DVD REVIEW: The Great Debaters
By: Scott Rader
5/10/2008
Well, let me start this way, The Great Debaters lives up to its name. The debates that fill this film are great, fantastic, moving, incredible. And so are the actors delivering those debates.
The story of small Texas college, Wiley College, who went on to face Harvard University is an interesting one. We don't find many debate movies. And we find fewer that are intelligent as this one. Wiley College went undefeated for 10 years. That's amazing. The Great Debaters did itself a great service by focusing on this group of intelligent and compelling young students.
It, however, relies too heavily on cliche, unnecessary comic relief and trying to say and do too much. See, Wiley College was an African-America college and this story takes place in 1935. So, of course, there are the same scenes found in every movie where race and racism play a huge role. It takes all the power away from those scenes and leaves an empty feeling inside.
Thankfully, Denzel Washington's superb directing clips past the hackneyed scenes and focuses more on the truly powerful ones. He especially nails the debate scenes, making them more exciting than anything in a sports flick. He's also helped by the electrifying Nate Parker, who grabs ahold of even the worst scenes and lifts them to a more blissful place. Washington should have stayed behind the camera and let this guy have the whole film.
The Great Debaters overall is only good. But Parker and the debates give it quite a few moments of greatness.
