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List Price: $29.95 | | Label: Genius Products (TVN)
Salesrank: 332
Released: May 13, 2008 |
| Our Price: $6.54 |
| Used Price: $4.85 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Two-time Academy Award® winner Denzel Washington (American Gangster) directs and stars with Academy Award® winner Forest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland) in this important and deeply inspiring page from the not-so-distant past (Richard Roeper, At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper). Inspired by a true story, Washington shines as a brilliant but politically radical debate team coach who uses the power of words to transform a group of underdog African American college students into an historical powerhouse that took on the Harvard elite. DVD Special Features:
Deleted Scenes
The Great Debaters: An Historical Perspective. That's What My Baby Likes; Music Video.
My Soul Is A Witness; Music Video
Theatrical Trailer
Sneak Peeks: Grace is Gone, Cassandra's Dream, I'm Not There, Hunting Party
Description of The Great Debaters:
Inspired by real events, the fascinating The Great Debaters reveals one of the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement in its story of Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington in a captivating performance) and his champion 1935 debate club from the all-African-American Wiley College in Texas. Tolson, a Wiley professor, labor organizer, modernist poet, and much else, runs a rigorous debate program at the school, selecting four students as his team in ’35, among them the future founder of the Congress of Racial Equality, James Farmer Jr. (Denzel Whitaker). Washington, who directed The Great Debaters from a script by Robert Eisele (The Dale Earnhardt Story), anchors the story with the team’s measurable progress, but the film is also about the state of race relations in America at the height of the Great Depression. With lynchings of black men and women a common form of entertainment and black subjugation for many rural whites, the idea of talented and highly intelligent African-American young people learning to think on their feet during debates would seem almost a hopeless endeavor. But that’s not the way Tolson sees it, as his students serve themselves and the cause of racial equality in America with energetic arguments in favor of progressive government and non-violence as a viable social movement. There are some startling moments in this movie, particularly the sight of a man found lynched and burned to death, and an extraordinary moment in which we see black sharecroppers and white farmers engaged with Tolson in arguments about unionizing together. Forest Whitaker is outstanding as Farmer’s emotionally-reserved father, also a Wiley professor. This is the kind of film where one hopes two great actors such as the elder Whitaker and Washington will have a scene together, and when it comes it’s as powerful as one might hope. --Tom Keogh
The Great Debaters Reviews:
The Great Debater - DVD 
2008-08-05 - This DVD was truly outstanding in every way. The storyline though not new was so well done. The acting was oscar quality. I can only highly recommend this DVD to those that enjoy a good movie where in the end everybody wins. Harvard wins for allowing the debate to happen and Wiley wins by invoking real life experience into a usually academic event.
Inspiring..... 
2008-08-04 - portrayal of how persons can rise above extremely adverse situations. Things may get difficult but not impossible especialy if there is team effort seems to be the message here. Superb performance from Washington, Whitaker and Jurnee Smollett.
the great debaters
2008-07-27 - Although a simple good feeling ending that seems a little too long, it is an excellent movie and a good history lesson.
Underestimated its audience 
2008-07-27 - This was a beautifully filmed movie with a good message and great acting especially by those portraying the students. However, I have not been so disappointed in seeing a beautiful, meaningful movie lose credibility by underestimating its audience since watching Prairie Giant (The movie about the life of the founder of universal health care in Canada - Tommy Douglas.)
What I don't like to find out after watching such an emotionally gripping tale whose aim is to depict truth and fight injustice is that the filmmakers have been loose with the truth and have been unjust in their misappropriating credit to the wrong University.
Harvard never extended the Wiley Debate team an invitation to their University, instead it was the University of southern California. To me, finding this out after watching the movie spoilt the movie for me. To say a prestigious University extended a grace-filled invitation in order that a modern audience could see the mammoth achievement that the students from Wiley accomplished is an insult to the intelligence of the modern audience. If the filmmakers had wanted to show that debating U of SC was a fine achievement - they could have set the stage so that we would have understood the significance of that debate in that era and at the same time held true to history and gave the kudos the University that really made the step towards a more racially harmonious America.
The filmmakers should have cut all ties with reality and made this story a fictional morality tale - for then it truly would have been a masterpiece.
Rocky of Debate Teams
2008-07-25 - The Great Debaters, starring Denzel Washington, is the latest in the Rocky series. It is the Rocky of debating. Sound implausible? Well, actual sports do lend themselves better to the Rocky formula, but when the story is based on a true story, as this one is, it is able to pull it off alright.
The story is set in 1935 at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. Wiley is an African-American college and Denzel Washington is the headstrong debate coach. They rise to prominence in spite of the virulent racism of the deep South in the early 1900s. It's a good story, though it is hard to get the full flavor of the debates when you only get sound bites. Football and basketball lend themselves well to highlight reels, but you really need the full picture on debates.
In any event, I enjoyed it and would recommend it to most audiences. Probably not suitable for kids, unless they are up for understanding lynchings and racism.
