The Great Debaters

Denzel checked-marked the box here, a black man making a solid black drama about promising students and their cool debate club. Although it is a classically schematic narrative and relatively cloying towards the end, one cannot help but notice the interconnection of multiple themes. On the one hand, Washington aptly highlights the ambitions of black adolescents to fully study, be educated, and integrate into the American social system in the 1930s, a period that was not very conducive to racial unity. He also solidly outlines the global, all-American racial crisis and segregation. Last but not least, he mentions and celebrates the classical values of right and wrong attitudes, actions and thoughts, often in direct confrontation. Rich in ideas, but too simple in concept, wrapped in sometimes quite annoying filler, interspersed with the frequent artificial tears syndrome of the main characters. However, the director is once again a commanding figure in front of the camera, with a hardness and vigour all his own. (01.03.2018)