Yes, I will ’’Remember The Titans’’. It was one of those feel good movies where, although you know it all worked out in the end (because it was based on a true story), it still kept you involved in the problems the characters were facing. You were back in that time when the desegregation of schools was still going on, when busing was becoming the norm, when life was changing for both blacks and whites in ways that both found uneasy. When peoples emotions were at boiling point.
’’Remember the Titans’’ is a wonderful PG-rated movie for all ages. The actors and actresses do a wonderful job portraying the events that make up this this story. Being real colours your reactions to this, I think. You are aware that ’’real’’ people actually took part in these ’’real’’ scenes and that the feelings, at that time, were ’’real’’. The story is compelling and very moving.
This is Alexandria, Virginia back in 1971. The school was all white and The Titans were a very famous, champion football team in the local area . This was before Alexandria had had to deal with any integration before. When, in 1971 , it was decided that the school would in fact be integrated, black students came to T.C. Williams High School , the Titans school. This meant there had to be a reshuffling of the team, to accommodate new football players - some white former team players losing out to new black students. It caused a bad situation for everyone, and there was a lot of heartache for all concerned.
Denzel Washington is the main character here and plays Coach Herman Boone; Head Coach to the Titans. He coaches alongside another coach, Coach Yost, who is a white man, who was the Head Coach until the local board had to re-shuffle their thinking in line with new regulations about integration, deciding that there should be an equal number of black coaches as there were white coaches in the division. Coach Yost (Will Patton) is up for induction into the ’’Hall of Fame’’ and does not like being usurped. His daughter is a brattish child who is a staunch fan of the team and who is her fathers (and the teams) biggest champion. She takes his demotion very seriously.
Ryan Hurst plays the teams prejudiced white captain, who over the course of time has to deal with conflicts in himself and his relationships. Strong acting from a very capable young man, who will probably become a household name in the future.
Gregory Allen Howard, the screenwriter, did an excellent job on this. There are some very strong messages throughout the movie, and he throws these at us, yet balances them with adequate portrayals of how the ’’other side’’ felt during these turbulent times of America’s not-so-distant history.
Boaz Yakin directs with a remarkable talent for drawing out the best in each of his actors, and setting us into the middle of the action. We are there, fly on the wall, amid the heated exchanges, the cold silences, the antagonism and the gradual thawing of the icy chains of hate.
The story begins in those violent days of riots and peace marches, with Herman Boone showing up at T.C. Williams High School, and being snubbed by the Coaches even as he tries to introduce himself. They are solidly behind Coach Yost, who has coached the team for two decades, and who (they feel) should not have to be subservient to a black man. One has to feel sympathy for Boone. Welcomed by the city’s black population who gathered on his front lawn to welcome him with loud cheers and applause he is rejected by the white folks, who feel Yost has been passed over simply because Boone is black.
The all-white team feels the same, that they should not have to take orders from a black man, and their reactions are rude and arrogant. The incoming black players though, are cut no slack. Herman Boone was not out to replace the white team with a black one. His goal was the BEST team for the school, made up of the best players of both.
He is in the middle of telling the black players that anyone who makes it through the camp will make it onto the team, when Coach Yost and his players come into the locker room having decided to take part. Boone and Yost have a mutual distrust, but Boone places him in charge of the team’s defense. Washington and Patton are brilliant in their portrayal of these two men. The abrasiveness between the two, their individual feelings about their situations. Incredible acting!
During the course of the camp, Boone works hard to integrate his team, knowing that the divisions are causing problems in the way they are playing together. He runs it like a drill sergeant and is not sugar coating any of it for anyone. He accommodates them with a room mate of the opposing colour. When this still does not have the desired effect, he instructs them to get to know their room-mate ... or fail the camp. In the course of trying to bond them together, he pulls them out of bed at 3am for a run through the woods that ends at the Gettysburg battlefield. This amid days of gruelling practices, physically more like military basic training some of the time. In breaking them down, he forces them to begin to rely on each other.
Amid the many struggles within themselves, and with each other, the team eventually comes together as one. Despite the ups and downs they unite that summer, but when they come home, they find that things have not changed there. Family and friends frown upon their new team spirit as it threatens the way of life they are used to, and that they have no desire to change. Life is not easy for them either in the town or in school.
Amid all the anger and hate are some wonderfully uplifting and humourous moments. The ’’fat white kid’’ who doesn’t expect to get anywhere because he is ’’trailer trash’’ and yet who gives a brilliant rendition of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s ’’Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’’ and sets most of the team singing. I must admit, I was kind of taken aback by Herman Boone telling the black players ’’I’m not your savior or Martin Luther King, Jesus Christ or the Easter Bunny. I’m just a football coach, ’’ but even that raised a smile.
Herman Boone was truly colour blind. His only goal was to have a team that would be the best it could be, that would be champions.
This is really an excellent movie. The soundtrack alone is brilliant. ’’Up Around the Bend’’ by Creedence Clearwater Revival mingles with Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s ’’Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’’, ’’Spirit In the Sky’’ by Norman Greenbaum, with ’’I Want To Take You Higher’’ from Ike and Tina Turner. Really great soundtrack.
You have to see this movie to really immerse yourself in it. No review can possibly give you the full sense of this film’s brilliance. It is excellent. The whole cast is marvellous, and we run the gamut of emotions from happy to sad, anger to exhiliration. Definitely a must see for families everywhere.
And one you’ll remember for a long time!