Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

braddugg It's a good film definitely but something that could have been much better. Racism is what this film is about I can say. But the debates are equally interesting. It's tough to debate on anything without having much knowledge about the topic. If we were to debate then we must have full knowledge of what we are talking about. The actors here have precisely done that, they seem to be in control of a good director and make us believe that they are fully aware of the topic of the debate.Denzel Washington is the director and also acts in the movie and I am sure this was the toughest thing to do. To act is much easy than directing, but to do both and still make it good is terrific. I am happy that Denzel almost pulled it off with neat direction.Yes, I have qualms from this movie. It's very nicely packaged but at the end leaves a void and leaves us with a wish of how much could this have been. I wish it was more about debates than about personal turmoil and conflict. There is a love story, a parent-child relationship and the relationship of teacher and students. Except for the love-story, the other things are fine. I wish still that this love-story that was between Samantha Booke (played by Jurnee Smollet) and Nate Parker (played by Henry Lowe) was not needed.It's a film based in 1930's and the production design, the art direction have worked well. They are pretty decent and seem to take us through that period of 1930's. The cinematography was just good, but I believe there was lot much scope in this film and considering that film was made in 2007, I suppose full potential of camera was not used. My biggest crib is editing though, there are few scenes that I believe were not needed and cut have been cut. The second biggest crib is in writing, I suppose that the material given was good, but not enough to make an interesting movie. So, I think that's the reason why uncalled from drama and relationships had to be added up in the screenplay.Surely, this is a good film, but some deep down thought and more focus on debating would have made it a great film. A 3/5 for a good film. For others, it's up to them to decide.

dushyant chaturvedi Denzel Washington is Mr. Tolson, the head of the debate team of a Blacks only Willey college. He starts building a team of students to participate at the inter college level. He is also secretly inspiring the cotton growing farmers to fight for their rights against the land owners. Forest Whitaker is the theology professor and the father of one of the students who gets selected for the debating team. How the debating team is selected, how they go on an unbeaten spree and how they perform against Harvard's debating team forms the core of the movie. There are 4 members on the team whose characters are well drawn. There is Ms. Booke who has joined the college with the express view of getting on this team. There is Whitaker's son who is the youngest member of the team. Then there is a restless soul called Lowe whose character goes through a huge transformation during the duration of the flick. The dialogues are wonderfully written and end up stirring your soul more often than not. The best part about Washington's direction is that he does not bring the focus on him but keeps it on the young debaters. There is a heart wrenching scene showing lynching of the blacks. Just wish that Whitaker would have got a few more scenes. The one scene between Washington and Whitaker is one of the best scenes of the movie. This is an inspiring movie and I loved it. 3.5 out of 5.

Tss5078 The Great Debaters is another inspirational tale of the oppressed, but unlike most, this film has the distinction of being pretty close to historically accurate. I was hesitant to see this film, because who wants to watch a film about a debate team? Denzel Washington, however, happens to be one of my favorite actors, so I gave it a shot and learned quite a bit. The debate team was just an instrument, and was comprised of four people who would all go on to play significant roles in the Civil Rights Movement. The films follows award winning author, Melvin Tolson (Washington), on his journey to create the best African-American College debate team in the country, a team that would eventually go on to challenge the debate team at Harvard University. Everything about this movie was extremely powerful and well done. From the language to the graphic imagery to the story and the performances I was completely blown away by this film. I went into it thinking, if it's bad I'll turn if off after a half-hour. Now, I'm thinking about watching it again tomorrow. This is the way historical films should be done, The Great Debaters was fair, accurate, and just a great film!

David O'Mahony I just can't recommend this film enough. We watched it with our 10 year old son in order that he can understand the evil of racism, the strength of human spirit in some people, the power of resilience and self-belief but also the need to focus and work hard to achieve great things.Denzil Washington is, in my opinion, one of the top 10 actors Hollywood has produced - but he is equally good as a director. Everything about this movie was pure perfection - from casting to acting to lighting.It motivated me to read up about Melvin B. Tolson (the educator, columnist, and politician whom this film was covering), and his truly impressive in his wisdom and determination. From what I read, I got the impression that this film remains quite true to reality, which of course makes it even more impressive.