Word: tolson
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Great Debaters is this year's major entry to this rather dubious genre. The facts on which the movie is based are these: Beginning in 1935, under the leadership of a professor, poet and political activist named Melvin Tolson (played by Denzel Washington, who also directed), Wiley College, a small black institution in Marshall, Tex., became a power in collegiate debating circles, going undefeated, according to the movie, for a decade. This was no small achievement, considering the school's location deep in redneck country, the impoverishment of the institution in the darkest days of the depression and the endemic...
...movie would have it, Tolson, in addition to being an inspirational teacher of the tough-love subset (there's no other kind in films) was also a radical, who attempted to organize a racially mixed union of tenant farmers, placing him (and his debaters) in considerable peril from near-riotous mobs. At one point, indeed, they encounter a lynch mob and barely escape with their lives. I don't know if that is a pure or an impure fiction, but it does not strike me as an entirely implausible sequence. I don't know if the composition of Tolson...
Quick on the heels of his latest box office blockbuster, Denzel Washington assures us, “There’s no Frank Lucas in my Mel Tolson.” The iconic actor emphasizes that, despite the overwhelming success of “American Gangster,” his upcoming film, “The Great Debaters,” holds a special place among his immense body of work.As only the second film Washington has directed (the first was the critically praised “Antwone Fisher”), “The Great Debaters?...
...which takes place in 1935, is not nearly as courageous as the historical characters whose story it tells.The plot originates in the real-life story of Wiley College, whose debate team rose to top levels under the guidance of the soon-to-be-named poet laureate of Liberia, Melvin Tolson (Denzel Washington). Three students (Jurnee Smollett, Denzel Whitaker, Nate Parker), each gifted in their own way, work through the national college debate circuit, culminating with a fateful competition against the dear old Crimson.In many ways, the film is a sure thing. In addition to acting, Washington also directs...
...addition to directing the film, Washington will star as Tolson when the movie is released next year. Forest Whitaker and Kimberly Elise are also slated to appear in the film, according to the Internet Movie Database...