Introduction
Directed by Boaz Yakin and written by Gregory Allen Howard, and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Chad Oman, the movie “Remember the Titans” was released under the banner of Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. The movie revolves around the theme of racism in American sports. It is based on the true story of the integration of a high school foot ball team – T.C. Williams High School Titans – in Alexandria, Virginia – in 1971.
The main characters are Coach Herman Boone played by Denzel Washington and Gerry Bertier, a white football player who at the beginning of the film is a racist. Bertier holds a hostile attitude towards the black football player who join the team as part of the integration of his Virginia high school in 1971. Hover, forced contact with the black players and under the influence of Coach Boone, Bertier quickly changes and sheds his previous racist attitude. However, it is much more difficult to induce change in other players who are more resistant and one of them even finds the path to racial acceptance impossible.
With his perseverance and innovative methods of persuasion Coach Boone is able to channel the fear of the boys into the game instead of racism and transforms their anger into a positive motivating force. Within a few months, the team becomes closely knit despite the diversity and they are able to carry the message of unity, tolerance and hope into society. In a nutshell, Remember the Titans is a story of hope, transformation and friendship revolving around the community and the power of change.
Discussion
Coach Boone is the black head coach of the football team and Coach Yoast is the white assistant coach who had been the head coach till Coach Boone replaced him. The high school football team now has both white American and African American boys. Coach Boone has a dictatorial approach towards coaching. Right from the beginning, Coach Yoast is protective about the white players in the high school team.
When Coach Boone takes over, he becomes concerned whether Boone will treat the white players well. He says “ I’m worried about my boys”. Boone replies “Well, I ain’t gonna cook ’em and eat ’em. The best player will play. Color won’t matter”. Even during training, Coach Boone makes it clear that he is impartial and the best player will get into the team. He says that he has no democratic leadership style but a dictatorship. “I am the law. If you survive camp, you will be on the team”. When setting the seating on the bus, he puts all his defensive players on one side and players going out for offense on another side and does not allow them to be separated based on color of their skin.
Despite his repeated demonstration of impartiality, Coach Yoast challenges his authority in front of the entire football team and Coach Boone is forced to complain about his interference. “Now, you think you are doing these boys a favor taking them aside every time I come down on them, protecting them from big bad Boone”. Explaining his role, Coach Yoast says to Coach Boone that he might have been a little too hard on the boys. He elaborates that some boys do not like to be criticized in public.
Coach Boone, understanding Yoast’s concern for the white players asks “Which boys are you talking about?” and to this Yoast indirectly answers “Which ones you talking about?” Here the focus is on the white boys in the team. Ironically in the latter part of the movie when star player Gerry Bertier is hurt in an accident and lying in hospital, Coach Boone wonders if he might have really driven the boys hard.
Gerry Bertier is a white star player in the team and Julius Campbell is a black star player in the same team. Initially, there are conflicts between them. But later on, under the experience of playing together and the influence of Coach Boone, they forge a special bond and become friends. In the hospital scene where Bertier is bedridden, paralyzed from his waist downward due to an automotive accident, he asks to meet Julius Campbell.
The nurse tries to shoo Julius away saying that only relatives were allowed to visit the patients. Bertier says to the nurse “Can’t you see he is my brother?” He then confesses to Julius that he had been afraid of him earlier because he had assumed that Julius was invincible as superman “You can’t be hurt like this. You–you’re Superman”. His fear could also have been due to the aggressive attitude of Julius when he talks to Bertier earlier on in the movie.
Bertier at one point tells Julius that he is nothing but a waste of god given talent and accuses him of not listening to anyone. Julius counters him aggressively and asks why he should ever bother about him. Now, Bertier, after knowing Julius, realizes that his fears were misplaced and that he was only building hatred towards his brother by being afraid of him.
During the conclusion of the film, Coach Yoast states, “I know football, but what you did with those boys…you were the right man at the right time.” Coach Boone was able to achieve success by uniting the team against racial barriers. He was able to persuade them towards giving their best by creating a passion for the game and for the team among the football players. Sports in general can break down racial barriers. The creation of the Olympic games was based on the belief that these games might form the nucleus of modern secular faith based on good sportsmanship and fair play” (Guttmann, 3).
This belief has not gone wrong as people of every religion and every country have participated in the Olympics. In sports, especially in team sports, people of all races come together and work towards the common goal of winning. Working towards a common goal unites the team members in a unique sort of fashion irrespective of color, religion or race. Moreover, when sportspeople represent their country in the global arena, local racial differences disappear and the national identity alone remains, dissolving any racial differences that may be present.
Conclusion
The movie “Remember the Titans” brings many noble aspects of sports to the fore. It shows sports as a place for male bonding, development of male identities, achieving success, discipline, value based education, friendship, overcoming racial barriers and caring.
Coach Boone and Coach Yoast, Bertier and Campbell and the team players are all initially divided by racial barriers. But under the persuasive efforts of Coach Boone all racial boundaries dissipate, and the two coaches become friends and the two star players of different races become friends and the team tastes success by playing together with unity. The movie thus carries the moral that unity is strength and a lot of great things can be achieved in the world if only people can reach out to each other across racial boundaries and work together.