While we are treated with great set-designs, acting and cinematography, I thought this film to lack focus and failing to communicate what it was supposed to be.
Someone compared the film to the Rocky movies and he or she surely had a point. But where the rocky movies tried to focus on the actual boxing, providing clear moments of tension, The Great Debate wasn't at all so much about the actual debate. And the way the debates took place, although maybe historical correct, was not really exciting to watch.
The film's focus lies fare-more on the subplots of racial drama which almost makes the debates feel secondary. And although the message is clear and important, it is not something you haven't already seen in dozens of other movies. The overall way the movie is structured is formulaic with a love-story here and a defeat for the debating-team there (Which is historically incorrect) and therefore makes it a predictable watch, especially in the last half of the movie.
All in all I felt that the movie could have been much more entertaining if they had focused more on the underdog position of the team and the actual moments of debate. The way they easily kept winning their arguments despite their background, made them not even be real underdogs. This resulted in a bit of a listless walk-through towards the inevitable tag-lined challenge against the Harvard Team with an outcome suiting a typical Hollywood production.
6/10
Someone compared the film to the Rocky movies and he or she surely had a point. But where the rocky movies tried to focus on the actual boxing, providing clear moments of tension, The Great Debate wasn't at all so much about the actual debate. And the way the debates took place, although maybe historical correct, was not really exciting to watch.
The film's focus lies fare-more on the subplots of racial drama which almost makes the debates feel secondary. And although the message is clear and important, it is not something you haven't already seen in dozens of other movies. The overall way the movie is structured is formulaic with a love-story here and a defeat for the debating-team there (Which is historically incorrect) and therefore makes it a predictable watch, especially in the last half of the movie.
All in all I felt that the movie could have been much more entertaining if they had focused more on the underdog position of the team and the actual moments of debate. The way they easily kept winning their arguments despite their background, made them not even be real underdogs. This resulted in a bit of a listless walk-through towards the inevitable tag-lined challenge against the Harvard Team with an outcome suiting a typical Hollywood production.
6/10