Movie Review: The Great Debaters
Rating: 3 Stars
The story of the young black debate team from Wiley College in the 1930s is told within the confines of a traditional ‘meant to inspire’ sports film lens. These sports film elements drive home an inspiring narrative but harm opportunities to reflect and engage beyond the surface level.
It’s worth considering how different this movie is approached in 2024 than when it was released in 2007. Sports movies were funneled into one of two categories at the time. Either you were meant to tell an inspiring underdog story or you were a slapstick comedy. The early 2000s was a golden age for movies like these to get made: Invincible, The Blind Side, Radio, Miracle, Coach Carter. On the comedic side: Dodgeball, Talladega Nights, The Longest Yard.
The Great Debaters doesn’t require a ball or a scoreboard but the debaters do compete in verbal combat. The buildup is focused on whether Wiley College’s debate team can not only be nationally recognized by a white school but also beat them.
The team is led by the stern quick-witted Melvin B. Tolson played by Denzel Washington. Denzel pulls double duty as the film’s director. Tolson is a professor at the college with a complicated background that he goes to great lengths to keep private. Denzel is the film’s emotional center of gravity indubitably but his young cast do have their standout moments.
The particular standout performers besides Denzel are Jurnee Smollet as the fictional Samantha Booke (based on Henrietta Bell Wells), and Denzel Whitaker (no relation to Forest Whitaker who ironically plays his dad in the film) who plays James Farmer Jr.
My one pointed gripe with The Great Debaters is the character of Henry Lowe (Nate Parker). He’s an essential piece of the plot puzzle and Parker does an exceptional job of bringing yet another fictionalized character to life. Lowe is likely based on debate team member Henry Heights. The issue is Lowe’s subplot of alcoholic escapism lacks consequence to the point he becomes bulletproof.
The main beats of The Great Debaters follow Tolson’s guidance of Booke, Farmer, and Lowe as they become a formidable debate team. Other subplots emerge within the team throughout the film, some more effective than others. The team originally had a fourth member Hamilton Burgess (Jermaine Williams) but he is forced to quit when his father suspects that Tolson is a communist.
There’s a heavy focus placed on the entanglement of Booke and the charismatic Lowe. Farmer watches on as the third wheel who not so secretly is awed by Booke’s beauty and intelligence.
Tolson is closely observed by the local authorities who bust up his secret meeting with the sharecroppers. When The Great Debaters is at its best, its balancing Tolson’s mentorship with the racial tensions of a small Texas community.
No scene captures this better than when James Farmer Sr. (Forest Whitaker) hits a farmer's pig and has to negotiate payment in exchange for his life.
The film closes with a rousing debate against Harvard. The real-life debate was reportedly based on a 1935 debate against the University of Southern California. Maybe Harvard sounded more menacing in a Hollywood script? Maybe USC didn’t license the use of their name and branding? An inquiring mind would love to know.
As a film made for theaters meant to share some historical context to racial inequality in the early 20th century, The Great Debaters makes its case in fine theatrical fashion. There is dramatic narrative fluff that could be paired down, but it’s a film worth your time and a story worth extra research.
For this story to be told more realistically, I fathom it would take a multiple-part documentary or prestige television series to capture the nuances of the characters and the times.
