Civil tongues

OPRAH WINFREY IS BEHIND The Great Debaters. I can tell because the words "Harpo Films" are the first to fill the screen. The words "inspirational, sociologically significant movie that will be lame if you are not an Oprah fan" subsequently flash in my head, which are reinforced by the knowledge Denzel Washington is on board as both actor and director, as he was with his inspirational, socially significant debut, Antwone Fisher.

Here he directs himself as Melvin B. Tolson, a poet and educator who led the Wiley College debate team to victory over University of Southern California in 1935. At screenwriter Robert Eisle's Wiley College, Tolson introduces his students to Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston and the Harlem Renaissance by day, and educates tenant farmers about unions at night.

Tolson recruits 14-year old prodigy and future real life civil rights activist James Farmer Jr. (played by Denzel Whitaker, no relation to Washington or co-star Forest Whitaker) to his team. Farmer's dad is a teacher and man of the cloth, who is wary of his son being tempted by fellow debater Samantha Booke (Jurnee Smollett). Farmer Sr. need not worry, as rebellious Henry Lowe (a Denzel-ian Nate Parker) is also on the team and not afraid to cock-block his lovestruck teammate.

Tolson has great expectations of his team, which leads them to victory against all odds, with stirring strings and swelling woodwinds, lynch mobs and a racist sheriff (John Heard) adding to the drama. Adversity, conflict and momentum-building triumphs lead to a speed bump of a defeat, with redemption soon to follow. Enough fictional liberties were taken with The Great Debaters to make it fit neatly on the inspirational genre shelf, but it's grounded in enough reality to excuse Eisle's we-shall-overcome contrivances and the film's release during the presidential primary debates. Who is Oprah supporting, anyway?

MATT KELEMEN