The Great Debaters (DVD, 2008, Widescreen)

The Great Debaters is a truly uplifting movie. The great debaters focuses around a four person debate team from Wiley College from Marshall Texas. The movie focuses on how these debaters come from a small religious college in the states to end up debating Harvard.

The movie deals with a couple of subplots along the way including the unionization of share croppers in the southern states, poverty in the 1930's, and of course social activism and the treatment of African American's in 1930's Texas.

This movie is based upon a true story and is truly amazing.

5/5

Latsyrhc
Tamarack Collectibles

Another wonderful movie. This movie will lift your heart, it is a great piece of history about a little school that made a big impact. What a feel good movie.

This movie was so well written and so touching I would recommend it to all people, all races and all ages. Clean content, so it's cool for the family and very touching, but in no way boring or dull. This story is based on actual events and will inspire ANYONE who has ever thought or been told they couldn't achieve their dreams.
You will watch it til the credit roll and will never forget it's message. One of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Try it!

...I watched the bonus features.

Why? Well I bought into the whole storyline, and really enjoyed the actors, the time period, and the moral of the story.

However, just like what happened in "The Last King of Scotland", the people I cared about were not real!

Two of three main debaters were not real people, but a composite of a few of the debaters during that time period... I really enjoyed this film, but seeing that bonus feature state that the two of the main characters were not real made me feel like I was snookered!

That is because at the end of the film, before the credits, there are 'updates' as to what happened to each of the main characters. How could that be when at least two of those characters were not 'real' people but instead were 'reel' people?!

So I am toning down my rating of this movie/DVD xtras from an 'Excellent' to a 'Good' rating. The "Inspired By A True story" line should be more prominent before actually viewing the film IMHO.

Note: Denzel Washington, Denzel Whitaker, Forest Whitaker, and the other did a great job in their roles. My review has nothing bad to say about their acting, as I enjoyed the film....

I saw this movie while staying in a hotel and had to have it to share with friends and house guests. A powerful cast with Denzel Washington in the lead role capture the intensity of a this time in a small college in the South. This movie got great reviews from the critics but went pretty much unnoticed by the public in the holiday rush of blockbuster releases. Watch it with older children - 8 and up - for a great post-movie discussion.

I love this movie!! Danzel Washington, Jurnee Smollett, Nate Parker and the rest of the cast were wonderful in this film. A must see for all young people especially African Americans.

Excellent movie and a great movie that the whole family can watch. Great actors and great cast. The storyline is so moving that it will have you so involved in the movie itself.

What I love about this movie. It inspire a person to not to let go of your dreams. There is nothing you can't accomplish when you make up your mind to do it.

I enjoyed and learnt a lot from this movie. It allowed me to do some introspection. There was a portion that was not clear, it was about the pig. I wondered if he was dead before he was dead? Numerous lessons to learn and incredibly inspirational. I bought it because a friend told me about good it was and I just had to see for myself. I'd recommend it to my FRIENDS.

Two words perfectly sum up this movie - inspirational and uplifting. I have not seen Antwone Fisher, but I will be sure to check it out after seeing this.

Before watching this, I had never even heard about Wiley College or what it did in the '30s, so not only is it great entertainment but it is also educational. I don't know how closely the movie follows the actual events so I can't point out the flaws, but it doesn't matter because the movie is brilliant and moving. This is an underdog movie and you'll be rooting for the Wiley College team throughout the movie. The acting is marvelous by all the actors, but recognition has to be given to the three stars that portray the debaters, Denzel Washington, and Forest Whitaker. Not only is Denzel great as an actor, he is even better as a director. As other reviewers have said, out of all the actors Denzel Whitaker is the star. His portrayal of James Farmer, Jr. is outstanding and this role will certainly further his acting career. Forest Whitaker doesn't have a huge role to play, but he performs his parts beautifully (for example the hog and the sheriff scenes).

Overall this is a very inspirational and uplifting movie. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets a few Oscar nods.

Denzel Washington has turned in another wonderful performance in this movie. He has brought to the public's attention a glimpse of America's past and sad to say, its present in some parts of our country. Hope springs eternal.

Excellent movie and a true story that takes place in a town in Texas,very close to me. Densel Washington is awsome as always,a wonderful movie!!

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Wonderful acting, great story to share with teens and very encouraging. This is a great movie night film.

Saw Movie on TV, purchased it on half Com. Vendor was very good with updates (shipping info, etc. DVD arrived in a very timely manner and was in very good shape. Excellent transaction, will recommend Vendor to anyone!

walkerb

dvd was clean no damage was done to the dvd but the outside part the case was damaged but the dvd was good

A Great Movie in the history of Wiley College in Texas. A strong move on behalf of Professor Melvin Tolson to have a black debate team in hostile Texas at the time. Excellent movie for Black history.

loved the movie!!! fast delivery and good quality!! great buy!! will buy from seller again if opportunity presents itself

The story is actually several stories at once. It tells of American segregation and overcoming it by young blacks. It is a story of how excellence will be eventually recognized. It is great for young and old to watch.

An excellent movie! A little harsh for those that don't care to watch racism and civil injustice. Great debate scences, especially the last one, and an excellent movie to observe how great debate team are created. The language is pretty clean, but there are some graphic scences that show what happened to Afro-Americans that fought against social injustice. However, a real good plot in the movie shows how blacks and whites had to come together against the political system in their town to organize a work union and their leader was a black man. A must to see!

The film, based on a true story, revolves around the efforts of debate coach Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington) at historically black Wiley College to place his team on equal footing with whites in the American South during the 1930s, when Jim Crow laws were common and lynch mobs were a pervasive fear for blacks. In the movie, the Wiley team eventually succeeds to the point where they are able to debate Harvard University.

powerful video, awesome cast
an extraordinarily underrated movie that needs more people to see it
a great opportunity to buy a first class DVD at a very good price, even building in international travel.

Denzel Washington is one of my favorite actors. He is great in this movie. I "love" to see people overcome obstacles. It is a great movie.

Powerful, great Team-building movie!Every Debate Team need to review this movie for strength to succeed!