There's very little buzz over the Denzel Washington project THE GREAT DEBATERS, which is set to open in the U.S. on Christmas day and is the first big movie for Forest Whitaker since his Oscar win for his superb turn in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND. The problem for the movie is it's opening, near the time of two very heavily lauded Oscar potential flicks in SWEENEY TODD and THERE WILL BE BLOOD.
The movie based on Robert Eisele's true story see's Washington play a college professor who manages to lead a team of college students in Texas into an elite debating team that goes up against Havards championship squad in the 1930s. Whitaker is the father of one of the students, who ends up competing with Washington over the loyalties of his son. The trailer has been online for about a month but it got such a quiet release we missed it the first time. Looks like another tour-de-force performance from Denzel...
A brand new poster has also seen a release over at Cinematical and I love the retro feel...
I can't see this movie making any money at all but I'm hoping it lives up to the fairly promising trailer when I catch it on DVD. I would like to see a few more interesting debates than what the trailer offered but I'm sure there will be some juicy discussions hidden in their somewhere. Doesn't really remind me of a Christmas film though, so I'm a little surprised and dumbfounded by it's release slot.
Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.
