REMEMBER THE TITANS
Student Reviews Continued
Moorhead
Junior High School
-- Conroe, Texas
REVIEW BY JESSIE HOBSON
"Make sure they remember the night they played the Titans,” Coach Yoast (Will
Patton) said during a playoff game against Groveton. Remember the Titans is one of those movies that makes you laugh one minute
and cry the next. By doing this, I believe Disney made a wonderful family film.
In 1971, football was life to everyone in the town of Alexandria, Virginia.
Coach Boone (Denzel Washington) is faced with the biggest opponent the team has
ever had to face, the struggle to join a black and white team together and win,
which they must or Coach Boone must pass his job as head coach back to Coach
Yoast. Throughout the movie, the team members have many encounters. Because of
these encounters the team members join, build relationships, and even win.
Throughout the movie, many characters grow or change. For instance Julius and
Gerry were as unfriendly as they come, but by the end of the movie they become
the best of friends. Even Coach Boone changed. At the start of the movie he was
very racist and bitter, but by the end he changed to a nice guy who respects
every color of skin. All of the actors did wonderfully in this movie. For instance,
in some of the football scenes, every player had great facial expressions and
movements. Every actor went to football camp, and they were even taught by a real
football players to make the football scenes more life-like. Also, I give my
applause to the many people who chose the music to go along with what was going
on during the movie. While watching this movie, listen to the music in the
background. They picked all the right music for each part. This movie has one of
the best movie soundtracks that I have heard.
This film, which is based on a
true story, made me realize the hardships that young people from this era had to
put up with and live through. By viewing this film, I learned a lot more about
what went on at this time and that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
Also, after I watched this movie, to this day, everyday, I have said something
to someone about it. In conclusion, I believe this is a great family film. It may not be for everyone, but it won
me over with its wonderful humor and drama. After you watch this movie, you and
your family will never be able to forget the Titans!
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REVIEW BY MYSTI NIERMANN
Trusting
a man by his soul and not by the look of him was a trying thing to understand
in 1971. When the white and black schools of Alexandria, Virginia combined to
form a single school, the townspeople got a lot more than they expected. With
racial tensions tearing at the lives of those involved, it is no wonder this
true-life tale became an outstanding movie.
The
Titans, the new school’s football team, were one of the results of this
integration. The focus of this movie was centered on the Titans’ head coach,
Coach Boone {played by Denzel Washington}. From the beginning, Coach Boone found
himself standing tall against the racism trying to push him down (a great, yet
predictable conflict for this Disney movie). Another predictable part of this
movie was the inevitable goal of everyone to overcome their differences and come together to conquer more than just the opposing team. More than once, the
Titans, as well as their coaches, ran into confrontation, which when handled
calmly, pushed them towards that goal. One such situation was the locker room
scene where the guys on the team bond over “your momma” jokes. It’s overly immature, but still greatly believable. Of course, to accomplish all
this, the characters must “grow” as people, especially the central character,
Coach Boone. This change occurs subtly in Boone, slowly changing him from a man
who demanded perfection, “or else”, to one who cared more about the human
existence than winning.
Though
much of the plot was quite predictable, much of the action was not. Every one of
the young men who played the Titan team members had to go to an actual football
camp. Many of them had never once played the game before, and yet they appear to
have been playing it their whole lives in the movie. Each and every play was
planned to perfection to ensure the appearance of authenticity, and they pull
them all off with great class. Every tackle, fumble, and touchdown was 100%
“actor power”, and they all brought much to this film.
This
movie inevitably teaches the common moviegoer just how more important the
likenesses of people are than their differences. It leaves you laughing, crying,
cheering, discussing and analyzing it for hours on end, and once you’ve seen
it, you just can’t stop talking about all your favorite parts and lines. This
movie, I am sure, will stay in the hearts and minds of many for years to come,
and they will always REMEMBER THE TITANS.
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REVIEW BY JOHN SCOTT
Remember the Titans
is an awesome movie. It reminds us that black people have always been
mistreated. The story is about Coach Boone (Denzel Washington) who is forced to
coach racially mixed players. He must win every game, or he will lose his job. The
town that the team lives in is having trouble accepting black students in the
formerly all white high school. The team goes to a football camp, and through
tough times, team mates learn to get along. When they get back, they have to convince the
town, the students, even their own parents that racism is a thing of the past.
This
movie, I think, was awesome and well worth seeing. It changed the way I think
about certain situations dealing with ethnicity.
The
cast went above and beyond the call of acting, directing, and writing. The
actors went through a training camp to learn how to play football. The directing
staff had the task of editing a movie of this magnitude. The writers wrote a
story about racism that grips us all.
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REVIEW BY DUSTIN SMITH
Remember
the Titans
is just what I expected from Jerry Bruckheimer, another snoozefest where the
best part of the movie is when it is over. The main character is Coach Herman
Boone (Denzel Washington). He is appointed as head coach of a racially divided
high school football team in the early 70’s. The opponent in this movie is
racism, and Coach Boone’s main goal is to fight it and bring blacks and whites
together to have a successful football team. To try to accomplish this goal he
sends the players to football camp. He claims he is a “mean cuss” and
doesn’t choose favorites. He also makes the guys become roommates with a team
member that is a different race. Coach Boone doesn’t change that much
throughout the entire movie. He just becomes a “mean cuss” with a soft side.
The
actors didn’t bring much to this movie. I was informed that the actors had to
go to a real football camp to learn how to play football. What a waste of time
that was. I really didn’t care if these football players got hurt, shot, or
died. I would have actually liked the movie a lot more if more than one of the
football players got whacked. Denzel Washington has played the same type of
character before, and he has done it a lot better.
The
movie didn’t affect me emotionally or intellectually. First of all, the movie
wasn’t very logical at all. It didn’t make any sense for this racially
divided team to become friends because they made fun of each other’s mommas.
In the real world you would probably get shot for that or extremely injured.
Secondly, some offensive players switched to defense, and they didn’t even
know how to play the position. The problem I have with this is that the players
actually did good. They never showed them trying out at that position or
anything of that sort. I also would like to find out how Gary and Julius became
friends so fast. They acted like they were brothers or something. It also seemed
like the movie tried too hard to be funny. The subplot of the coach’s daughters was highly unnecessary. I also thought that the entire gospel singing
and preaching was also highly unnecessary and quite annoying.
If
I learned anything from this film it is that if you were black and lived in the
70’s you wouldn’t be respected. If you were black but you were a good
football player you would be respected and you could eat for free. The film did
effect my conversation but not in a good way. I explained to my friends why it
was not good but they insisted that it didn’t reek. This made me deeply
depressed, and I didn’t talk for the rest of the time I was viewing this
rubbish. I’d rather watch Dude, Where Is
My Car again.
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REVIEW BY JANE CARVER, Educator, Moorhead Junior
Highschool
Standing
in the early morning fog that lies heavily on weathered tombstones in the
cemetery at Gettysburg, Coach Herman Boone tells a group of tired young men:
“We must come together, or we will be destroyed like they were.”
Based
on a true story, Remember the Titans
depicts the creation of the Mighty Titan football team from T.C. Williams High
School in Alexandria, Virginia in the early years of integration in the
1970’s. Denzel Washington portrays black coach Herman Boone, while the equally
talented Will Patton is white coach Bill Yoast. Boone must win every game or
lose his job; Yoast must remember that losing a game will help him regain the
head football position and almost insure his place in Hall of Fame. Despite the
personal conflict between the two, they must work together to blend two groups
of young into one team. Forcing the boys to room together and talk with each
other, the coaches help each one realize they are neither “black” players
nor “white” players. They are defensive and offensive players, and together
they are a force to be.
Reality
sets in the first days of school when there is no trust between those who are
different. Even the community is divided and unwilling to change their ways of
thinking. In the film, over the course of a football season, through laughter,
song, anger, and tragedy, director Boaz Yakin and producers Chad Oman and Jerry
Bruckheimer follow the breakdown of prejudice on the team and in the community.
I
laughed as the players joked in the locker room and sang with them as they
returned from camp. I wanted to strangle the youngster that played Coach
Yoast’s daughter, Sheryl. She had an “attitude” about the new coach. Tears
ran down my cheeks when Julius entered the emergency room of the hospital only
to learn that his friend would be paralyzed forever, and I cheered when the team
overcame rigged refereeing and made the opponent “remember the night they
played the Titans!”
The
whole purpose of this film might have been to show how prejudice can be
overcome, or it might have been to show how two groups of young men can become
one and triumph in the game of football. However you want the movie to end, you
won’t be disappointed. This Titan team proved that obstacles can be overcome,
whether it be on or off the field of competition.
The
actors who played coaches, ball players, family, and community created a sense of
reality for the viewer. The young men portraying the team really did learn to
play football; young Hayden Panettiere who played Sheryl learned about the game
in order to make us believe that she could coach if asked. Her acting skills
made me want to shake her; she was that good at portraying an attitude. Denzel
Washington’s incredible talent helped show Coach Boone’s growth from a man
who asked for no help on or off the field to one who could see both sides in the
game of life. He played the dictator style of the real Coach Boone to
perfection, while Will Patton as Coach Yoast showed the milder side of coaching;
a man of softer words who expected as much from each player as the hollering
Boone. Both actors are masters at
the sideways glance; both coaches would share an understanding glance when
things turned out right.
Many
camera shots were very impressive: the view along the tackling sleds as players
hit them violently, the ethereal beauty of arched cathedral windows behind four
coaches as the head coach asked his team for perfection, rolling fog over
headstones in a deserted cemetery, the glances between two coaches, one black
hand stretched out for a handshake ignored by a white girl dressed in white, or
the glow of stadium lights behind a championship game ball held high by men of
two different races.
Did
this movie affect me in any way? Absolutely! There are few times when I can see
the triumph of spirit so beautifully played out on the big screen. I recommend
this to anyone who wants to enjoy a film and walk away with something to think
about. The struggle to overcome differences and pull together is best expressed
by the last lines of the film: “We still have our differences, of course, but
before we reach for hatred, we Remember the Titans.”
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