Debating the Great Debaters...Still.

from CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com

"Debating" The Great Debaters
by Mark Anthony Neal

I recently weighed in on the significance of Denzel Washington's performances as Frank Lucas in American Gangster and Melvin B. Tolson in The Great Debaters. There are many who want to make critical distinctions between a Harlem drug lord—or dope dealer as Bomani Jones so eloquently asserts—and a celebrated modernist poet who happened to coach one of the most accomplished college debate teams in the 1930s. I argue though that both men, and the worlds they inhabited, provide a rich entrée into the nuanced and complicated lives that everyday black folk lead—lives that rarely get depicted via Hollywood Cinema. That said, The Great Debaters takes liberties with historical realities, often solely for the effect of creating a classic Hollywood tale. In this regard the film—despite the earnest intents of the director (Washington) and the film's producer Oprah Winfrey—does a disservice, by being dismissive of the real political struggles engaged by those depicted in the film.

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