Remember the Titans
It’s hard to imagine a Disney movie getting rough and dirty when it comes to racism, but credit writer Gregory Allen Howard and director Boaz Yakin for doing what they can with the PG-rated “Remember the Titans.” The film very much fits into the mold of the inspirational Disney movie brand, telling the true story of the newly-integrated T.C. Williams High School, and the tensions their football team faced during the 1971 season, with no formation in the “inspirational sports movie” playbook left untried, but there’s something rougher than we’re used to when it comes to the way Yakin (who, at the time, was best known for the 1994 drama, “Fresh”), backed by producer Jerry Bruckheimer, handles the drama. No, you won’t hear the N-word in this film, but there’s certainly some harsher language than we’re used to from a Disney film.
In 1971, the south was still finding it’s way towards integration after the civil rights movement, and that included desegregating the schools. In Alexandria, Virginia, two high schools (one all-white, one all-black) are combined into T.C. Williams High School, which leads to the placement of a black coach, Herman Boone (Denzel Washington), on the staff of Bill Yoast (Will Patton), a local favorite, and surefire candidate for the Virginia High School Hall of Fame. At first, Boone is simply there as an assistant, but he’s then installed as the head coach due to political concerns, the first of many tense moments between Boone and Yoast- neither is happy about the situation. They have even more of their work cut out for them, though, when they get the players together, and some of the white players (including Gerry Bertier, an All-American linebacker and captain under Yoast) seem more concerned with losing their position than coming together as a team. Everyone is going to have to figure out how to get along, though, and more importantly, to come together as a team, which means putting egos and prejudices aside for something bigger than themselves.
The social consciousness of the story in “Remember the Titans” is a big part of why it works as well as it does; if that wasn’t there, the movie would probably be boring to watch, and it would be interchangeable with every other underdog sports movie on the market. However, the added tension of this moment in race relations adds several different layers of drama on top of that story that makes it unforgettable. Boone has what it takes to coach, but he finds out just before the season that he’s on a very short leash. How short? One loss and he’s out, and Yoast takes over. It would have been easy to make that a significant piece of drama between the two men, but by not addressing it, and not having Yoast have to make choices that would compromise our respect for him, the integrity of both individuals (who became friends in real life) is intact, and makes the final victory they accomplish at the end that much sweeter. This is where having actors like Washington and Patton in the roles of Boone and Yoast is an obvious, and welcome, choice- both easily portray strength and character and a heady resolve that lets us into the minds of the characters, whether they’re saying anything or not. Adding to the dynamics between the two are their daughters, the football obsessed Sheryl Yoast (a feisty, and very funny, Hayden Panettiere), and the more “traditional girl,” Nicky Boone (Krysten Leigh Jones, who gets in some fun moments, as well), and the family lives of the coaches, in general, which lets Yoast get an unfortunate first-hand glimpse of what Boone has to deal with every day. It’s a rich vein of storytelling material for the film, and “Remember the Titans” nails it.
The football field and the tensions between the coaches would be enough for this film dramatically, but there’s one last place where this film finds it’s beating heart narratively, and that’s in the players themselves. Caught in the middle of all the power struggles and social changes their city and school is dealing with, they have to figure out how to adjust to this new normal around them, and that’s not easy, although it seems easy after they survive a two-week camp together. There are plenty of memorable characters among the players, from Ryan Gosling as Alan Bosley to Ethan Supplee as Louie Lastik to Donald Faison as Petey Jones to Craig Kirkwood as “Rev” Harris and Kip Pardue as “Sunshine” Bass, but by far, the two most vivid are Ryan Hurst as Bertier and Wood Harris as Julius Campbell. All of the drama playing out around the T.C. Williams Titans is personified in the hatred that starts out between Bertier and Campbell that turns to genuine love and friendship they will cherish for the rest of their lives. Hurst and Harris may not get top billing in the credits, but they are the beating heart of this movie. The film is framed as Bertier’s funeral- in real life, he was paralyzed shortly before the state championship game, and found success and was an inspiration to paraplegics before dying in a car accident in 1981. That is when the Titans come back together, and celebrate, once again, what they accomplished not because they wanted to, but because they needed to. That makes the story pull at the heartstrings just a bit more than it already would.
