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Excellent
Rating: Five Drinking Gourds
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Excellent
A Review: The Great Debaters
Emotionalism + intellectualism = awareness. This is what “The Great Debaters” does in making you aware of just how powerful a movie can be. Yes, “The Great Debaters” is being shown during the Christmas holiday, but it also should be made aware of during Black History Month—furthermore, this one should be shown in the school system for all races to experience. It is soooooooo refreshing to see Black intellectuals embody the spirit of what are now known as HBCU’s (Historical Black Colleges and Universities). Their mission as typified of Wiley College at the time was to teach young African Americans to think and excel! Denzel Washington did an A-plus job as a director by laying out the human drama of ‘young, gifted and Black’ debaters against the backdrop of racism; and Washington did an A-plus job as an actor who portrays debate mentor, Professor Melvin Tolson, with the warmth, discipline, and conviction that so many African American professors had to embody as role-models for a generation that was moving toward the Brown vs. the Board of Education era.
Director Washington did not have to go overboard with the lessons of race in history to bring this story of ‘blood, sweat and brains’; he did it by superbly intertwining emotional and intellectual nuances into a film that is, as stated earlier, just downright powerful. Every actor in “The Great Debaters” did his and her job to portray spirited lives in this movie that makes you want to take out the hankies or a box of Kleenex.
“The Great Debaters” should be in the Academy Award running for Best Picture and screenplay. In addition, Denzel Whitaker (no relation to Denzel or Forest), Nate Parker, and Jurnee Smollett should fit snuggly in supporting actor categories, especially Denzel Whitaker.
If anyone thinks “The Great Debaters” is going to be boring because it is about the intellectual pursuit of excellence, think again. It is so much more. We say to the parents of the Hip Hop generation and to the Hip Hoppers themselves, please make it a New Year’s resolution to see “The Great Debaters” well before the New Year rings in. What is said in this movie is still relevant. And see it again during February which is Black History Month.
We can guarantee that standing ovations and hand-clapping from the audience will be very much of what will happen at this movie. Talk about interactive movie-making!
The Mid-South Tribune
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