The story is a lie
Yeah, the story is actually a lie. They never debated Harvard. The girl wasn't on the team as the same time as the little boy, and Henry Lowe was totally fictional. This movie has an agenda.
shareYeah, the story is actually a lie. They never debated Harvard. The girl wasn't on the team as the same time as the little boy, and Henry Lowe was totally fictional. This movie has an agenda.
shareok ok...but this movie is great..
shareTrue, they debated USC rather than Harvard, and some characters were composites. While Henry Lowe is a fictional character, he is (according to the documentary on the DVD) based on a character who was quite real. That's what dramas do: They tell the substance of a story, while changing details to make it more interesting, or exciting, or for some other reason. Every movie ever "based on" history has done the same thing. This hardly makes the story a lie.
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I would like to see you name another movie "based on history" that contains as many falsehoods as "The Great Debators."
Titanic
shareOh, I don't know--how about like damn near EVERY historical movie made? If you really believe that all history movies are 100% accurate, you need to wake up and do your own research.
shareThat someone is going to nit pick the movies fine point details on accuracy is pretty funny.
Relax buddy, it is just a movie-life as we know it will go on, even with a few liberties of the truth :)
Cleopatra and Samson & Delilah... oh let's throw in Moses and the Ten Commandments, I could go on.. so don't act as if there were no other movies based on history that contain falsehoods. Don't even GET me started about films make about Lincoln and Columbus
shareEvery single movie where Jesus of Nazareth is played by a blue-eyed Norwegian type.
Same with Liz Taylor in Cleopatra.
All historical films about war that don't expose the bankers and arms dealers behind the conflicts.
"Birth of a Nation".
"Full Metal Jacket".
I'm sure I could rock a mean list if I had the time.
There's a difference between compressing history to fit into a 2-hour time block, and simply re-writing it because it just wasn't a good enough story. If reality isn't good enough, there's a solution to that. It's called: Write Your Own Story. But this story jumps through hoops to convince you that it's all truthful (despite the fine print in the credits, which almost nobody sticks around to read). It's totally uncalled for. And frankly, for a movie about education and truth to contain fictionalized material is pretty low. Am I a mere dissenting voice of the "truth" this film speaks? I think not.
Yes, you are. If this were a documentary that changed so many details, it would indeed be low, BUT IT'S NOT! It's a fictionalized story, BASED on factual events. They weren't aiming for reality, and they didn't "rewrite" the story; they told it in an entertaining fashion so as to reach the widest possible audience. Don't like it? Don't see it again.
"The value of an idea has nothing to do with the honesty of the man expressing it."--Oscar Wilde
There are at least two clues that it is fictional.
For one, the words "inspired by" should be a major tip-off. The second clue is that...it's a movie. Like we need someone posting "it's a lie! it's a lie!" to tell us a movie is fictional - even one "inspired by" a true story.
About that hidden agenda, though, you're right on - how dare they try to sneak in that portrayal of education and the development of personal character as the way out of poverty. It's completely insidious!
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Yeah we know- anything that challenges and debunks "you people" is of course a lie. Get over your hyped air of superiority before IT'S TOO LATE....
shareNot sure about the "agenda" part, but I don't like the fact that they changed the school they debated to Harvard. I feel that it detracted from the true accomplishment of the team.
Whadda ya hear, whadda ya say!
Artists use lies to tell the truth.
shareGo to jumpinthefrog.com, it will tell you what is true and made up about any film based on a true story that you want to know about. It can be a little dissapointing, but if you wanna know these things visit the site.
shareNo such site exists. What did you mean?
shareThe story is a myth and a metaphor.
shareYes, yes, Oprah and Denzel are liars... twit... I don't know how many movies people have to see to understand the difference between a representative piece of fiction inspired by real events, and a documentary. They changed names precisely because they weren't giving a factual accounting of specific events, but representing the accomplishment in an entertaining way, and they couldn't tell the entire story of every character involved in the real history. Also, of course, in some cases there are legal restrictions; I don't know if that's the case here, but it is often the reason. Why did they change it from California to Harvard, I don't know, maybe because if you make it too close to the reality, small minded people won't understand that you're just telling a story, and the Harvard debate chamber looked cooler. By including the Samantha Booke character they were able to tell the story of two great accomplishments by the students and faculty of this school, the inclusion of thier first female debater, against the odds, and the beginning of a long, game changing winning streak on a national level by a small black school at a time when many would have considered it improbable at best. Almost every movie 'based on' or 'inspired by' historical events, even some that use full real names, include composite characters, in large part so they can tell the whole story without taking as long as the history itself; for instance just recently, Extraordinary Measures, Harrison Ford's character was a composite of several doctors. The bonus materials on the DVD include interviews with some of the original characters or their decendants, and their real names are revealed there, so not only are Oprah and Denzel liars, they're stupid liars.
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