Went to see The Great Debaters the day after Christmas rather than on the 25th as planned. As good as the previews made it out to be. Very few people in the audience and we all laughed at one scene. Coming upon a lynch mob the debaters had a narrow escape. The lynched guy was not all too gruesome to look at~I have seen worse. Still not for the youngsters me thinks.

What I liked about the film is how words are said without being spoken. The youngest debater played by Denzel Whitaker, who is no relation to either Denzel Washington or Forest Whitaker who also starred in the film, is superb in using facial expressions to convey thoughts going on in his head. Of course the director and film editors play a large part in making those scenes work.

What I do not like about the film is what I read after watching it. I considered doing a movie review and was checking out news articles about the story. I feel betrayed by Denzel, Washington, that is. The film is based on a true story. Only Denzel's (Whitaker that is) character was actually one of the real life debaters. The others were composite figures of debaters from Wiley College's debate team. Washington's character was also real as were others. At the end of the film the characters lives after the last great debate~another fallacy, Wiley never debated Harvard~scrolled the screen as images from the movie quickly replayed. Composite figures do not "go on to become" anything.

If I had not read those news articles, I may have some where down the road been telling lies that I assumed were facts given in the film. Movie worth watching; there are grains of truth to the tale as it was told and the composite stuff gives a good look at how things were and might actually have happened with the Wiley great debaters and team.