`Tis the season for football, and Hollywood has made its fair share of football movies. From Any Given Sunday, to The Replacements, Remember the Titans, surpasses all football movies this year.
Titans offers real-life football attitude from the townsfolk of Alexandria, Va., who are forced to overcome the struggle of racial integration of T.C. Williams High School.
The movie begins with a narration by 9-year-old Sheryl Yost (Hayden Panettire, Dinosaur and Bug’s Life) who recalls the time when Alexandria had to overcome problems with integration and bussing, typical problems with many schools during the early 70s when this movie, which is based on a true story, took place.
Her narration starts within a funeral procession of some unknown character at the time, yet in the end the anonymity is resolved.
Yost is the daughter of T. C. Williams High Titans head coach Bill Yost (Will Patton, Fled and Armageddon) who is demoted by the county school board to assistant coach under Herman Boone (Denzel Washington, Hurricane and Fallen).
As a part of integration, the powers that be felt that it was necessary to have Boone, who is black, take the head coaching position.
A later segment in the movie details how Boone was passed over for a job that he was duly qualified for and given to a white man. Boone struggles with the irony of this conflict but takes the offer to be head coach and is willing to take both the black players and white players and make a team balanced on respect.
Alexandria is torn apart by coach Yost’s demotion and petitions for his reinstatement to his former position. Yost intends to move away from Alexandria, but feels he has some responsibility to his players, who believes they will lose all their positions to the new black students.
This wasn’t going to be the case, as Boone had decided as he integrated the buses on the first day of football camp. Everyone is forced to sit beside someone of a different race.
At camp everyone is forced to learn how to respect each other. Boone is not afraid of any intimidation from any person or man. He ridicules the white players just as he does the black team members.
Since the school has a policy of `no cuts,’ everyone is forced to give all they have and more. Boone pulls the best out of all the players and a bond is finally established among the team members.
But on the first day of school, the nightmare returns. Blacks and whites voluntarily segregate, fights ensue, and little respect is given to anyone save the integrity of the football team, which is facing ruin after all that had been built.
Julius Campbell or Big Ju (Wood Harris, Above the Rimand As Good As it Gets) finds his friendship with Gerry Bertier (Ryan Hurst Rules of Engagement and Saving Private Ryan) is in jeopardy when Bertier is torn between the views of his white friends and the feelings of the team.
This isn’t the only friendship that is facing trouble from outside conflicts with the school and the town’s poor reaction to bussing and integration.
However, Ethan Suplee (Lewis Lastik, Road Trip and Mallrats) and Darryl Stanton or Blue (Earl C. Poitier, The Tempest and The Boys Next Door) call a meeting of the team and bring back that atmosphere that helped them endure Boone’s football camp.
The Titans keep their spirit and play on to a perfect season.
Still, Yost is plagued by his demotion and quietly stands by while all the trouble arises and takes no active role in taking care of the situations. He’s bribed to throw a game, which he can’t do because he would cheat even the white players as well as Boone who he has grown to like and respect.
Remember the Titans is definitely the football film to see this year. Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Walt Disney Pictures have put together a cathartic movie on the emotions and the hardships endured by two races forced together.
Football was the metaphor for everything the town, the playerzs and the school went through during this difficult time.

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