The Great Debaters (2007)

Nutzer-Bewertung:

7.7/10   

Regisseur:

Denzel Washington

Drehbuchautoren (WGA):

Robert Eisele (screenplay)
Robert Eisele (story) ...

Premierendatum:

25. Dezember 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Werbezeile:

When the nation was in need, he inspired them to give us hope.

Plot:

A drama based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College Texas. In 1935, he inspired students to form the school's first debate team, which went on to challenge Harvard in the national championship.

Plot Keywords:

Dead Pig | Father Son Relationship | Road Accident | Professor | Books

Auszeichnungen:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 7 wins & 8 nominations

Nutzerkommentare:

The Beginning of Civil Rights Legislation

Besetzung

Denzel Washington	...	Melvin B. Tolson
Nate Parker	...	Henry Lowe
Jurnee Smollett	...	Samantha Booke
Denzel Whitaker	...	James Farmer Jr.
Jermaine Williams	...	Hamilton Burgess
Forest Whitaker	...	Dr. James Farmer Sr.
Gina Ravera	...	Ruth Tolson
John Heard	...	Sheriff Dozier
Kimberly Elise	...	Pearl Farmer
Devyn A. Tyler	...	Helen Farmer (as Devyn Tyler)
Trenton McClain Boyd	...	Nathaniel Farmer
Ritchie Montgomery	...	Deputy
Jackson Walker	...	Pig Owner
Tim Parati	...	Pig Farmer
Robert X. Golphin	...	Dunbar Reed

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for depiction of strong thematic material including violence and disturbing images, and for language and brief sexuality.

Länge:

126 Min

Land:

USA

Sprache:

Englisch

Farbe:

Farbe (Technicolor)

Seitenverhältnis:

2.35 : 1

Tonverfahren:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Altersfreigabe:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #44005) | Singapore:PG

Drehorte:

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Firma:

Harpo Films

Dies und das:

This movie was the first since 1979 to be allowed to film on Harvard's campus.

Pannen:

Faktische Fehler: Marshall, Texas was a larger town in 1935 than portrayed in the film. It had been a major rail center since the 1870s, not the one-track whistle stop in the scene at the train station.

Dialogzitate:

[Samantha just slapped Henry hard across the face]
Melvin B. Tolson: Resolved.

Querbezüge:

Nimmt Bezug auf Men in White (1934)

Soundtrack:

The Shout

The Beginning of Civil Rights Legislation

Of course the title deals with debating but it goes far deeper than that. Forest Whitaker, playing a true academician in every sense of the word, has both a precocious and gifted 14 year old son played by the brilliant Denzel Whitaker,no relation, and that son is none other than James Farmer Jr.,whom 7 years later becomes the founder of C.O.R.E., the Congress on Racial Equality. Thus began the beginning of the end of segregation as well as the vicious Jim Crow laws of the South which made it as difficult for a Negro to live and thrive there as it did for the Jew in pre-war Third Reich Germany. Yet, the film was basically not political in theme.

It deals with a small black college in Texas,Wiley,that had a poet plus a political agitator played by Denzel Washington as many students' mentor. Denzel, knowing that if given the chance, a few gifted students could form a debating team to challenge any college team in the nation and he sets out to prove it. Keep in mind that the main theme of the Civil Rights Movement was "if given the chance" and so the film builds on it and does the kind of damage to opponents as did the great "Brown Bomber," Joe Louis.

Although a bit slow moving and at times, pretentious, the film was very skillfully done in bringing to light the efforts accomplished by the African Americans to do away with the perniciousness having pervaded this nation from the time the first slave ship landed on our shores. Without delving into the ultra-political, nevertheless we are made to see for ourselves how prophetic became the words "We can overcome".

Who wrote, "And the youth shall guide them?" Truer words never written. Those Wiley College kids, without anything but minds for weapons, caused a revolution from the mid '30s to the present--kids who put real meaning into the Emancipation Proclamation.