By Katey Rich
Denzel Washington's The Great Debaters tells a story that's so familiar in American movies by now, we could probably recite its key points alongside the Pledge of Allegiance. A group of young, gifted students are united by an eccentric and inspiring professor. Under his guidance they tap into their talents, and even though the rest of the world doesn't believe in them, they prove themselves worthy competitors in their chosen field. Tragedies ensue that test character but eventually make them stronger, young romances develop, and in the end the students must face off against their toughest enemy in a final showdown.
Oh, and did I mention it's based on a true story, and set at a black college in the Jim Crow South? The Great Debaters pulls every punch in emotionally manipulating you, but damn if it doesn't succeed. If you scoffed at Dead Poets' Society and had no love for Washington's stern but inspiring coach in Remember the Titans, The Great Debaters is guaranteed to annoy. But if you're a sap like me, and still get a little misty when a character both wins the championship and proves himself worthy to his father, Washington's film contains much that's enjoyable and, yes, heartwarming.
Washington does double duty as director and star, playing Professor Melvin Tolson, a poet and a union labor activist who runs all-black Wiley College's debate team in Marshall, Texas. At the beginning of the school year he selects four members for the team: Henry Lowe (Nate Parker), a young man torn between the music scene of the 1930s South and his academic career; Samantha Booke (Jurnee Smollett), a new transfer to the school who dreams of becoming a lawyer; James Farmer, Jr. (Denzel Whitaker), the 14-year-old son of another professor, James Farmer (Forest Whitaker); and Hamilton Burgess (Jermaine Williams).
We see much of the movie through James' eyes, as he follows Tolson to a secret union-organizing meeting and witnesses, jealously, the growing attraction between Henry and Samantha. James also struggles for love from his father, who is as focused on books and literary merit as Tolson demands his debaters be. We see speech after speech at the debates, on segregation and the value of capitalism and the importance of welfare. The Great Debaters is a movie that wears its heart on its sleeve, and no debate passes by without an opportunity to expound on What These Topics Mean To Us Today.
The performances maintain interest among the long pulpit-pounding speeches, with Nate Parker exuding such charisma and natural talent that Kris Tapley, rightly so, compared him to a young Paul Newman. Henry is by far the most interesting of the three young leads, and though his story is resolved in an entirely unsatisfying way, it's Parker's role that sticks with you when the film is finished. The younger Whitaker, no relation to his on-screen father incidentally, is nicely empathetic as a child nearing adulthood, and Smollett does well with a vintage Southern accent and a preacher-like vigor when she's up at the microphone. Washington and Forest Whitaker are, as usual, excellent; is there anyone on this Earth who conveys authority better than Denzel Washington?
The Wiley College debate team's biggest claim to fame was being the first black team to challenge Harvard, at the time the reigning national champion. The climactic debate in Cambridge is moving, and nicely ties up the two major stories of the film. The outcome is never really in doubt-- when there's a whole barbershop full of men listening to you on the radio, you can't go down in shame-- but that doesn't make it any less sweet.
The film's didacticism-- every scene contains a Big Speech about a Big Idea--grows tiresome after a while, and results in a lot of uncinematic scenes of people standing at podiums. Much of the rest of the movie is shot beautifully, though, capturing the mangrove swamps and back roads of East Texas. In the end, like a debate argument itself, The Great Debaters is less about what it appears to be and more how it makes you feel and think. It's not a polemic about anything in particular, but an exploration of some issues and ideas that stick with us today, 50 years away from Jim Crow. Washington hasn't made an enduring movie, or even a great one, but his uplifting story and stellar performances are enough to make it worth watching.
No comments:
Post a Comment