Remember the Titans

“Remember the Titans,” an energetic and entertaining movie that is “based on a true story,” shows mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer in a contemplative mood. It is easy to make fun of Bruckheimer’s movies, for their broad strokes and emotional simplicity (think “Coyote Ugly”), but it is hard to fault the man for wanting to take on this inspirational tale of high school sports overcoming racism in a small town in Virginia. And for once the big emotions and sweep are suited to the material. While no one will mistake this picture for “To Kill a Mockingbird,” in its own way it tackles the issues of race and bigotry, and does so in a typically blunt and head-on fashion. The year is 1971, and Alexandria, Virginia is under federal mandate to integrate its schools. This means that the football team--the Titans--will also have to be integrated. In a nod to what I suppose passed for political correctness back then, African-American coach Herman Boone (Washington) is brought in as the new head coach, replacing the popular Coach Yoast (Patton), who is white. Naturally, the white community is outraged by the move, while the black community views Boone as a symbolic leader.

Boone himself shares no such illusions; as he tells the adoring crowd, “I’m just a football coach.” Denzel Washington turns in excellent performances with such regularity (even in movies that aren’t that great) that it might be easy to start to take them for granted, and that would be a mistake. He is completely convincing as Boone, a proud man thrust into a role he does not want. He has no interest in playing the political race game. As he tells Yoast, “I don’t dance unless I hear music,” and, when he feels that his family is threatened, he does not hesitate to reach for the shotgun. Still, he is nothing if not practical. Though his mission is to make the Titans a winning team (and, in the spirit of true melodrama, the movie makes it clear that if he loses even one game he is out as head coach), he recognizes that in order to do so he must confront the racial tensions present among the players, who are forced to play with members of another race for the first time. The team travels to football camp, where Boone, with his own brand of tough love, teaches them football as well as racial tolerance.

They begin to come together as a team but must still face the realities of racial politics when they return home. The movie addresses these realities somewhat gingerly, but at least it does address them. The difference between the movie and real life is that, when the political going gets tough, “Remember the Titans” can always fall back on rooting for the underdog team to win, a strategy that, unfortunately, one can’t use in real life. There are any number of effective, and affecting, scenes (in one, a white cop stops one of the black players on the street, and while the kid is understandably worried, it turns out the cop only wants to congratulate him on a good game), and they are well handled by director Yakin and his young cast. (Young here being a relative term, since a lot of the “kids” do look a little old to be in high school.) Stalwart character actor Patton does a nice job as Yoast, a hard-eyed realist who cannot help but resent the way he was treated. The ongoing tension between Yoast and Boone provides a subtext throughout the film, mirroring as it does the larger conflicts around them.

The movie is not afraid to portray Boone himself as ambitious and even a little arrogant, thereby avoiding the trap of canonizing him. Gregory Allen Howard’s solid script frames the issues rather starkly, but then, that may be wholly appropriate for the situation. Most of the characters are portrayed with a feckless lack of ambiguity; it is pretty easy to identify the good guys and the bad guys (another difference between the movies and real life). But the script does allow for some growth, some change, and some learning, especially among the players. If the real story was half as moving as Howard’s, it must have been quite a time in Alexandria. As Boone tells the boys, their team has to overcome issues of racism to play well together as a team, a handicap that their opponents do not face. Similarly, “Remember the Titans” has the challenge of confronting its racial issues without being polemical or didactic, while still remaining entertaining (it is a Hollywood movie, after all). It meets this challenge, and if its tools and techniques for doing so lack subtlety, that’s fine. It is a good, but not great, movie, because it cheats. It has to, I suppose.

We accept the young Titans for their sporting abilities, while in truth, it is no more acceptable to judge a person by his athletic talent than by his skin color. If combating racism were as easy as smacking helmets with your teammate, the world would be a better place. Nevertheless, any attempt to illustrate the corrosive effects of racism, and the potential for overcoming it, even if it comes wrapped in a story about an underdog sports team making good, deserves our attention. If it is as entertaining as “Remember the Titans,” all the better. (10/9/2000)