The Great Debaters [2007] Movie Reviews on CinemaClock

Anyone who ho-hummed when Tolson referred to helping young debater Lowe reclaim his "righteous mind" would not be in a position to appreciate this film. The idea speaks from a tradition that goes back through Christianity into Greek philosophy, and it equates freedom, spiritual and otherwise, with disciplined thinking, making the mind that part of the human that is distinctly human (Aristotle) and thinking the task that humanity uniquely achieves -- effectively the more you discipline your mind, the more free you are. Now if you don't buy that, then this is just some movie about black kids with big mouths -- they might as well be rappers like 50 cent. You don't notice the role some of the figures played in the civil rights movement, for example. On the other hand, if the movie is about the relationship between clarity of thought and human freedom, then anyone who appreciates the relationship will appreciate the labor that the characters went through. Thus, the movie is a "Rocky" for intellectuals. The stuggle for freedom does not end with a driver's or a liquor license, or even the right to vote. It is an ongoing struggle to free one's thought. In the media environment we are in today, and in the international economic and political quagmires that America finds itself in, there are those who believe that more movies like this are necessary, to remind us that our hope and future are not determined by our BMI, but by our willingness to train and exercise our "righteous minds".