Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Movie review: The Great Debaters

Words as weapons.

By John P. Meyer

The Great Debaters

True story of professor Melvin B. Tolson who formed a debate team at a small, African American college in the 1930s. The team went on to beat Harvard in the national debate championships.

Source: Cinema Source

• Showtimes and more on The Great Debaters

O.K., so the Wiley College debate team of 1935 didn't really whup the argumentative tar out of the Harvard world champions - but only because the Harvard squad weren't the world champions that year. That honor belonged to the USC team, who the Wiley kids actually did whup up on.

Denzel Washington - who directed and stars in this atmospheric historical drama with a refreshingly different movie message (to wit: a well-constructed argument can be as powerful an instrument of change as guns, knives or bombs) - explained during a recent promotional appearance that he and scripter Robert Eisele chose Harvard as the Wiley teams' ultimate opponents because of what Harvard represents in the popular imagination. And because hopping a train to Cambridge sounds so much more romantic than taking one to Los Angeles.

The Wiley team, championed by professor and working man's advocate Melvin B. Tolson (played by Denzel in the film), went on to compete in 10 undefeated seasons on the debate circuit. The formative portion of their story is chronicled in The Great Debaters and it's a story told with humor, unflinching honesty and grace. The movie explores some fairly dark racially-charged territory without resorting to preachiness. The acting - as one might expect given the duo of Oscar-winners (and talented young stars) involved, rises well above the norm, and sophomore director Washington's deft touch results in a seamless and compelling entertainment.

Hard work can lead to...

As soon as she disembarks from the bus in Marshall, Texas, Samantha Booke (Jurnee Smollett) - a newly-arrived law student from elsewhere in the deep South - is reminded of her separate place in the community: there's a bench marked "Whites Only" on the sidewalk right behind her. As filmgoers, this is our introduction to the Jim Crow scheme of things as they apparently were in those years, and it's a disorienting set of circumstances. For instance: a nationally-recognized scholar could find his life and limb threatened by hog farmers who probably couldn't spell their way out of a gut sack, simply because he (the scholar) was black and they (the hog farmers) were white. And the de facto law would be on the side of the gun-wielding hog farmers.

This may seem like a tortuously constructed example, but it's one that is played out early on in the movie as Dr. James Farmer (Forest Whitaker) and his family are driving home from church. As Samantha has recently opined to a classmate, Dr. Farmer may very well be "the smartest man in Texas" (to which her classmate replies "that's not saying much"), but smarts won't extricate him from the confrontational situation he's driven into on a back country byway.

Which seems counter to the argument of words as powerful weapons, but only because it's an argument ahead of its time and one that is still in the process of being proven by the characters introduced in the movie.

... great success

Following tryouts in the home of Professor Tolson, four young students are selected for the debate team: Samantha (who's the first female ever selected), James Farmer, Jr. (Denzel Whitaker), Hamilton Burgess (Jermaine Williams) and Henry Lowe (Nate Parker), a disaffected, free-spirited, brilliant young man who may become the star of the squad - if he can stay out of trouble. Tolson grills and drills his debaters incessantly in the manner of a boot camp sergeant, subjecting them to marathon esteem-building and elocution sessions on the edge of the cypress swamp. All the while, Tolson is carrying on a dangerous after-hours clandestine mission to unionize neighborhood farm workers. Guess what: the wealthy landowners, represented by Sheriff Dozier (John Heard, in a deliciously hateful performance) are not about to let the local agrarian economy go union.

Dallas' Paul Quinn College turns up as the first opponent of the new Wiley debate team, and they're the first (though far from the last) to fall to the well-reasoned arguments presented articulately by Mr. Burgess and Mr. Lowe - with Ms. Booke and Mr. Farmer, Jr. serving as backup and researchers. Just as their competitive debating star seems firmly ascendant, the team's bonds are tested when Tolson's extra-curricular activities are brought to light and he finds himself hauled off to jail.

Through an act of personal bravery on the part of Dr. Farmer - and the civil disobedience of dozens of black townsfolk - Tolson is released on bail and continues to build upon the skills and self-confidence of the young debaters. Soon, they're taking on their first white opponents (in Oklahoma City) and receiving invitations to compete from colleges around the country.

It's during an after-dark back road excursion to one of their next debates that the team encounters a lynch mob in full swing; they are forced to flee for their lives, but not before getting a good look at the harsh realities of what Texas lawlessness (or is it law?) might hold in store for any one of them unfortunate enough to be deemed transgressive.

I screened this film in a Dallas theater populated by members of the press and a large group of special guests (mostly white) who'd driven in from Marshall. By the time the climactic scene at Harvard played out on screen, the Marshall-ites were clapping enthusiastically at the triumph of the underdog debaters from their bailiwick. That's a pretty good argument for the success of The Great Debaters: it makes folks feel good about their home town heroes - regardless of their color.

OR MAYBE THE LIBRARY?: "School's the only place you can read all day - except for prison." - Henry Lowe, on why he likes being a student.

GOOD QUESTION: "You supposed to be here?" - security guard in Harvard lecture hall. "I guess we'll find out, won't we?" - Henry Lowe's answer.

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• New on DVD: The Great Debaters and Youth Without Youth (May 13, 2008)

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• Arts > Movies / Film > Mainstream Movies