Some critics have criticized the film for "playing it safe." John Monaghan of the Detroit Free Press stated, "Serious moviegoers, especially those attracted by the movie's aggressive Oscar campaign, will likely find the package gorgeously wrapped, but intellectually empty." Ĭarrie Rickey of The Philadelphia Inquirer named it the 5th best film of 2007 and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times named it the 9th best film of 2007. The site's consensus reads: "A wonderful cast and top-notch script elevate The Great Debaters beyond a familiar formula for a touching, uplifting drama." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 65 out of 100 based on reviews from 32 critics. Critical response Īs of November 20, 2012, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 80% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 132 reviews. 11 in its first weekend with a total of $6,005,180 from 1,171 venues. The film was the first since 1979 allowed to film on Harvard's campus. In the 2-disc edition, the first disc includes no extra material, but the second disc includes an audio commentary, a making of documentary, deleted scenes, featurettes, and a still gallery. The Great Debaters was released on DVD on on 1-disc and 2-disc editions. June 2007, after completing filming at Central High School, Grand Cane, Louisiana, Washington donated $10,000 to Central High School. On December 19, 2007, Denzel Washington announced a $1 million donation to Wiley College so they could re-establish their debate team. Cities of focus included Denver, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. The release of the film coincided with a nationally stepped-up effort by urban debate leagues to get hundreds of inner-city and financially challenged schools to establish debate programs. The Great Debaters was released in theaters on December 25, 2007. Trenton McClain Boyd as Nathaniel Farmer.Denzel Whitaker (no relation) as James L. Though they beat the reigning champions, Wiley was not allowed to officially call themselves champions, because they were not full members of the debate society black people were not admitted until after World War II. The real Wiley team instead defeated the University of Southern California, who at the time were the reigning debating champions. The film depicts the Wiley Debate team beating Harvard College in the 1930s. Another major line, repeated in slightly different versions according to context, concerns doing what you "have to do" in order that we "can do" what we "want to do." In all instances, these vital lines are spoken by the James L. Augustine of Hippo: " An unjust law is no law at all", which would later be the central thesis of Letter from a Birmingham Jail, by Martin Luther King Jr. The key line of dialogue, used several times, is a famous paraphrase of theologian St. Another character on the team, Samantha Booke, is based on the real individual Henrietta Bell Wells, acclaimed poet and the only female member of the 1930 Wiley team who participated in the first collegiate interracial debate in the US. Also depicted is James Farmer, who, at 14 years old, was on Wiley's debate team after completing high school (and who later went on to co-found the Congress of Racial Equality). The movie explores social constructs in Texas during the Great Depression, from day-to-day insults African Americans endured to lynching. (In 1935, the Wiley College debate team defeated the reigning national debate champion, the University of Southern California, depicted as Harvard University in The Great Debaters.) The Wiley team eventually succeeds to the point where they are able to debate Harvard University. Tolson at Wiley College, a historically black college related to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (now The United Methodist Church), to place his team on equal footing with whites in the American South during the 1930s, when Jim Crow laws were common and lynch mobs were a fear for blacks. Plot īased on a true story, the plot revolves around the efforts of debate coach Melvin B. The Great Debaters was released in theaters on Decemto positive critical reception. It stars Washington, Forest Whitaker, Denzel Whitaker, Kimberly Elise, Nate Parker, Gina Ravera, Jermaine Williams and Jurnee Smollett. Based on a 1997 article for American Legacy by Tony Scherman, the film follows the trials and tribulations of the Wiley College debate team in 1935 Texas. The Great Debaters is a 2007 American historical drama film directed by Denzel Washington from a screenplay by Robert Eisele.
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