THE GREAT DEBATERS

Directed by: Denzel Washington Written by: Robert Eisele, Jeffrey Porro (story) Starring: Denzel Washington,Nate Parker,Forest Whitaker,Jurnee Smollett,Denzel Whitaker,Jermaine Williams, Gina Ravera, John Heard, Kimberley Elise, Devyn A. Tyler Released by Harpo Films Available at Amazon for $25.99 from May 13th 2008! FILM:

rating:2.5

DVD:

rating:3

When Steven Spielberg released The Color Purple in 1985, the film seemed revolutionary despite its shiny, well-lit shots and feel-good messages. Here was a film that attempted to portray the struggles of the poor black South during Depression-era America. Looking past the Spielbergian camera angles and tracking shots, one could easily see the simmering rage that fueled and informed the writing and performances in that film. Most notable was a young Oprah Winfrey, just rising to fame on television, as the oppressed Sofia. That film did, in fact, inspire Winfrey to begin her twenty year crusade to publicize and encourage black issues throughout the media. And so it came to be that her production company, Harpo Films, has released yet another Color Purple clone called The Great Debaters. THE FILM Depression-era America is one rife with colorful cinematic possibilities. The stories of this generation, full of dramatic struggles for survival and underdog pluck and ingenuity, continue to fire the imagination of modern-day dramatists. Unfortunately, these screenwriters have little empirical or personal evidence upon which to base their supposedly true-to-life depictions of this time, so they often resort to well-worn cliches to help authenticate the drama. The Great Debaters is partially based on the true story of Melvin Tolson, a debate coach in a predominantly-black college who managed to break down racial barriers between colleges in the Jim Crow South of the 1930's. Denzel Washington, who also directed, stars as Tolson. He assembles a four man debate team of promisingly intelligent students, led by the fiery scoundrel Henry Lowe (Nate Parker). Rounding out the team are the beautiful Samantha Booke (Jurnee Smollett) and the child prodigy James Farmer Jr. (Denzel Whitaker). Looming in the background is young Farmer's emotionally-distant preacher/father, James Farmer Sr. (Forest Whitaker), as well as a racially-suppressed move to unionize farm workers. As you can readily tell from that paragraph, tha film desperately flies between a bevy of important topics, all of which compete for importance. Director Washington attempts to focus the film on the debate team and their growing confidence, but all too often the film becomes distracted with romantic subplots and racial, political, social, and economic discussions. Very little of the film informs the viewer about the art of debating itself, which is a shame since that very subject is the title of the movie. The film is buoyed by several magnetic performances. Washington manages to bring palpable wisdom and depth to his portrayal of Professor Tolson, a character who, as written, is a mishmash of desk-leaping cliches directly cribbed from many other "inspirational" college films like Dead Poet's Society. Whitaker exudes understated menace as the preacher who cannot connect with his son's desires. Most impressive is the performance by Nate Parker, who easily manages to hold the screen against two of today's best actors. His performance, full of posturing and cocky bravura, forms the bridge between that era and our own. Although the script ultimately saddles him with (what I consider to be) a rather predictable, martyr-esque sacrifice near the end, Parker has made such a powerful contribution to the preceding film that his absence makes a difference. Aside from the performances, the rest of the film is pure Harpo: lush, eye-soothing colors, sweeping, faux-epic camera dollies, and pseudo-gritty costumes and locations. In fact, so thorough is the glossy sheen of "impotant docudrama" that one is tempted to look through the film's closing credits for the position of Dirt Positioner. In style and substance, The Great Debaters belongs next in the long line of phony Hollywood recreations of past eras, from Gone With the Wind to The Color Purple to Fried Green Tomatoes. Not bad company, to be sure, but their polished and fabricated exteriors leave much substance to be desired. Ultimately, a tacked-on happy ending and a thousand unrelated subplots cannot distract from the final failure of the film - it doesn't let us know very much about debating. What promises to be a film about a rarely-covered subject devolves into more Oprah-ish posturing about racial cruelty and feel-good messages. While the racial elements - including a rather harrowing lynching near the end - definitely inform and illuminate the characters and their plight, the film fails to give us the basics of debate that would allow us to understand why these are GREAT debaters. Instead, the film relies on swelling music and a trumped-up finale to telegraph what it should SHOW us. It's a well-made and worthwhile film about black struggles in the Depression-era South, but a bad one about debating. THE EXTRAS The two-disc set I received is a fascinating look at both the movie and the history upon which it is based. DISC 1 Aside from the movie itself, this disc includes a wonderful documentary entitled The Great Debaters: An Historical Perspective. Fairly long for documentaries of this sort, the film looks at the backdrop of the 30's, and the racial and social unrest sweeping America. A terrific piece of information. DISC 2The Great Debaters: A Heritage Of Music - This details the tremendous amount of work behind the music of the film. This documentary shocked me, as I hadn't realized as I watched the film just how much period music plays throughout. In fact, THE GREAT DEBATERS covers nearly every genre of music from that era, including swing, jazz, and soul. The song that opens the film, Soul As A Witness, is a perfect choice that receives quite a bit of attention here. Scoring The Great Debaters - A terrifically understated music score underpins the movie courtesy of the usually-bombastic James Newton Howard. Learning The Art - This nice little documentary follows the four young actors - some of whom made their debut here - as they learn the basics behind debating. All along I thought to myself: "Now THAT'S what we were missing from the film!" Forest Whitaker on Becoming James Farmer Sr. - Surprisingly, Whitaker's character only makes a brief appearance in the film, which makes this highlighting doc a little odd. A New Generation Of Actors - As I mentioned earlier, the young actors carry much of the film on their shoulders with admirable skill. Parker in particular strikes me as a thoughtful and intelligent actor, and he obviously prepared hard for this golden opportunity. The 1930's Wardrobe of Sharen Davis - Much research went into the design of the wardrobe, which does a terrific job of conveying the time period. The Production Design of David Bomba - This is a nice look at how the production reproduced period towns and cars. I particularly liked how they descended on a small town and reshaped it using existing buildings for one of the film's key sequences. The Poetry of Melvin B. Tolson - Shares with us some excerpts from the real-life Tolson's personal collection. Maybe I'm just being a cranky writer, but I wasn't all that impressed by the poetry. Am I being smug?? OVERALL This is a well-meaning and well-crafted film that explores a wide variety of emotionally-charged subjects. While obviously heartfelt, the film fails to whittle its wide array of topics and interests into a clear-cut argument. This confusion undermines the dramatic thrust so desperately longed-for in the finale. In debating terms, the argument lacks proper vision and thrust to succeed. However, this decent film is accompanied by a terrific package of extras that will no doubt thrill history buffs.