The Great Debaters
Overview
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
winner Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...
and produced by Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
and her production company
Production company
A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...
, Harpo Productions
Harpo Productions
Harpo Productions, Inc. is an incorporated US-based multimedia production company founded by Oprah Winfrey . It also includes Harpo Films & Harpo Radio, Inc....
. It is based on an article written about the Wiley College
Wiley College
Wiley College is a four-year, private, historically black, liberal arts college located on the west side of Marshall, Texas. Founded in 1873 by the Methodist Episcopal Church's Bishop Isaac Wiley and certified in 1882 by the Freedman's Aid Society, it is notable as one of the oldest predominantly...
debate
Debate
Debate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
team by Tony Scherman for the 1997 Spring issue of American Legacy
American Legacy
American Legacy is a quarterly magazine that covers the subjects of African-American history and culture. It was founded in 1995 by Rodney J. Reynolds and is published by RJR Communications, Inc...
.
The film co-stars Forest Whitaker
Forest Whitaker
Forest Steven Whitaker is an American actor, producer, and director. He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and for his recurring role as ex-LAPD Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the gritty, award-winning television...
, Kimberly Elise
Kimberly Elise
Kimberly Elise is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her role in the films Set It Off, Beloved, John Q, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, and For Colored Girls...
, Nate Parker
Nate Parker
Nate Parker is an American actor and musical performer who has appeared in The Secret Life of Bees, The Great Debaters, and Pride. In his recent roles, he has performed alongside Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker and Terrence Howard. Parker has overcome turbulence and turmoil in his life both as...
, Denzel Whitaker
Denzel Whitaker
Denzel Dominique Whitaker is an American actor, playing key roles in the films The Great Debaters and Training Day, as well as TV shows ER, Brothers & Sisters and The War At Home. He later went on to be a featured cast member during the tenth and final season of the Nickelodeon sketch-comedy...
, Gina Ravera
Gina Ravera
Gina Ravera is an American actress from San Francisco, California. She is best known for the role of Irene Daniels during the first four seasons TNT's Emmy Award winning crime drama The Closer, and was the only regular cast member to leave the series during its run...
, Jermaine Williams
Jermaine Williams
Jermaine Williams is an American actor and dancer. He dances for the Norwood Kids Foundation.He is appeared in the spoof film The Comebacks as iPod. He was Mush Mouth in Fat Albert...
and Jurnee Smollett
Jurnee Smollett
Jurnee Diana Smollett-Bell is an American actress. She is best known for the role of Jess Merriweather on the critically acclaimed television series Friday Night Lights...
. The screenplay was written by Robert Eisele. The film was released in theaters on December 25, 2007.
Based on a true story, the plot revolves around the efforts of debate coach Melvin B. Tolson
Melvin B. Tolson
Melvin Beaunorus Tolson was an American Modernist poet, educator, columnist, and politician. His work concentrated on the experience of African Americans and includes several long historical poems. His work was influenced by his study of the Harlem Renaissance, although he spent nearly all of...
(Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...
) 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
Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...
were common and lynch mobs were a pervasive fear for blacks.
