The Great Debaters   Starring: Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker High Fliers Films RRP: £12.99 HFR0154 Certificate: 15 Available 22 August 2011

The deep south of America, in the 1930’s, was a deeply divided racist society, where life and liberty were not concepts which were automatically granted to the Negro population. In the black Wiley College, undergraduates encounter the restless and talented professor Tolson who believes that, for black people, real change can only come through education and collective power. Tolson was the coach of the Wiley college debating team, the Wiley Forensic Society, which, not only remained undefeated for ten years, but was also the first black university to challenge white universities and win, including Harvard. At the same time Tolson was helping to organise the southern tenant farmers…

The Great Debaters (2007 - 2 hrs, 26 min, 20 sec) is a historical drama, directed by Denzel Washington from a script by Jeffrey Porro and Robert Eisele. The story is mostly based on reality, although the real Wiley College never debated Harvard, in fact they debated the University of Southern California, who at the time were the reigning debating champions.

The film paints a dramatic picture of what it was like to be educated and black in the south, where outside of the university your education might not save you from a lynch mob. As such it cannot but help deal with the random killings and daily humiliations which had to be endured by black American citizens, citizens who had little recourse to the law.

As well as directing Denzil Washington plays Tolson, although he does not carry the film as the central character, as this is very much an ensemble piece.

The team consists of four young people, Samantha Brooke (Jurnee Smollett), Henry Lowe (Nate Parker), James L. Farmer, Jr (Denzel Whitaker) and Hamilton Burgess (Jermaine Williams), four very gifted young actors. We follow them as they are coached by Tolson through the various stages of the debating calendar.

Put that way the film sound a bit dull, but then it is only coincidentally about a debating team, it is much more about young educated people trying to change the world and society in which they live, learning to love and fight together.

Adding to the already impressive cast is Forest Whitaker, as James L. Farmer, Sr, a professor, whose fears for his family often stay his hand, all the more reason why his son, James L. Farmer, Jr, should be drawn to the charismatic Tolson.

It is a shame that the review copy was a DVD-R, because if the quality of the film was reviewed from just this I would have to say that the picture was poor quality, grainy with noticeable encoding defects, the irritating time code didn’t help things much. There are no extras.

So why did I find myself drawn into this world? Well the acting is just perfection, the sets, costumes and direction never put a foot wrong and the score by James Newton Howard, remains evocative, without succumbing to the dangers of mawkishness.

7

Charles Packer