The Great Debaters

It's not often that a movie adequately captures the power of a great speech. Sometimes it feels too syrupy (as in many sports movies); sometimes it seems forced (as in many political movies); sometimes, though, they get it just right. This week, I saw the movie "The Great Debaters" for the first time, and they captured the essence of a great speech spot on.

For those who have not seen it, "The Great Debaters" is the true story of a teacher and four students from Wiley College, a Black college in Texas, in 1935. The teacher, Melvin B. Tolson, heads a debate team which competes against other Black colleges around the state. His goal, however, is to debate White colleges and universities, to demonstrate that the speaking and thinking skills of Black students are on par, if not better, than those of White students. I'll let you find out what happens when you watch the movie.

The movie is interesting in the way it portrays debating, as a brutal mental sport. It explains, and shows, the debate process very well. In short, two teams of two people (A and B) debate a premise. One team debates for the premise, the other team against. Each debater alternates with "For A" going first, then comes "Against A", followed by "For B" then "Against B".

After this round comes the rebuttal round where you take the arguments from the other team and use turn them against it. "Against B" goes first, followed by "For B", then "Against A" and finally "For A" to conclude.

Debating requires excellent mastery of vocabulary, logic, and nerves. Just like a regular speech.

When creating and preparing a debate, you can have everything prepared, but you need to be able to adjust what you say to counter what your opponents say. Just like you have to adjust what you say in a speech, if something unexpected occurs.

In a debate, you need to be poised and confident in order to get your point across effectively. Just like a regular speech.

Here are four observations from the movie, that directly apply to any type of public speaking you will be doing:

• Logic comes first: whatever point you are presenting or discussing in front of an audience, you need a logical structure based on facts. That is the foundation of your speech and without it, you are building a house of cards. As soon as someone raises an objection or disagrees with you, the whole speech falls apart.
• Don't laugh at yourself: after one of the students made a self-deprecating remark to get a few laughs, Tolson said "Would you punch yourself in a street fight?" His argument was that you should not use humour against yourself in a debate, you should use it against your opponent. And in fact, they do so in the film, yet not in the manner most people do it today. When humour is used, it is often to denigrate the target of the punch line. In the movie, they never used humour to speak ill of their opponents, but rather to turn it against the other team, while never vilifying it

  I can see how that can work well in a competitive environment, in a "we against them" mentality. Yet, in most of our lives, we don't speak to beat the opponent but rather to bring people closer. I still say that self-deprecating humour (to an extent) works better in those situations.

• The pause is essential but you must master it. There are the pauses for dramatic effect, the pauses for thinking, and then there are the pauses that make everyone feel awkward. You don't want the latter. How does a pause become awkward? When everything about your body language is telling the audience that you are extremely nervous, unprepared, and you would rather be anywhere else.
• Emotion trumps logic every time: at the end of the day, if you don't touch the hearts of the people listening to you, you've only done part of your job. The most important debates were always won because of a story that was told or because the debater ended on an emotionally-charged tone. The more compelling your conclusion, the more you will impact your audience.

"The Great Debaters" is a great story about self-confidence, risk taking, and perseverance and I highly recommend it. If you've already seen it, or if you watch it later on, I would love to hear your comments.

I didn't tell my wife (and shhh! don't tell her either!) but at the end of the movie, I almost cried. It made a lasting impact. I encourage you to try to make such impact on the people that hear your speeches.

©  Laurent Duperval