THE GREAT DEBATERS
US, 2007, 126 minutes, Colour.
Denzel Washington, Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett, Denzel Whitaker, Jermaine Williams, Forest Whitaker, Gina Ravera, John Heard, Kimberley Elise.
Directed by Denzel Washington.
Like the first film directed by Denzel Washington, Antwone Fisher, another film well worth seeing for its social consciousness, The Great Debaters had very limited release outside the United States. Admittedly, the subjects and treatment are particularly American, African American, but both films offer themes and treatment that make their characters and stories more universal as well.
Americans may know this story of Wiley College, Texas, in 1935, and its successful debating team, undefeated for several years, as well as the stories of their trainer and the debaters who all went on to significant roles in the Civil Rights campaigns. If one does not know this, it comes as pleasing information at the end of the film.
Some criticism of the film came from those who thought it should be harder hitting, a tough, challenging film on oppression and rights. However, the writer, Robert Eisele, and director and star, Denzel Washington, have opted for storytelling that reaches a wider audience, a more popular audience, which will absorb the message but will not experience too much of the rage (though that is certainly there in the film). Oprah Winfrey is one of the producers and the film is geared to her enormous television audience.
That said, there are some very strong themes of the oppression, the humiliation and the violence by white Americans towards the black Americans. The film might not generate rage but it does provoke indignation and a feeling that this is not right and rights and human dignity are all important.
The Great Debaters presents a cross-section of African Americans in Texas of the 1930s, the poor sharecroppers, the emerging student body that was going to college, the educated and better-off professionals who teach at college, who are lawyers and people of influence.
Denzel Washington plays Melvin Tolson, teacher at Wiley who trains the debaters. It is a genial role for Wahsington who is able to be charming, articulate, intelligent and, unbeknownst to others in the town, an activist for unions for the sharecroppers. The principal members of this team, which went on to victory, are Henry Lowe (Nate Parker), a loner who has a wild side but is a voracious reader with a memory for quotations, Samantha Booke (Jurnee Smollett) whose ambition it is to be a lawyer, and 14 year old James Farmer Jr (Denzel Whitaker), a genially tubby young man, excellent as a researcher and then speaker whose father (Forest Whitaker) teaches theology at Wiley.
We see their training, their debating, their progress and the extending of their debates from Texas, to Oklahoma and, eventually, to Harvard. This is not without personal cost, friendships and clashes. And, in the background, the hostile whites, the sheriff and the Texas Rangers and the threat of protest and riots. There are also grim images of a lynching.
The film is well acted, beautifully shot, with stimulating dialogue (especially in the lessons, the discussions and the statements and rebuttals in the debates about key issues, including civil disobedience).
A pity that it has not been seen more widely.
1.A memoir of a period, American civil rights movement, individuals and achievement?
2.A Denzel Washington project, as director and as star, his reputation, his causes? Production by Oprah Winfrey?
3.The option for an accessible story with characters and with bite rather than a rugged, challenging drama? Its effect for the wider audience?
4.1935, Texas? The traditions, whites and blacks, the slave era? Freedom? Wiley College and staff? Theology, debating? Relative wealth, comfortable homes and status? The poor sharecroppers and the need for a union? The movement? The glimpses of people in the woods, drinking and dancing, flirting? A cross-section of African Americans in Texas 1935?
5.White attitudes, the influence of President Roosevelt? The traditions of the south? The pig farmers and their hostility? Calling people ‘boy’, humiliating the blacks? Segregation and the consequences? Whites-only seats…? The sheriff and his attitude, the Texas Rangers and their hostility? Change? With the debating team? Oklahoma and the segregated debate? Harvard and the integrated debate?
6.The information at the end of the film about the characters and their achievement? Audiences knowing this or not – the different effect?
7.The opening and the contrasts with the black way of life in Texas? James Farmer and his speech at the college, rousing, the applause, his son admiring his father? Forest Whitaker as James Farmer? The contrast with the night in the woods, the drinking, the music, dancing, exuberance, Henry and his flirting, the husband fighting him, Tolson and his rescuing him? Samantha arriving in the bus, watching this from the bus window? Her arrival, the segregation – and the seats for whites only? The set-up for this portrait of African Americans and civil rights?
8.Denzel Washington as Melvin Tolson, his personality, strong, his love of language, skills with language, debate? His classes, the auditions? His repartee, quotations? His rescuing Henry in the night? Talking clearly with him? Wanting him to audition? James Farmer Jr and his hopes? Hamilton Burgess and his skills? Samantha and her wanting to be a lawyer and hoping debating would prepare her? Tolson and the classes, the training, the team on the shore and his sitting in the boat, the volume for voice? Research, arguments? The first debate and using Tolson’s arguments? Henry’s reaction?
9.The various debates in the film, the local debates, the competition season, Oklahoma, Harvard? The speeches, the arguments, the rebuttal, themes and the occasion for ideas on education, civil disobedience? Intellectual arguments, emotions, stories, quotations? The civil rights issue and quotes from Thoreau, from World War Two, civil rights and lynching? Unjust laws and protest?
10.Tolson and his dressing down to go to the sharecroppers’ meeting, the movement for a union? Blacks and whites together? The raid, the sheriff? Tolson and his escape, saving James? His reputation, communist or not? And Hamilton Burgess withdrawing from the debating team because of his father being anticommunist? James and his running with Tolson, Tolson’s help, the secrecy, James unable to tell his father and mother the truth? Tolson’s arrest, in jail, Farmer and the lawyer coming, the discussion with the sheriff, the issue of threats, the Texas Rangers, riots, persuasion and Farmer achieving the release on bail of Tolson?
11.Junior, the incident in the car, hitting the pig, the little boys watching, the Farmers demanding twenty-five dollars, humiliating Farmer, calling him ‘boy’, making him pick up the pig?
12.Tolson and the season, his friendship with each of the debaters, his helping their development and characters? His politics? His wife, the party at home, the bail issue and not going to Harvard? His watching the debate at the end? His reputation as a poet?
13.James Jr and his age, his father, admiration for him, his father’s skills? His own debating abilities? His infatuation with Samantha? Imagining dancing with her at the dance? The reality? Henry and the dancing, the drink of punch? Discovering Henry’s relationship with Samantha? His being upset? Not speaking in the debates and his being upset, his skill in research? His outburst, getting the opportunity? His failure in the debate? Off-screen? His father, discussions, admiring him after the humiliation with the pig? The experience of watching the lynching? His opportunity in Harvard, the bed, the room, the servant, the five dollars per diem? The big arguments amongst the team? Henry and his flirtation, drinking? The arguments and the challenge? His performance in Harvard, success, the lynch story?
14.Henry, a loner, with his grandparents, at home in the woods, his taking Samantha to the woods, to his home? The sexual encounter? His ability to read, quote? His admiration for Tolson yet challenging him? Samantha and the dance, the debates, arguments, winning? The lynch experience and the reaction? His flirting with the girl, drinking, Samantha’s reaction? His writing to Harvard, the reply, the invitation? Going to Harvard, Samantha’s return, his being the captain instead of Tolson, the disputes about the argument, his drinking, fighting with James? Success – and the later information that he became a minister?
15.Samantha, her arrival, wanting to be in the debating team, her transfer, the audition, the arguments about Roosevelt and quotations? Henry explaining the quotation value to her? The dance, with Junior, with Henry? Hard work, speaking in the debate? The encounter with Henry, her reaction to his being with the girl? Walking out, her return? The lynching? In Harvard and success?
16.Hamilton Burgess, his skills, withdrawal from the team after the meal at Tolson’s, the issue of politics and communism?
17.Tolson and his wife, his keeping secret his political work, the letters to the universities, in favour, after the defeat, the withdrawal? After his arrest? His not being able to go to Harvard, his later coming?
18.The Farmer family, the father as patriarchal, the children, the wife and her role, teaching theology, discussing quotes with Junior, his sternness, the humiliation with the pig, the protest at the sheriff’s, the confrontation of the sheriff, listening to the debate on the radio, the family joyful?
19.The lynching, driving into it, lost on the road, the mob turning on them, hiding, backing down in the car, escaping?
20.The importance of radio, the debate being broadcast all over America, the range of listeners and its effect?
21.The importance of this incident for the 1930s, yet thirty years before the march on Washington and legislation on civil rights? The information about Samantha and her legal abilities, James Jr and his founding societies for civil rights, Henry and his becoming a religious minister?
22.A sense of achievement, dignity, regrets about the past, the film’s contribution to civil rights awareness in the 21st century?
