The Great Debators
By Demon
The Great Debators pushes all the right emotional buttons, and in the right order too. It’s impossible not to root for these earnest, talented kids fighting for respect and glory in the form of a college debate team. It’s the tried and true formula of seeking the golden fleece done to perfection by fantastic actors, great language, and dramatic situations only redneck cracker followers of Rush Limbaugh would have trouble sympathizing with.
Frankly, I loved the movie, and that’s exactly what I’m supposed to do when seeing a movie like this. Heck, I even thought to myself during the movie I wouldn’t mind looking around for a local debate team to the join. Just like I wanted to box while watching Rocky for the first time. Or dance when watching Flashdance.
Okay, I’m lying about Flashdance, but you get the idea.
But about 15 minutes after leaving the theater, I dropped that whole debate team idea (likewise, I never became a boxer or learned those Swayze dance moves — lucky you).
Basically, the effect of the movie wore off. This is to be expected, of course. After all, that’s what movies do on the level of pure entertainment – strap us in the train seat, slowly lift us high in the air so we have a view of the entire amusement park, then rocket us around at 80 miles per hour with a flip or two before we stumble away puking.
The Great Debators did its job, but I couldn’t help but desire something more. For some reason this movie felt like it was determined to be good, but not to risk failure by being great. It was almost as if the filmmakers said to themselves, “if we stick to the story, keep the performances under control, and don’t get fancy with the camera work, we can’t miss.”
Assuming I can magically read the filmmakers’ intentions (and yes, I’m aware of the critical fallacy in trying to do such things), they were right.
But ultimately I realized from the Great Debators that taking stylistic risks might make the difference between a good movie and a great one. There was just nothing out of the unexpected in this movie. Nothing that broke with formula. Nothing untried and already proven true.
A great movie takes more than just a great subject and a great story, it takes great storytelling technique – and even the classic feel good story needs to keep fresh its stylistic flair. Something to elevate it above The Bad News Bears and Rocky — movies that were seminal, but whose tropes have become formulaic and beg to be reinvented.
More zooms? Better music? More extreme performances from Denzel and crew? There is no formula. Or there shouldn’t be, at least – that’s the point. The risks and results should be different with every movie.
Did I mention I loved this movie?
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