Can debating be considered a sport? Well, today that question not debateable. Why? Because I just have to find a way to work "The Great Debaters" into this sports media blog (hat tip to The Starting Five). Having seen it this weekend, I’m telling anyone who will listen to plunk their money down to catch this movie while it is still in the theater.  The movie, directed by Denzel Washington, is inspired by the true story of a debating team from all-black Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, in the 1930s.  It’s tempting to say that it is "Hoosiers-meets-Akeelah-and-the-Bee-in-Jim-Crow’s-backyard", but that wouldn’t do it justice. If isolated merely as "team underdog story", it is so much better and more important than Hoosiers. There are at least four "Akeelahs" and two compelling mentors (Denzel and Forest Whitaker). If it were simply judged as an "American history" movie depicting life in the Jim Crow south, it excels in its own right by avoiding the tired box office "Ghosts of Mississippi Burning" formula of telling the story through "the white savior"  and banging you over the head with "good vs. evil" characters that even a three year old could understand. Instead the viewer is taken through a well-balanced intellectual and emotional journey through life with Mr. Crow, and how those limitations were psychologically navigated by various characters.

The movie also contained beautifully intervoven characters and superb acting by the entire cast.  And while 14 year old "Junior" (who depicts a real life and real young James Farmer Jr. – future founder of Congress of Racial Equality) was my favorite character, the one shared scene between Denzel and Forest Whitaker had me begging for an hour-long exchange. Was the outcome of this historically-inspired underdog movie "predictable"? Yes, it was. But  so was "Titanic" and I have a sneaking suspicion that a few people were tipped off with the spoiler. But to discuss it simply in the role of “cinema” grossly minimizes the film’s importance. Every American should see this in the theater as it deserves box office dollars even if it doesn’t gross the one billion worldwide like Titanic.
 

So, in summary, if:

– your friends tell you "why do you have to debate everything", then go see this movie.

 

– you appreciate great acting and character development, then go see this movie.

 

– you ever complained about "Jerry Springer" or "Flavor of Love" marking the end of civilization as we know it, then go see this movie.

 

– you are a high school teacher, take your class to see this movie (it is PG-13). 

 

– you are a parent of a teenager, take them to see this movie.

 

– you recently paid good money to see Denzel star as NYC drug kingpin Franck Lucas in American Gangster, then go see this movie.

 

– the last 5 times you saw a movie with a black cast and they were either clowns or criminals, then go see this movie.

 

– the last 5 times you were overheard complaining about black casts only featured as clowns or criminals, then go see this movie.

 

– the last 5 times you saw a movie with ANY cast and they were either clowns or criminals, then go see this movie.

 

– you want more good movies like this to get greenlighted in the future, then go see this movie.

 

Be the change you want to see in the world — Mahatma Gandhi