If you're expecting another film like The Replacements with this Friday's release of Remember the Titans, think again. Titans is definitely a football movie - dare I say, even a good football movie - but its primary focus is not, well, football. If you like football, or Denzel Washington, this movie is for you. If you don't know football, though, you can still enjoy it, and if you don't know Washington... well, that's all right, I don't know him personally either. However, there is much more to the movie than football or a big name. Much of the story line of Remember the Titans was left out of television advertisements, and while that often can be the warning sign of a bad movie, in this case it illustrates how much of Titans lies beneath the surface.
Based on a true story, Remember the Titans takes place amid much opposition in 1971 Alexandria, Virginia, where the public school system has been recently desegregated. Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) is a black football coach who is brought in as a sap to affirmative action to coach the newly diversified T. C. Williams High School football team. He has to deal with the prejudices of his players, of other coaches, of parents, and even of the school board who hired him in order to put together a winning team.
Directed by Boaz Yakin (Fresh, A Price Above Rubies), Remember the Titans contains many of the feel-good elements one has come to expect of a Disney movie, but also refuses to flinch away from harsh issues. The first film produced by Technical Black, a division of Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Titans is Denzel Washington's (The Hurricane) second movie in a row that addresses the civil rights movement.
The feel and look of the turbulent times color every aspect of this film. Scenes of demure-looking white girls yelling and grappling with police officers to get at scared-looking black students outside a school building are extremely reminiscent of photos from the '60s of the civil rights movement, showing the first day of school at newly desegregated schools in the South. Remember the Titans dips into other contemporary issues as well, including affirmative action and homophobia, without belaboring points or bogging down the story.
Washington makes a charming and entirely believable tough-guy football coach who cares deeply about his family and his players. He is a proud, intelligent, caring black man living and working in a white world and refusing to take guff from anybody. At the beginning of his team's preseason camp, he tells his players, "This is not a democracy. This is a dictatorship. And I am the law." He demands "perfection" from his players, but, more than that, he demands that they accept each other and work together as a team, regardless of race. While his players grapple with acceptance, Boone must as well. He has to prove himself to a hostile white community and to his white assistant coach, Bill Yoast (Will Patton), the former Titans coach. Washington's character asks no quarter and gives none; when his home is attacked in a racial incident while Yoast's daughter is a guest, Yoast tries to convince Boone to be less confrontational in his relations with the town. Boone asks if he is blaming the incident on him. Patton replies that when his daughter is involved, it's his problem; but Washington says, "She just got a taste of what my daughter goes through every day. Welcome to my world."
One of the more difficult flaws to overlook in Titans is incomplete character development. Gerry Bertier (Ryan Hurst) goes from being the most bigoted player on the football team to being a general civil rights champion and best friend of black Big Julius (Wood Harris) in an incredibly short amount of time. The regards of other white townspeople in Alexandria are similarly dumbed-down and condensed to fit the story line of the movie, without regard for how such sudden reversals affect the characters. Even this flaw, however, fails to ruin the impact of the film.
Remember the Titans is a drama, with all the prerequisite slow motion football tackles and melodramatic musical scores one has come to expect of sports flicks that try to get across a deeper message. Still, Titans is much more than a hackneyed imitation of what has gone before. Moments of racial tension are interspersed with humorous interludes (including a memorable "Who's your Daddy" dialogue by Washington), which succeed in keeping the film moving. During a hilarious locker room scene, one player says, "This is too much male bonding for me." Although Titans deals with serious issues and does not take them lightly, it isn't afraid to laugh at the stereotypes a bit, either. A standout comic performance from Ethan Suplee - playing overweight offensive linesman Lewis Lastic - helps lighten the mood considerably.
However, Titans isn't upbeat just because of its one-liners. The underlying theme of the movie is not just one of struggle, but of triumph over opposition. Each time the Titan football team beats an all-white team, it is subtly chalked up as another victory against racism. In the end, the football team's season is a metaphor for the struggle (and, we hope, eventual victory) of the civil rights movement.
Remember the Titans is a supremely touching, entertaining movie that addresses serious issues like racism and bigotry, but remembers that the same characters who wrestle with these issues are human as well. The viewer forgives some small weaknesses (and they are small) because the overall message of the film is exactly on target. It is a moving narrative of the struggle to come to terms with racial issues and with life's unfairness; by turns humorous and very sad, angry and deceptively tranquil, it is a tribute to all those who truly care and who continue to fight today.
