The Great Debaters???


I saw it when I got back stateside. And I can say YES. It made me go back to my undergraduate moments when I was in speech and debate. I really this movie acts as a catalyst for people to get involved in speech and debate period.
 



The movie was GREAT!!! We went to see it on Wednesday and the theater was packed. There was a very "mixed" crowd of movie-goers. :tup:
 
The wife and I went to see this today, but the projector for this movie was not working so we ended up seeing I Am Legend. We'll try again over the weekend.
 
I saw the movie last night. I thoroughly enjoyed. I wasn't aware that Wiley was one of the founding members of the SWAC.
 
Butch Wms. said:
The wife and I just saw The Great Debaters and it was tremendous!!
According to the young girls working the ticket window at the theatre,the movie has been well received and widely viewed by many.How has this movie been received in your area?
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This is one of the best movies that I have seen in a very long time!
My wife and I went on a Wednesday night. We left home just in time to get
to the theatre to see the previews. To our surprise, the theatre was
packed when we got there.....:tup:
 
How Denzel is constantly in the right place at the right time as movies go is amazing. Simply an outstanding piece of work.
 
MsJag4Jag said:
I heard on Tom Joyner that Oprah Winfrey produced and Denzel W. and Forrest W. directed. Denzel stars in it......but the kicker is this...

A kid in the movie is named Denzel Whittaker. How eery is that?

I can't wait to see it.
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I thought that was ironic also! I was like it this the kids real name.
 
bigmanofds said:
To be more specific it was Mansfield, Louisiana. Mansfield is a small town in Desoto Parish about 30 miles south of Shreveport. I put that out there just in case some body wanted to know those type details. I am interested in seeing the movie since I live here in Mansfield. No, I don?t have a Denzel Washington lie to tell. :)
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Being more specific, it was filmed primarily in 2 locations. :swink: lol As SOON as you leave Mansfield Rd (from Shreveport - the new 4 lane road), you enter the downtown area where the old court house is (jail scene), or the square. If you continue on that road, there are 2 white homes (where Denzel's and Forest's characters were staying) directly paralleling up the hill from the city police station down the road from the city park (not the battleground lol). :) It was a great movie. A definite must purchase when it's available on DVD.

Not that I'd know anything about all of that. :rolleyes:

Panthro sending pix of his old Bel Air to be used in the movie send help! lol
 
Excellent movie...went to see it last week. I had to get on the folks at the theater because the boy working the ticket booth gave me a ticket for Alvin and the Chipmonks.
 
Yeap I downloaded the screener last week. Cool movie but they should have used the real name of the first female debater.
 
Panthro said:
Being more specific, it was filmed primarily in 2 locations. :swink: lol As SOON as you leave Mansfield Rd (from Shreveport - the new 4 lane road), you enter the downtown area where the old court house is (jail scene), or the square. If you continue on that road, there are 2 white homes (where Denzel's and Forest's characters were staying) directly paralleling up the hill from the city police station down the road from the city park (not the battleground lol). :) It was a great movie. A definite must purchase when it's available on DVD.

Not that I'd know anything about all of that. :rolleyes:

Panthro sending pix of his old Bel Air to be used in the movie send help! lol
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I am impress. :nod:

This was a good movie. I think when the movie comes out on DVD I might buy two. I really wish Hollywood could see that we will support movies like this instead of the same old same old.
 



I saw it this evening and enjoyed it.

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Henrietta Bell Wells, a retired social worker living in Houston, was the Wiley College debate team's only female member.
Kevin Fujii: Chronicle


Dec. 22, 2007, 1:53PM
PROFILE: HENRIETTA BELL WELLS
Great Debater overcame odds to bust barriershttp://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5398684.html
The team's sole woman and last survivor grew up in the Fourth Ward

By SALATHEIA BRYANT
For The Chronicle

The Great Debaters, opening in theaters on Christmas Day, tells the story of the triumph of underdogs. It is also Henrietta Bell Wells' story.

Born in Houston's Fourth Ward on the banks of Buffalo Bayou and raised by a struggling single mother from the West Indies, Wells became the only female member of the 1930 debate team from Wiley College who participated in the first collegiate interracial debate in the United States. She is the last surviving member of the 1930s team coached by Melvin B. Tolson.

But for Wells, her involvement in the real life events that inspired the movie that stars Denzel Washington was just about living.

"I was just lucky, that's what I think," the 95-year-old Wells said at the Houston facility where she now lives. "I just thought I was living my life. I don't think we thought we were doing any great job. We were in the debate team for fun, just doing our best."

Wells met Tolson, who would later become a role model throughout her college career, in freshman English.

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Tamala's ties to the "Great Debater"http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=5847470

Friday, December 21, 2007 | 12:01 AM

Tamala EdwardsHOUSTON, TEXAS - December 20, 2007 -- A movie opening on Christmas day tells the true story of an African-American debate team that made history against very long odds.
Set in the 1930's, "The Great Debaters" is based on the story of charismatic Wiley College professor Melvin Tolson, played by Denzel Washington, and the debate team he coaches to triumph.

.....
 
Butch Wms. said:
delock,

I wondered why they changed her name as well.:retard:
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I wonder if $$$$$$ and actual rights had something to do w/ it. :read:

This is a DEFINITE MUST buy regardless of cost. There are SEVERAL movies I want my young ones to watch that captures a snapshot of "life" for people of color (their main ancestry :swink: lol ) during very turbulent times for people of color and how the "majority" treated them during those times and how they <b>should</b> indeed parallel those SAME EXACT thought patterns & apply it in today's society (Rosewood, The Great Debaters, Roots, X, The MLK-Jr story, The Chronicle of Rosa Parks, The Medgar Evers Story, Mississippi Burning, et al) :read:. :| My big momma taught us all a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time ago, especially THOSE of us who were post-segregation period or "integrators" :read:, <b>"a tigah kan't change his stripes... and a leppard kan't change his spots. I don't care how often and how long you wash dat somma' mah batch in lye soap, he still gone have stripes and he still gone have spots. Trust white folx as far as you can throw dem somma' mah batches... theys some evil people."</b> :read: I vehemently concur. :tup:
 
Saw it while overseas. And I must say this should be drop-kick many into the art of debate. I can say as a mild debater in undergrad, debate really makes one know what they're talking about to prevent getting their ass handed to them.
 
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