Leave it to Oprah to be a part of funding this overwhelmingly passionate and inspiring true story about a little known African American debate team from Wiley College in Texas that finds itself challenging the most elite of debate schools, Harvard University, in the mid-1930s. She managed to bring together an outstanding group of actors and actresses to highlight an incredibly unjust and tense period in social history. In a time when the lynching of black, men, women and children was still socially acceptable by the majority of whites in South Texas, it only took the few powerful words of one courageous young black man to reveal this once socially accepted act of violence for the morally and humanly repugnant act of cowardess and ignorance that it really was.

Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker head up this amazingly talented cast who use the passion and persuasion of their words to educate and motivate the viewing audience. They will move you to tears and make you want to get up and cheer at the conclusion of each of their speeches. Every debate that takes place in the film is related to issues of race, social class, wealth and power. All are extremely controversial, emotionally charged and powerfully moving.

Like other Harpo Productions "The Great Debaters" is at times slow and overly dramatic but this only added to the intense tension and suspense that was part of the every day existence of African American families at the time. The very opening scene of the movie, a rowdy party of dancing, drinking and beautifully loud and powerful singing voices, sets the stage for the entire range of emotion and drama that continues to unfold throughout the film. Have the Kleenex handy just in case but be prepared to enjoy no matter what.