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Created Jan 05, 2008 06:14PM PST • Edited Jul 06, 2015 12:24AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Anti-denigration: The Great Debaters teaches us the root of ‘denigration’ and much more, especially how Wiley College’s debate team rose up to defend their rightful position as heirs to American greatness.

   Every history lesson should be this entertaining: Denzel Washington sees to that, directing himself, Forest Whitaker and a bevy of charismatic newcomers in a Hollywood-slick production.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Playing a flamboyantly verbal character, Denzel perhaps goes a bit over the top in his performance. But being a truly great movie star, we forgive him his excesses.

   Forest Whitaker gives yet another stalwart performance. While I admire him, it often seems that he appears in great roles more than delivers great performances, bringing to mind the classic Woody Allen quote that “80% of success is showing up.”

   The young actors playing the debate team are each terrific, especially Nate Parker as handsome bad boy Henry Lowe.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    Outstanding production, if a bit overly dramatic in its quiet moments. Oprah Winfrey and her fellow producers have created – behind Denzel’s direction and nonpareil acting – a movie for the ages, one that enters the canon of definitive African-American cinematic stories.

11. Direction Great 4.0

    Extremely well directed by Denzel Washington himself, with clever and effectively constructed scenes throughout, gripping action sequences, and a full ensemble of actors that each get to strut their stuff.

12. Play Great 4.0

    Well written, though there was a bit too much emphasis on dragging out maximum drama from each and every scene. Of course, the love triangle and romantic betrayal did deliver notable entertainment value.

13. Music Perfect 5.0

    Love the blues.

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0

    Perfect period piece: from Jim Crow Texas to blue blood Harvard, the movie is like a time machine.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.8

    Mature ’tweens and up should see this movie for its depiction of the best and the worst of relatively recent American history, and for the gripping portrayal of family dynamics.

17. Sex Titillating 1.7

    Brief glimpse of two characters doing the deed, and later, one of them cavorting with a honky tonk woman.

18. Violence Fierce 1.6

    The aftermath of heedless violence directed against blacks in the Jim Crow South is depicted in unflinching terms. This should be required viewing for all citizens, teen aged and older.

19. Rudeness Salty 2.0

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

    Harvard substitutes for USC: as I often say “Based on real events is Hollywoodspeak for bring on the dancing girls.” Or in this case, the Crimson debate team.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.7

    There is one well known circoreality issue: the championship debate Wiley won was with the University of Southern California, not Harvard. Denzel has been quoted as stating that they changed it for the movie because “Harvard is the gold standard.” Whatever. Seems a bit of shame that such an important movie fibbed about such an significant detail.

23. Biological Natural 1.0

    There were four puppeteers listed in the crew credits. My guess is that they were used in the staging of the lynching.

24. Physical Natural 1.0