Review: Remember the Titans (2000)

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Remember the Titans

Rating

Director

Boaz Yakin

Screenplay

Gregory Allen Howard

Length

1h 53m

Starring

Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Wood Harris, Ryan Hurst, Donald Faison, Craig Kirkwood, Ethan Suplee, Kip Pardue, Hayden Panettiere, Nicole Ari Parker, Kate Bosworth, Earl C. Poitier, Ryan Gosling

MPAA Rating

Buy/Rent Movie

Soundtrack

Poster

Review

Racism, sports and high school angst are the main topics of Denzel Washington’s latest big screen adventure. “Remember the Titans” could have easily been a cliché-ridden drama about the lives of an all-white football team forced to integrate with a black coach and black players; however, with the help of an interesting screenplay and eloquent performances, the film becomes an entertaining history lesson.

Life at T.C. Williams High School is calm and peaceful, but when the school board is forced to further integrate its schools, they do so by hiring Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) as coach of the high school football team. The decision leaves many of the city’s parents and students disgusted.

Boone’s inclusion is at the expense of assistant coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton) who must decide to overcome his own personal grievances to help elevate the team to a division championship. As the two work together to bring the team into cohesion, many rifts spring up between the coaches and the players as pre-season training becomes a lesson in the rules of acceptance and teamwork.

The black students are led by the resistant Julius “Big Ju” Campbell (Wood Harris) while the white students are led by the cocky Gerry Bertier (Ryan Hurst). Both must become role models in order bring both sides together, but severe rifts make it difficult for Boone to make any headway.

The film benefits from strong leads in Washington and Patton. Washington gives his traditional moral crusading performance. Patton on the other hand manages to play with and against type as the potentially villainous and always mysterious hall-of-famer waiting to be.

Its supporting cast, led by Harris, Hurst and young Hayden Panettiere as the Yoast’s strong-willed daughter Sheryl, are its true blessings. Harris and Hurst must learn how to play off of one another in their personal rivalries and in their cooperation. Panettiere is nothing less than adorable as a football-loving Tomboy; she steals the movie from everyone and delivers one of the best adolescent performances in recent memory.

Moreover, the screenplay, with a few clichéd speeches manages to avoid many of the traditional storytelling mechanisms that make other historical, anti-racist films redundant. Washington’s speech at the graveyard sounds like it was pulled directly from Malcolm X, while some of his other speeches are considerably moving.

Overall, “Remember the Titans” tries to be 2001’s message movie about the struggles of black athletes in rural communities. The topic has been around for decades and many other films have tried and failed where “Titans” succeeds. The problem is that there are few struggles for black athletes left. It’s not a matter of prejudice anymore; it’s a matter of opportunity.

In that vein, “Titans” is more historical fiction than statement movie. It may seem unnecessary, but “Remember the Titans” is as necessary as any “Schindler’s List” or “Life Is Beautiful.” History has a way of repeating itself if we forget it, so remembering the history, whether it’s true or fiction, helps us to avoid the mistakes of our forefathers and heal the wounds suffered in the past.