REMEMBER THE TITANS
Review by John Beachem
* * *
Directed by: Boaz Yakin Written by: Gregory Allen Howard
In the early '70s, a school in Alexandria, Virginia has just become integrated. That means an all black school and an all white school have combined and tempers are flying through the roof. Coach Boone (Denzel Washington) has been chosen to lead this new school's football team, replacing long-time and much loved Coach Yoast (Will Patton). Yoast will go on to become Boone's assistant coach and defensive coordinator, but that doesn't please him too much. Nevertheless, the two coaches decide to take all the prospective players out to training camp in preparation for the coming season. Obviously, the two races don't get along too well at first. Boone runs the camp like a drill sergeant, and forces players of different races to spend time together. The players don't react well at first, but slowly come together as the team's captain, Greg Bertier (Ryan Hurst), and his new friend Julius (Wood Harris) set an example. Camp ends, the players have all become friends, but can their friendship survive when they return to town and find nothing there has changed at all?
What is the most powerful force in a Hollywood movie? Love? Of course not, that's not a strong enough emotion for Hollywood. Hatred? A case could be made, but I don't think so. Possibly tragedy? Nope. No, the correct answer is schmaltz. Schmaltz so strong it tugs at the heartstrings of audiences everywhere and brings tears to the eyes of the most jaded film critics amongst us (well, except me, but I don't think I have tear ducts). You know the stuff I'm talking about. I'm talking about dramatic music pounding in your ears while statements about family and friendship are proudly brought to the screen. I'm talking about the sort of thing Producer Jerry Bruckheimer ("Con Air") is a master of. Make no mistake, "Remember the Titans" isn't a football movie (unfortunately), because we see very little actual football. It's not even yet another statement about racism (fortunately). It's a Jerry Bruckheimer movie, through and through. If you don't like having your emotions manipulated to the point where you're ready to cry rape, avoid the film. If, on the other hand, you're the kind of person who cried a river at "Armageddon", you probably don't need me to tell you that you should see this movie.
"Remember the Titans" does have one thing working strongly in its favor: the cast. Denzel Washington ("The Hurricane") leads the way, doing a great impersonation of George C. Scott impersonating General George S. Patton. Yes, Washington overdoes it at times, but during the film's rare quiet moments (a scene where he's reviewing plays with Yoast's daughter), he does an admirable job showing a man with two very different sides. Will Patton ("Armageddon") has grown on me more and more with every film I've seen him in, and he continues this trend in "Remember the Titans". Patton underplays the role, which is a nice foil to Washington's occasional grandstanding. The other three stand-outs are nine year old Hayden Panettiere ("A Bug's Life") as Yoast's daughter; Wood Harris ("The Siege") as Julius; and the comical Ethan Suplee ("Road Trip") as Lastik, the only player who doesn't care one bit about race. Ryan Hurst ("Patch Adams") does an adequate job, but nothing special. The remaining cast members all do fine jobs, particularly considering the often painful dialogue they're given. One of my favorite lines was: "We aren't going to let anything, NOTHING, come between us! We're a team!" Ouch.
Only in a Jerry Bruckheimer movie could the problems of race relations be solved as easily as they are here. It turns out that all young people of different races need is to be yelled at by a drill sergeant, football coach, or whatever suitable authority figure might be handy. You think I'm joking, don't you? I wish I were, but the fact is, this is the sort of world Bruckheimer shows us in "Remember the Titans". I say Bruckheimer gives us these things, even those he's not the director. That's because Bruckheimer's legion of directors all direct in the exact same way (I've given up trying to tell them apart). Boaz Yakin (Ack, he wrote "The Punisher" back '89. How's that for a film credit?) is no exception, directing like all good Bruckheimer boys do. In other words, the film is frantically shot and chaotically choreographed, but it still manages to be quite dull. That's really all "Remember the Titans" is at its core: loud, frantic, predictable, and boring. Take the final game for example (oh come on, you knew in your heart it was all going to come down to a final game). It's loud, with players rushing about and yelling to the point where we can't understand anything; it's frantic, so much so in fact that I couldn't follow any of the action on the field; it's predictable because you know well in advance how it's going to end; and it's boring because we really see only a minute at the half, a minute in the locker room, and a minute at the end of the game. A game can't be interesting if we only see little bits and pieces of it.
So other than the acting, is there anything good about "Remember the Titans"? I suppose it depends on who you are. Being the cynical, hard-nosed critic I am, I don't get much enjoyment out of movies so predictable I've figured the ending out before the movie starts. If you like predictable, feel good movies you'll probably find more to like here than I did (that shouldn't be too hard). One last thing I want to note is the score, by composer Trevor Rabin ("Armageddon"). Rabin is a long time collaborator with Bruckheimer, and it's little surprise since the man is a master of dramatic music. Everything he composes swells to epic proportions at just the right moments. Take a scene where, uh, well every scene in the movie actually. Washington makes a dramatic speech (like his painfully bad one at Gettysburg); the camera pans slowly over the awed faces of his students; the camera flashes to the sun shining through dark clouds; the music swells high and our spirits are meant to soar. I, meanwhile, am rapidly jotting down notes about feelings of nausea sweeping over me. "Remember the Titans" runs far too long at 113 minutes. I'd recommend it to fans of cheesy, predictable, dramatic movies; or to any avid Bruckheimer devotees, and give it two and a half out of five stars.
Comments? Send to: johnbeachem@dependentfilms.net
Past reviews can be found at: http://www.epinions.com/user-elerad or http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?John+Beachem
* * * * * - One of the best movies of the year. * * * * - Great flick, try and catch this one. * * * - Okay movie, hits and misses. * * - Pretty bad, see it at your own risk. * - See this one only if you enjoy pain.
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