''The Great Debaters'' is a 2007 American biographical

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by and starring

Denzel Washington Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has been described as an actor who reconfigured "the concept of classic movie stardom". Throughout his career spanning over four decades, Washington ha ...

. It is based on an article written about the

Wiley College Wiley College is a private historically black college in Marshall, Texas. Founded in 1873 by the Methodist Episcopal Church's Bishop Isaac Wiley and certified in 1882 by the Freedman's Aid Society, it is one of the oldest predominantly black col ...

debate team by Tony Scherman for the spring 1997 issue of '' American Legacy''. The film co-stars

Forest Whitaker Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Forest Whitaker, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award ...

Denzel Whitaker Denzel Dominique Whitaker (born June 15, 1990) is an American actor. Beginning his career as a child actor, he acted in the films '' Training Day'' (2001) and '' The Ant Bully'' (2006) before portraying James Farmer Jr. in ''The Great Debaters' ...

Kimberly Elise Kimberly Elise Trammel (born April 17, 1967) is an American film and television actress. She made her feature film debut in '' Set It Off'' (1996), and later received critical acclaim for her performance in ''Beloved'' (1998). During her career, ...

, Nate Parker, Gina Ravera, Jermaine Williams and Jurnee Smollett. The screenplay is written by Robert Eisele, with story by Robert Eisele and Jeffrey Porro. The film was released in theaters on December 25, 2007.

Plot

Based on a true story, the plot revolves around the efforts of debate coach Melvin B. Tolson (

) at

, a historically black college related to the

Methodist Episcopal Church, South The Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC, S; also Methodist Episcopal Church South) was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). Disagreement ...

(now

The United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelica ...

), to place his team on equal footing with whites in the American South during the 1930s, when

Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

were common and lynch mobs were a fear for blacks. The Wiley team eventually succeeds to the point where they are able to debate

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. (In 1935, the Wiley College debate team defeated the reigning national debate champion, the University of Southern California, depicted as Harvard University in The Great Debaters). The movie explores social constructs in Texas during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, from day-to-day insults African Americans endured to

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

. Also depicted is James Farmer (

), who, at 14 years old, was on Wiley's debate team after completing high school (and who later went on to co-found the Congress of Racial Equality). Another character on the team, Samantha Booke, is based on the real individual

Henrietta Bell Wells Henrietta Bell Wells (October 11, 1912 – February 27, 2008) was the first female member of the debate team at historically black Wiley College in Texas. She was born Henrietta Pauline Bell on the banks of Buffalo Bayou in Houston, Texas to a W ...

, acclaimed poet and the only female member of the 1930 Wiley team who participated in the first collegiate interracial debate in the US. The key line of dialogue, used several times, is a famous paraphrase of theologian St.

Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...

: "

An unjust law is no law at all An unjust law is no law at all, in Latin ''lex iniusta non est lex'', is an expression of natural law, acknowledging that authority is not legitimate unless it is good and right. It has become a standard legal maxim around the world. History Thr ...

", which would later be the central thesis of

Letter from a Birmingham Jail The "Letter from Birmingham Jail", also known as the "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" and "The Negro Is Your Brother", is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. It says that people have a moral responsibility to b ...

, by Martin Luther King Jr. Another major line, repeated in slightly different versions according to context, concerns doing what you "have to do" in order that we "can do" what we "want to do." In all instances, these vital lines are spoken by the James L. Farmer Sr. and James L. Farmer Jr. characters.

Historical notes

The film depicts the Wiley Debate team beating Harvard College in the 1930s. The real Wiley team instead defeated the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

, who at the time were the reigning debating champions. Though they beat the reigning champions, Wiley was not allowed to officially call themselves champions, because they were not full members of the debate society;

black people Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...

were not admitted until after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Cast

as Melvin B. Tolson *

James L. Farmer Sr. James Leonard Farmer Sr. (June 12, 1886 – May 14, 1961), known as J. Leonard Farmer, was an American author, theologian, and educator. He was a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and an academic in early religious history as wel ...

* Nate Parker as Henry Lowe * Jurnee Smollett as Samantha Booke * Jermaine Williams as Hamilton Burgess * Gina Ravera as Ruth Tolson * John Heard as Sheriff Dozier *

as Pearl Farmer *

Devyn A. Tyler Devyn Ariel Tyler is an American actress. She is a regular on the TV series ''Snowfall'' and ''Clarice''. Biography Tyler was born in New Orleans to actress Deneen Tyler. She attended the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts ...

as Helen Farmer *

Trenton McClain Boyd Trenton may refer to: Places Canada * Trenton, Nova Scotia, a town * Trenton, Ontario, an unincorporated community *CFB Trenton, a Canadian Forces Base near Trenton, Ontario United States *Trenton, New Jersey, the capital of the state of New Je ...

as Nathaniel Farmer * Jackson Walker as Pig Owner * Tim Parati as Pig Farmer *

Justice Leak Justice Adam Leak (born September 1, 1979) is an American film, television and stage actor best known for his portrayal of Harland Osbourne in the 2007 film ''The Great Debaters''. Early life Leak was born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama by ...

as Harland Osbourne *

Robert X. Golphin Robert X. Golphin (born Robert Bennett Xavier Golphin), is an American actor, writer/director, author, speaker and journalist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is best known for his role as Dunbar Reed in ''The Great Debaters.'' Education Go ...

as Dunbar Reed *

Damien Leake Damien Leake (born August 12, 1952, in The Bronx, New York City) is an American actor and record-holding masters track and field athlete. Starting with a role in 1973's ''Serpico'', Leake has had a continuous career appearing in some 70 motion pi ...

as Wilson *

Frank L. Ridley Frank L. Ridley is an American film and television actor. Born into a musical family in Michigan, he originally trained as an opera singer with Richard Conrad. After attending Boston Conservatory of Music, he started his career as a regular membe ...

as Security Guard

Release

''The Great Debaters'' was released in theaters on December 25, 2007. The release of the film coincided with a nationally stepped-up effort by urban debate leagues to get hundreds of inner-city and financially challenged schools to establish debate programs. Cities of focus included Denver, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. On December 19, 2007, Denzel Washington announced a $1 million donation to Wiley College so they could re-establish their debate team. June 2007, after completing filming at Central High School, Grand Cane, Louisiana, Washington donated $10,000 to Central High School.

Home media

''The Great Debaters'' was released on DVD on May 13, 2008 on 1-disc and 2-disc editions. In the 2-disc edition, the first disc includes no extra material, but the second disc includes an audio commentary, a making of documentary,

deleted scene A deleted scene is footage that has been removed from the final version of a film or television show. There are various reasons why these scenes are deleted, which include time constraints, relevance, quality or a dropped story thread. A similar o ...

featurette In the American film industry, a featurette is a kind of film that is shorter than a full-length feature, but longer than a short film. The term may refer to either of two types of content: a shorter film or a companion film. Medium-length film ...

s, and a still gallery. The film was the first since 1979 allowed to film on Harvard's campus.

Reception

Box office

''The Great Debaters'' debuted at No. 11 in its first weekend with a total of $6,005,180 from 1,171 venues. The film grossed $30,236,407 in the US.

Critical response

As of November 20, 2012, the review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports that 80% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 132 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "A wonderful cast and top-notch script elevate ''The Great Debaters'' beyond a familiar formula for a touching, uplifting drama."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

reported the film had an average score of 65 out of 100 based on reviews from 32 critics. Carrie Rickey of ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'' named it the 5th best film of 2007 and

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'' named it the 9th best film of 2007. Some critics have criticized the film for "playing it safe." John Monaghan of the ''

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...

'' stated, "Serious moviegoers, especially those attracted by the movie's aggressive Oscar campaign, will likely find the package gorgeously wrapped, but intellectually empty."
Motion picture-historian Leonard Maltin, however, hailed the movie as "Inspiring...plays with the facts but, despite its at-times-formulaic storytelling, shows us how education and determination can help ordinary people surmount even the most formidable obstacles."

Accolades

* Won:

Image Award The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to ...

for Outstanding Motion Picture * Won:

for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture:

* Won:

for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture: Jurnee Smollett * Won:

for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture:

, Nate Parker,

* Won: Stanley Kramer Award * Nominated:

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

for Best Motion Picture – Drama * Nominated:

for Outstanding Director in a Motion Picture:

* Nominated: Golden Reel Award for Best Music Sound Editing in a Feature Film

Soundtrack

The songs for the soundtrack to the film were hand-picked by

from over 1000 candidates. It contains remakes of traditional

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

songs from the 1920s and 1930s by artists including

Sharon Jones Sharon Lafaye Jones (May 4, 1956 – November 18, 2016) was an American soul and funk singer. She was the lead singer of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, a soul and funk band based in Brooklyn, New York. Jones experienced breakthrough succe ...

Alvin Youngblood Hart Alvin Youngblood Hart (born Gregory Edward Hart; March 2, 1963) is an American musician. Career Hart was born in Oakland, California, and spent some time in Carroll County, Mississippi, in his youth, where he was influenced by the Mississippi ...

, David Berger, and the

Carolina Chocolate Drops The Carolina Chocolate Drops were an old-time string band from Durham, North Carolina. Their 2010 album, ''Genuine Negro Jig,'' won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, and was number 9 in ''fRoots'' ...

. It features favorites, such as "Step It Up and Go", "Nobody's Fault But Mine", and the

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

classic, "Delta Serenade". Varèse Sarabande released a separate album of the film's score, composed by

James Newton Howard James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American film composer, music producer and keyboardist. He has scored over 100 films and is the recipient of a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, and nine nominations for Academy Awards. His film scores ...

and Peter Golub. The complete soundtrack album includes the following songs:"The Great Debaters (Soundtrack)"
on Amazon.com ; Track listing # "My Soul is a Witness" – Alvin "Youngblood" Hart & Sharon Jones # "That's What My Baby Likes" – Sharon Jones, Alvin Youngblood Hart & Teenie Hodges # "I've Got Blood in My Eyes for You" – The Carolina Chocolate Drops & Alvin "Youngblood" Hart # " Step It Up and Go" – Alvin "Youngblood" Hart & Teenie Hodges # "

It's Tight Like That "It's Tight Like That" is a hokum or dirty blues song, initially recorded by Tampa Red and Thomas A. Dorsey, Georgia Tom on October 24, 1928. The 10" Gramophone record, shellac disc single was released by Vocalion Records in December 1928. A succe ...

" – Sharon Jones, Alvin Youngblood Hart & Teenie Hodges # "Busy Bootin'" – Alvin "Youngblood" Hart & The Carolina Chocolate Drops # "City of Refuge" – Alvin "Youngblood" Hart & The Carolina Chocolate Drops # "Two Wings" – Alvin "Youngblood" Hart, Sharon Jones w/Billy Rivers and the Angelic Voices of Faith # "Delta Serenade" – David Berger & The Sultans of Swing # "Rock n' Rye" – David Berger & The Sultans of Swing # "Wild About That Thing" – Sharon Jones, Alvin Youngblood Hart, & Teenie Hodges # " Nobody's Fault but Mine" – Alvin "Youngblood" Hart & The Carolina Chocolate Drops # "How Long Before I Change My Clothes" – Alvin "Youngblood" Hart # "

We Shall Not Be Moved "I Shall Not Be Moved", also known as "We Shall Not Be Moved", is an African-American slave spiritual, hymn, and protest song dating to the early 19th century American south. It was likely originally sung at revivalist camp-meetings as a sla ...

" – Sharon Jones w/Billy Rivers and the Angelic Voices of Faith # " Up Above My Head" – Sharon Jones w/Billy Rivers and the Angelic Voices of Faith # "The Shout" – Art Tatum # "Begrüssung" – Marian Anderson

References

* Original article about Melvin Tolson's Wiley College debate team. * Another very detailed article on the team and the film.

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Great Debaters, The 2007 films 2007 biographical drama films African-American biographical dramas Debating Biographical films about educators Films about racism Films set in Texas Films set in Boston Films set in Harvard University Films set in the 1930s Films shot in Louisiana Films shot in Texas Wiley College Harpo Productions films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films The Weinstein Company films Films scored by James Newton Howard Films directed by Denzel Washington Films produced by Joe Roth Films produced by Oprah Winfrey Films about high school debate Cultural depictions of American men Cultural depictions of educators Black people in art 2007 drama films Films set in universities and colleges 2000s English-language films 2000s American films