In Character, Washington Displays What Words Can Do
The Great Debaters is a movie for a reason: It reminds us now what had to be endured and overcome then, and it does so with a black man just as fearful of being lynched as the next. Written by Robert Eisele, The Great Debaters is called Oprah’s movie because she produced it, and it’s tagged as yet another for Denzel Washington to star in, never mind that he also directed it. And although he does shine, as does Forest Whitaker, they do so softly. The movie is not concerned with famed faces. It’s concerned with the actual man that brought about a need for these faces to tell a story in the first place.
Set in 1935 in the Jim Crow South, The Great Debaters is about a black college debate team, Wiley College, in Marshall, Texas. The team is pitted as the underdogs, but the coach, Professor Melvin B. Tolson (Washington), didn’t believe in being under anything or anyone. At most times radical and at all times passionate, he wanted more for his team, more for his people, and more for his community than the South wanted to give, and as a result, it is Tolson that projects this story, this movie forward.
An inspiring teacher, activist, and man, he separates the Wiley College debate team’s story from the others involving the struggles and uplifting of the black community. The team wasn’t led by an outsider, an educated and soon-to-be humbled white coach, teacher, or leader. The Great Debaters isn’t another Glory Road, Freedom Writers, or even Glory. It’s more like a Lean on Me with the megaphone-carrying, door-chaining principal, Mr. Joe Clark.
And it’s like cool water on a July day. Tolson believed in the power of words. He believed that knowledge, once gained, could never be taken away and once spoken, could never be silenced. “I am here to help you find and keep your righteous mind,” he says to his team. And thanks to Oprah and Washington, Tolson, some 70 years later, has said the same to us, for we are representative of the change he spoke, wrote, and fought for.
An inspiring teacher, activist, and man, he separates the Wiley College debate team’s story from the others involving the struggles and uplifting of the black community. The team wasn’t led by an outsider, an educated and soon-to-be humbled white coach, teacher, or leader. The Great Debaters isn’t another Glory Road, Freedom Writers, or even Glory. It’s more like a Lean on Me with the megaphone-carrying, door-chaining principal, Mr. Joe Clark.
And it’s like cool water on a July day. Tolson believed in the power of words. He believed that knowledge, once gained, could never be taken away and once spoken, could never be silenced. “I am here to help you find and keep your righteous mind,” he says to his team. And thanks to Oprah and Washington, Tolson, some 70 years later, has said the same to us, for we are representative of the change he spoke, wrote, and fought for.
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I read "My Stroke of Insight" in one sitting - I couldn't put it down. I laughed. I cried. It was a fantastic book (I heard it's a NYTimes Bestseller and I can see why!), but I also think it will be the start of a new, transformative Movement! No one wants to have a stroke as Jill Bolte Taylor did, but her experience can teach us all how to live better lives. Her TED.com speech was one of the most incredibly moving, stimulating, wonderful videos I've ever seen. Her Oprah Soul Series interviews were fascinating. They should make a movie of her life so everyone sees it. This is the Real Deal and gives me hope for humanity.
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