. Will anyone listen now? Hard to say.
The affirmative case for civil disobedience September 21, 2008
Wiley college debates Harvard on the topic of civil disobedience. 1935, blacks were lynched in Texas, a form of mob justice. The law did not protect blacks from this form of violence.
Issues raise:
* Jim Crow laws
* African Americans not allow to attend White Colleges
* Debate limited to Black colleges
* Inequality within the law
* Inequality in educational fund distribution
* High percent of crime and punishment associated with African Americans
* Harvards struggle to racially integrate with Blacks
A divine law can not be superceded by man made law. If man made law becomes oppressive or negligent then revolt of those laws or the lack of law can be either resisted by violence or civil disobedience. A proposition that would carry forward many decades later with the freedom riders and their protest of unfair transportation policies discriminating against blacks.
Who is our judge? God is our Judge. Why is he our judge? Because God decides what is right or wrong. Who is our opponent? There is no opponent because he resides on the side of error.
The best September 9, 2008
This movie is the best---The story and the acting is the best...I certainly would purchase it again.
Stirring reminder of Jim Crow and the courage of those who overcame it September 7, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This movie takes us back to an ugly time in U.S. history -- the Jim Crow era. In a segregated little town in Texas, the African American teachers and students of tiny Wiley College pursue excellence in education and recruit a world-class debate team, good enough to take on the debaters of Harvard and win.
I'm not sure how much of this movie is fact and how much fiction but it pushed all the right buttons with me. Denzel Washington, who directed, plays the debate coach Melvin Tolson. He is fiercely intelligent, proud, politically active, angry, fearless and demanding. Washington makes him truly convincing. His debate team includes a 14-year-old budding genius and a brave young woman breaking gender and race barriers as well as a philanderer with a roving eye. Forest Whitaker plays the 14 year-old's father, a preacher with an angry exterior but a soft heart.
The movie explicitly shows the humiliations blacks suffered living in the South, including a horrific lynching. It portrays the self-hatred such scenes inspired in blacks who had to suffer them without the power to do anything about them.
One interesting aspect for me is the movie's constant refrain that education is the way out of this poverty and humiliation. By training their intellects, African Americans can reclaim their autonomy, confront their oppressors and build a better life, the movie argues.
I am afraid this lesson has been lost somewhere along the way. In those days, people paid good money to watch colleges debates and they were even boradcast on national radio. Today, we're all about glorifying rap singers and basketball players. All our communities, but especially the African American community, are the poorer because of it.
The documentary accompanying this movie shows some of the real-life characters who inspired it. You listen to those fierce, passionate, articulate, educated voices and you not only are filled with admiration for them but you also bemoan the state we've reached now.
This movie isn't perfect. It's a little formulaic perhaps. But its strengths far outweigh its weaknesses. It's good entertainment that also carries a message we need to hear.
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