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Movie Review- The Great Debaters
The Great Debaters hit theaters on Christmas Day, and of course the best part about being with family you haven’t seen on the holidays is that it’s easy to get a babysitter 
Check out the trailer below then each of our opinions on whether you should spend your hard earned cash especially right after you just spent all of that Christmas money buying presents.
HER VIEW
Overall, I thought the Great Debaters was a good movie. However, I wish that I did not watch the episode of Oprah where she interviewed Denzel Washington, prior to seeing the movie. During that episode, Oprah pumped up the movie and the performances sooo much. She even said it brought her to tears…which is understandable since this is her project. But it set a level of expectation for me that I don’t think I would have had if I did not see the Oprah show.
Don’t get me wrong, the performances by Denzel, Forrest, and the rest of the young cast were good. But it was not as moving for me as Oprah described. To tell you the truth, I even fell asleep a few times. My husband said it was because I was tired. I told him that I would never fall asleep on a movie that had me captivated.
HIS VIEW
Don’t believe the hype from the wife. a pregnant woman falling asleep in the movie at 10PM, that’s not a stretch… I told her she would have fallen asleep on anything. One word, two syllables: Den-zel. Say no more, I’ve come to the point where if he’s involved I’m all in. I know it’s going to be a good movie regardless if it looks like something I’m interested in or not. He’s that good of an actor and now he’s making the Director rounds too. The cast all did a good job but Forrest Whitaker played the best role to me. (If you still haven’t seen “The Last King of Scotland” you need to rent\buy ASAP!)
I think this was a good example of a good movie with black actors in contrast to a good black movie. Take out the racial element and make the school a small school instead of a small black school and this movie could be an award winner with a white cast. That’s good to see from my POV. Gives us diversity in the box office and lets Hollywood know that we don’t have to jive in every movie to bring dollars into the box office.
Disclaimer: This film contains no shucking, jiving, stepping, stomping, junk, crunk, men dressed as woman, pimps, ho’s, football, basketball or anything else that normally follows a majority black cast. It was based around academics and I think that made me appreciate it even more. Definitely worth the price of admission.
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:36 am
I loved this movie!!! It was educational, entertaining, and inspiring. It made me proud - as an educator myself - to see that back in the 1930s, when more overt obstacles to educational success were prevalent, that our people didn’t let the obstacles get in their way of achieving their goals. That back when we were considered less a person, that we proved our humanity was just as significant as anyone else’s. As you say (his view), Den-zel. The scene in which he responds to the young brother’s (I can’t remember his name) question about who his daddy was - incredibly powerful!!! The young woman (who resembles Tisha Campbell to me) was powerful. The slap was right-on!!! This is a movie we’ll purchase to watch over and over again. As my husband was telling other Black people when we left the theatre, “this movie will change how you see yourself.”
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:55 am
KWiz the sad part to me is that as I ask around, a lot of blacks still haven’t seen this movie. It came out in limited release and didn’t get a lot of fan fair once it was out. I hear they released it into more theaters a week or two ago so maybe that will help. These are the types of movies we really need to see and really need to support.