A drama based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College Texas. In 1935, he inspired students to form the school's first debate team, which went on to challenge Harv... Read allA drama based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College Texas. In 1935, he inspired students to form the school's first debate team, which went on to challenge Harvard in the national championship.A drama based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College Texas. In 1935, he inspired students to form the school's first debate team, which went on to challenge Harvard in the national championship.
- Awards
- 10 wins & 10 nominations
- Helen Farmer
- (as Devyn Tyler)
- Harvard Debater #1
- (as Glen Powell Jr.)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOn December 19, 2007, Denzel Washington announced a $1 million dollar gift to Wiley College, so they could re-establish their debate team.
- GoofsWhen Samantha is participating in her first debate at Oklahoma City, she mentions World War I in her argument. In 1935, this war would have been referred to as the "Great War", since a World War II had not yet occurred.
- Quotes
James Farmer Jr.: In Texas they lynch Negroes. My teammates and I saw a man strung up by his neck and set on fire. We drove through a lynch mob, pressed our faces against the floorboard. I looked at my teammates. I saw the fear in their eyes and, worse, the shame. What was this Negro's crime that he should be hung without trial in a dark forest filled with fog. Was he a thief? Was he a killer? Or just a Negro? Was he a sharecropper? A preacher? Were his children waiting up for him? And who are we to just lie there and do nothing. No matter what he did, the mob was the criminal. But the law did nothing. Just left us wondering, "Why?" My opponent says nothing that erodes the rule of law can be moral. But there is no rule of law in the Jim Crow south. Not when Negroes are denied housing. Turned away from schools, hospitals. And not when we are lynched. St Augustine said, "An unjust law in no law at all.' Which means I have a right, even a duty to resist. With violence or civil disobedience. You should pray I choose the latter.
- SoundtracksMy Soul is a Witness
Performed by Alvin Youngblood Hart & Sharon Jones
Produced by G. Marq Roswell
Traditional
Arranged by Alvin Youngblood Hart, Sharon Jones & G. Marq Roswell
With Denzel Washington directing and acting, I expected an outstanding film. I was not prepared to be so emotionally taken in that I left the theater wiping tears from eyes. This was a powerful statement about the differences in American. Differences that were typified by Franklin Roosevelt's affirmative action program for whites - the New Deal; differences that would be repeated twenty years later after WWII when the whites again received affirmative action in the form of the GI Bill. Robert Eisele's story really brought home the pain and deprivation of being Black in America, and how some could overcome that deprivation with the right help, but could never overcome the pain.
Besides Washington, there were outstanding performances by Forest Whitaker, Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett, and Denzel Whitaker, as a 14-year-old in college.
Tears in my eyes, I will long remember this film as one of the best of the year and of many years.
- lastliberal
- Dec 25, 2007
- Permalink
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $15,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $30,236,407
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $6,005,180
- Dec 30, 2007
- Gross worldwide
- $30,271,556
- Runtime2 hours 6 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1