Great Debaters

One of the top rated movies of 2007 was released to DVD in April, 2008. The Great Debaters, with Denzel Washington as the director and main star, was a success at the box office. It took Harpo Productions 10 years to produce but was worth it, since it grossed $30 million at the box office. The movie received mostly favorable reviews and won the Image Awards Outstanding Motion Picture, Outstanding Actor and Actress, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

The movie is based on a true story in the 1930's. At that time, the Wiley College debate team wasn't able to belong to the debate society because of discrimination laws. Denzel Washington stars as Professor Tolson, a fierce advocate of inspiring with the power of words. Forest Whitaker is one of the main actors, and puts this movie as the first to have 2 African Americans actors who have previously won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

The movie is filmed at Harvard and shows Wiley College defeating the Harvard debate team. In the true story they actually beat the University of Southern California's debate team who were the reigning champions then. The music and soundtrack from the movie is also inspiring and represents the Blues and Gospel songs of the 1920's and 1930's.

After the movie came out in December 2007, Denzel Washington gave a $1 million grant to Wiley College to reestablish it's debate team. The movie came out as a nationwide effort to get financially challenged schools to organize debate teams across the country. It is a wonderful movie to see that will leave you with hope and inspire you to use the power of words instead of weapons.