Jurnee Smollett

Fools For Love [HD]
$2.99

Fools For Love
$1.99

The Great Debaters
$14.95
The Great Debaters is a wonderfully acted, well produced film about the first college debate between a black team, Wiley College, and a white team. (In the movie, the white team is Harvard, but in fact it was USC.) The plot of the movie revolves around the struggles of the debating team to achieve recognition during an era in which civil rights were a mere glimmer on their progenitors' eyes. (Not surprisingly, several of those progenitors were members of the debating team.) The outcome is predictable, so in that sense, this is a "feel-good" film. But the purpose of the film wasn't just to make us root for the underdog. The Great Debaters was clearly intended as a vehicle to portray the origins of the civil rights movement.

The movie makes some departures from historical events, but these were not of a nature to detract from the story. Where the final debate took place is not particularly important. What is important is that the film accurately depicted the hurdles faced by the black community in the 1930s. This was an era in which "justice" was often administered at the end of a rope, and in which being black was a crime in and of itself. The horrifying scene in which James Farmer, Jr. (who eventually became one of the "Big Four" of the civil rights movement), witnesses a lynching encapsulated the purpose of this film, which was to explain the need for civil rights. The debates, themselves, while probably departing significantly from the originals, served to present the arguments used by later civil rights advocates, notably Martin Luther King, Jr.

Unlike many films based on "true stories" the Great Debaters tackled the larger social issues of the times. Because these issues--the rights of minorities, the rule of law, constitutional authority--are still pertinent, still subject to heated discussion, and still worthy of our undivided attention, the great debate continues.

Selma, Lord, Selma [VHS]
$9.99
I will start off by saying I am white, and I was so totally blown away by the courage of Sheyann and her best friend Rachel. Even though Rachel did not march on that courageous second attempt to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I am sure she walked with her friend in spirit. Racism's ugly face was well reprsented, especially with young Jonathan's murder. But nothing was to stop Dr. King's army from defying its opposition to crossing the bridge and marching all the way from Selma to Montgomery. I was especially moved at the end when Sheyann's father presented her with a pair of walking shoes for himself, showing he would be walking beside her on the next freedom march. This movie shows the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement and 2009's Presidential election shows us its progress. Another Disney movie to show more on this is Disney's Ruby Bridges, a girl even younger than Sheyann. These two girls would show the world courage does not just belong to grownups.