The Great Debaters

For his second film as a director, Denzel Washington takes on the true story of the champion debate team of all-black Wiley College in Texas, which, in 1935, became the first black team to compete against white colleges (or, in the words of the film, the first Negro team to debate Anglo-Saxons). Washington stars as coach Melvin B. Tolson with his usual command and the righteous spark of committed social activism (he's a labor organizer in his off-hours), and Forest Whitaker is the college preacher, a scholar who is leery of Tolson's extracurricular activities but just as committed to social justice. It's an inspirational tale of triumph over adversity that plays the debate competition like an underdog sports movie, complete with the cheering crowds celebrating each win, and the plotting of their road to victory. But outside the debate halls awaits the Jim Crow South of segregation and aggressive racism, where a drive to a debate lands the team in the midst of a lynching, and Washington brings that reality into harrowing focus. Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett, Denzel Whitaker (no relation for Forest) and Jermaine Williams play the college teammates, and Gina Ravera, John Heard and Kimberly Elise co-star.

The disc features three deleted scenes and the 23-minute featurette "The Great Debaters: An Historical Perspective," featuring interviews conducted by Washington with the real Wiley debaters and teachers. The "2-Disc Collector's Edition" offers seven additional featurettes, including "Learning the Art: Our Young Actors Go to Debate Camp," a 22-minute look at the actors training with Dr. Thomas Freeman in the art of spontaneous debate. The rest are fairly conventional: "The Great Debaters: A Heritage of Music" (with W.G. "Snuffy" Walden) and "Scoring The Great Debaters With James Newton Howard and Peter Golub" survey the film's approach to music, and there are short surveys of the costume and production design. Less informative is the cast profile "A New Generation of Actors" and the skimpy "Forest Whitaker on Becoming James Farmer Sr.," but the inclusion of two poems by Tolson is a nice touch. Also comes with a nice booklet with brief notes on the production.