Forgive yourself for thinking you've seen “The Great Debaters,” oh, about three dozen times before: This Denzel Washington-directed drama — loosely based on the real-life exploits of the 1935 debate team at Wiley College, a historically black college in Marshall, Texas — falls right in line with any number of recent period pieces, including “Miracle,” “Glory Road,” “Remember the Titans” and “Invincible.” It's yet another tear-jerking melodrama about hard-%driving coaches, underdog teams and an American public that was spiritually reawakened by an unlikely triumph.

But the great surprise of this film, written by Robert Eisele and produced in part by Washington and Oprah Winfrey, is that it serves up such a vivid, unnerving portrait of the racial divide in Texas in the early 20th century. The director conjures images that are tough to shake off; images you'd never expect to see in feel-good holiday entertainment.

Washington plays Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley with staunchly leftist sympathies. At the start of the film, he's assembling his new team, which includes Henry Lowe (Nate Parker), a brilliant, but hot-tempered young man; Samantha Booke (Jurnee Smollett), a young woman who transferred to Wiley solely for the chance to compete on its nationally renowned debate team; and 14-year-old James Farmer Jr. (Denzel Whitaker), the precocious son of the college's president, James Farmer (Forest Whitaker).
 
It doesn't take long before you realize that Eisele has taken considerable creative license with the facts of this story.

Still, any movie that sends us home with a lump in our throat and tears in our eyes must be doing something right.

Christopher Kelly | %McClatchy Newspapers