The Great Debaters (2007)

I watched The Great Debaters last night. It's a good film. It's certainly not great, but it's good. Denzel Washington directed it and starred in it, and it was released by Harpo Films. Get it? Oprah spelled backwards? My biggest problem with this movie is that I can see Oprah's fingerprints all over it. I don't necessarily mean she had a lot to do with the artistic production of the film (although that could be the case; I don't know), it just feels like the sort of movie that would be made for her production company. While it's still a pretty powerful story, there are a few too many cliches and sappy feel-good moments for my liking.

The Great Debaters is very formulaic, which may have worked better if it had been made in the 1940's. The problem is, I've seen this all before. In fact, halfway through the film, I wondered if I should even bother finishing it. It's not that I wasn't enjoying it, it's just that I knew what would happen, because I have seen Rocky and The Mighty Ducks and countless other films like this.

And yet, even when I recognize it, the formula can still work and create a fairly meaningful, if not entirely original, film. The hardships that these students and professors must endure as blacks during the Depression are portrayed with sincerity and hope. And a movie with this many outstanding performances will always spark in me some sympathy and affection for the characters. Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker are absolutely wonderful (surprise, surprise), and the actors that play the college students deliver terrific performances as well.

On a slightly less important note, the film is sprinkled with not-so-subtle socialist propaganda. It's not overbearing, just noticeable. It's set in 1935, so it's understandable, I suppose. I also find it strange that the debaters are always given the politically correct side of the issue to argue (one of these is "capitalism is immoral," just to give you an idea). Not once are they asked to argue something they don't believe.

All that aside, this is still a pretty good movie.