The Master Debaters

Ok, so the title, is really The Great Debaters. I don’t know who they paid to come up with this title, but whoever he is, the soles of his feet should be skinned and he should be made to walk on rock salt, and then have him wash it away with alcohol. I may be a little extreme there but that title is just horrendous.

This movie has Denzel Washington playing coach to Wiley College’s champion debating team. Wiley, if history according to them is accurate, went on to beat then national champion Harvard University in a debate and went on to become undefeated for 10 years. I make no bones about revealing the ending here because if you can’t figure it out from the get go when you watch this movie then you’d have to be blinder than Jose Rizal’s momma.

The story was set in the 30’s when lynching was going on in certain US states. That made for a good sketch of the debating team’s environment. Of course the producers had to exploit the plight of the black man in a white man’s world, and a lot of time was allotted for that. Some characters were well developed, while some were just left to the forgiving public’s imagination.

If anything, I find the debates too one-sided, with Wiley’s debating team showing real emotions to the point of appearing too please-pity-us-we’re-so-disenfranchised, while their opponents appeared hard and imposing. But then again history is written by the victors and if that’s how they saw things as they happened, then that is the victorious people’s prerogative. I just don’t think it’s very convincing, but hey we go watch a movie to suspend our disbelief so I let it go.

In hindsight, while there are opportunities to make the movie more believable, I think the producers relied too much on it being based on a true story, that because it actually happened, there should no longer be any questions asked. If only we are the ones being paid to watch the movie, then it would have been perfectly alright. Unfortunately, I had to forego a bottle of beer so I can buy that pirated DVD, and while I would probably choose the movie over my favorite libation, I wish a lot more was done to justify my choice.

Verdict: Watchable. For anyone who roots for the underdog, this is a good movie for you.