Excellence through and through – well deserving of its Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture. Denzel Washington plays his role as the leftist teacher cum debate coach perfectly. Forrest Whitaker provides the perfect counterpoint, as the campus’s erudite man of faith. The lynch mob scene is bone-chilling. And that Harvard actually took on the challenge of debating small-town Texas, all-black Wiley College in the midst of the Depression and Jim Crow attitudes just shows why it is such a great university. Many stirring scenes, plus the DVD has a great special feature on the history behind the the story, including interviews with some of the actual debate team members.