Resolved: The Great Debaters is a good film that should have been great. On the affirmative, myself, who can’t understand how a film with two Academy Award winning actors (Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker) and a powerful story could be so ho hum.
Now, I don’t say this lightly because there were a lot of difficult things to see in this film and challenging ideas to ponder, but how is it that I didn’t care about the characters more? Likely, it could be the fault of the viewer, but films with far less weighty and important material have caught my heart and the hearts of America.
Why didn’t The Great Debaters have people talking over their water coolers (or via their blogs) like Slumdog Millionaire or Juno? Was it the subject matter, or perhaps could it have been the lack of character development? And by “character development,” I don’t mean entire back stories, I simply mean those little touches that tell us the small details about a person . . . like Tolson’s sweet tooth or Samantha’s need to always have a spoonful of honey in her tea. Those are silly examples, perhaps, but the Great Debaters’ lack of these little details had a chilling effect on my love and commitment to the characters. In the final scene, I should have been cheering on the characters with my fists pumping the air, but instead I offered a polite clap.
The Great Debaters is a prime example of a film that was so intent on capturing the big picture that it forgot that people’s stories are far more engaging and emotionally gripping than grand ideas or important civil movements.
