The Great Debaters

It takes a lot to get me to actually go to the movies - between the whole shebang costing about $20 and inevitably showing up on tv later on anyways, the odds of a movie NOT completely sucking make it simply not worth my while. And when the big press push for The Great Debaters came around and the cast was on Oprah every other day, between the historical subject matter and my movie boyfriend Denzel AND Forrest Whitaker being in the cast, I came CLOSE to actually going. And the kid with the "please pinch me!" cutest cheeks in the world being named, of all names, Denzel Whitaker made it even more tempting.

Of course, it turns out the kid's character is actually James Farmer Jr, which had I caught on when it opened I would've gone right away - an actual name I admired and recognized woulda made a big difference in my paying up to go see the flick. But either they didn't really emphasize it, or I'm a fucking idiot; but I never noticed until I started watching it earlier today. But in my slim defense I feel like they coulda mentioned that a bit more. Just sayin.

Because it's a Hollywood movie it is strung together with corniness, but I am struck by how ridiculously smart and well-read these characters are (turns out the NY Times agrees: "the literary and historical references blithely tossed around by the team members show astounding erudition") - reminds me of reading about MLK and how he and his college friends seem to have read every book in the world, and spent their social evenings (even bringing their dates!!) at the feet of local intellectuals and visiting minsters and debating each other endlessly. King spent those years studying Reinhold Niebuhr and developing an intellectual philosophy; I spent the same age watching Who's the Boss? reruns and going to fraternity keg parties with sororities at which the topics of conversation were generally made up of kegs, parties, and sororities. In my defense, I did have a girlfriend with huge tits, so. Cough. This thing on?