Remember the Titans

Gridiron Family Drama Scores

1971 was still a turbulent time for the Civil Right movement in America. Three years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., public schools remained segregated and violence often erupted in the streets. Coming on the heels of a racially-motivated murder, the desegregation of T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia caused a highly-charged environment to become even more volatile. Nowhere was this potential tumult more apparent then with the forced integration of the celebrated T.C. Williams football team, the Titans.

As we are told in the beginning moments of Remember the Titans (released last fall and now available on home video and DVD), high school football in the South is a religion. The film's plot, using the true life story of Coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) and how he fostered interracial teamwork within the team, is a macrocosm depicting the times in which it is set: football is a way of life, thus life is reflected in football. If black and white can't get along in the real world, how can they win a simple football game?

Director Boaz Yakin deftly balances the perilous line between melodramatics and realism, only occasionally lacquering on the high-gloss sheen of typical Hollywood "feel good" message movies (Pay It Forward, anyone?) a little too thick. His greatest asset is in the fine ensemble of actors assembled for the film.

In previous films ranging from Philadelphia to The Preacher's Wife, Denzel Washington has always been a bit of a cypher to me. His well-honed characterizations, while technically impressive, are often cold and distant; it's as if he's too dignified to break a sweat. But then along comes a role such as his Oscar-winning turn in Glory. With a mischievous glint in his eye and a sly smirk of a grin on his face, one can sense the power bubbling just below the surface. He brings a touch of this "wild side" within to his performance in Remember the Titans. Barking orders like a drill sergeant, clenched fist beating the air, Washington takes command over the audience as easily as Coach Boone commands his players. As Edward James Olmos accomplished in the similarly themed Stand and Deliver, Washington resists the deification of the non-fictional individual he is portraying. Not a saint, he is simply a regular man just trying to do his job the best way he knows how, even if it is in the middle of a modern civil war.

Washington is ably supported by Will Patton (in a subtle performance that is a far cry from his most famous role to date, the ambiguous presidential aide in No Way Out) and an impressive cast of young men filling the uniforms of the Titans. This roster of talent is filled with faces to watch for: Kip Pardue (hippie Sunshine), Donald Adeosun Faison (wise-ass Petey), Ryan Hurst (loyal team captain Gerry Bertier) and Wood Harris (noble Julius). Young Hayden Pannettiere plays Patton's football loving tomboy daughter Sheryl. Spouting stats like a pro sportscaster, she meets her polar opposite in Washington's girlie-girl daughter Nicky (Krysten Leigh Jones), who would rather accessorize her dolls than toss the pigskin.

The performances help to overcome the predictability inherent in sports films. In other words, if you don't know who's going to win the "big game", then you've obviously never seen The Bad News Bears, Hoosiers, et al. Originally, Gregory Allen Howard's script was more "adult", laced with profanity as any film that takes place in a high school athletic department realistically would be. Credit the filmmakers for realizing the inspirational potential of the film, a message ideally suited for a PG-rated audience.

Toon Talk Grade: B+
Running Time: 114 minutes
Available on VHS, standard DVD and widescreen DVD

Both DVDs include two audio commentaries (one by real-life coaches Herman Boone and Bill Yoast, another by Boaz Yakin, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and writer Gregory Allen Howard), deleted scenes and the featurettes "Denzel Becomes Boone", "Beating the Odds" and "Remember the Titans: An Inspirational Journey Behind the Scenes"

Toon Talk Trivia:

• Producer Jerry Bruckheimer is better known for his loud action flicks then for a character-driven period piece. For the Disney company, Bruckheimer has produced such hits as The Rock, Con Air, Armageddon and Crimson Tide, the latter which also starred Denzel Washington. His next project is the big summer movie event Pearl Harbor, due this Memorial Day weekend.
• Hayden Pannettiere, who plays Sheryl Yoast in Remember the Titans, is well-known to Disney fans for supplying the voice of such spunky characters as Princess Dot in A Bug's Life and Suri in Dinosaur.

-- Posted March 21, 2001