REMEMBER THE TITANS (2000) / ***
Directed by Boaz Yakin. Screenplay by Gregory Allen Howard. Starring Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Hayden Panettiere. Running time: 121 minutes. Rated PG by the MFCB. Reviewed on November 11th, 2000.
By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN
"Remember The Titans" is neither a great sports movie, nor a great movie about race relations. Like Denzel Washington's last based-on-reality movie, "The Hurricane", "Remember The Titans" is a simplified Hollywoodisation of true-life events, prettied up for the big screen. But unlike "The Hurricane", "Titans" manages to maintain its integrity throughout the proceedings, resulting in a superior overall product which, while not the Oscar contender some have touted, is certainly worth the price of admission.
The setting is Alexandria, Virginia, in 1971. Due to the racial integration of the formerly all-white high school where he coaches football, Bill Yoast (Will Patton) has been demoted to serve under a new black coach, Herman Boone (Denzel Washington). He stays on only to ensure that his white players do not boycott the season, thereby ruining their college eligibility. Boone, meanwhile, has been installed purely as a public relations move, with the school board ready to yank him out of his job as soon as his team -- the Titans -- loses so much as one game.
The result is a series of fairly predictable set pieces. There are the two leaders of their respective group of players -- Gerry Bertier (Ryan Hurst) amongst the white students and Julius Campbell (Wood Harris) amongst the black -- who are first enemies, then grudging allies. There is the new white player who does not subscribe to Alexandria's racial turmoil, and the veteran Titan who refuses to accept the integrated team. There is the inevitable growth of respect between Boone and Yoast, building up to a crucial moment in the team's season. And, of course, there is the football aspect of the film which, unsurprisingly, all hinges on a final climactic game.
There is little new in "Remember The Titans" -- familiar buttons are pushed both in terms of the race plotline and the football story -- but it is at least handled well by screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard. Howard keeps the tone of the story light without sugarcoating the racial tension on which it hinges. There is irrefutable unpleasantness here, and not all of it is resolved comfortably; consider a scene in which one of the white players new to Alexandria convinces two of his black teammates to come into a restaurant which refuses to serve African-Americans. But the indisputable thrust of the film is toward racial harmony, and the final outcome is sure to leave audiences smiling as they exit the theatre. "Remember The Titans" is a feel-good movie in every respect, and serious scenes such as the preceding quickly give way to more upbeat fare.
Fortunately, even this material is well-scripted and amusing, such as an increasingly hilarious game of one-upsmanship in the Titans' locker room. Howard also mixes in some genuinely intriguing and moving subplots, including one in which Bertier must choose between his football team and his girlfriend (Kate Bosworth), who cannot bring herself to accept her black schoolmates. Howard and director Boaz Yakin are fortunately able to tone down the unavoidable schmaltz factor, keeping such scenes as the resolution to the Bosworth subplot pointed and underplayed.
Yakin handles the directorial reins capably, and the material on the football field is executed with particular skill, neither belabored nor difficult to follow. He demonstrates wisdom in not exaggerating scenes unnecessarily; a sequence at Gettysburg, for example, could have been milked for all the patriotic, egalitarian fervour it was worth, but instead Yakin keeps it subdued, almost subtle.
He is aided in this endeavour by both his lead actors, who concentrate on their characters as people rather than representatives of societal ideologies. There is an excellent scene toward the start of the movie where Boone refuses to take Yoast's job away from him, because that sort of thing was done to him at his old school. But when a throng of African-Americans shows up at his doorstep to cheer him on in his new position, Boone is forced to change his mind and coach the team despite his personal preferences. Boone is not a noble campaigner for black rights, but rather a black man who finds such a role thrust upon him. Washington delivers a very even performance, accepting both Boone's defects and his virtues.
Similarly, Patton plays Yoast as neither a stubborn redneck nor a bleeding-heart liberal. His transition from being passively against the integration of his high school to learning to respect African-Americans is handled smoothly and without show. For example, Yoast's decision to let his daughter Sheryl (Hayden Panettiere) stay at the Boones' house is not treated as an earthshattering event, but is instead relayed almost off-handedly, in a conversation with another coach. Indeed, Patton's performance may eclipse even Washington's. Although Washington handles his part with unsurprising skill, Patton has to convey a far greater range, as Yoast makes the gradual transition from (broadly speaking) villain to hero.
Yakin coaxes workmanlike portrayals from the rest of his cast, who are mostly stuck in typical, formulaic roles: the jovial fat guy, the jock, the religious guy, and so forth. "Remember The Titans" is sadly unambitious on this front. Very little true conflict is uncorked between the characters, and is instead left to fester mostly with briefly-appearing cameo parts -- a corrupt referee, a local Hall of Fame president, the aforementioned restaurant owner. When there is disagreement amongst the Titans, it is, in general, easily dealt with.
This leaves the impression that bringing the team together wasn't much work at all. This was likely not Yakin and Howard's intent, as it somewhat undermines the tension of the film's opening hour. Indeed, viewers are left wondering just why it took the rest of Alexandria so long to follow suit. And while, in principle, this is a very valid question, the sad truth is that reality is rarely so accommodating, and I expect the real Titans did not come together quite as smoothly as this depiction would suggest. It only works that way in the movies.
Copyright © 2000 Shannon Patrick Sullivan. Archived at The Popcorn Gallery, http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies/RememberTheTitans.html
_______________________________________________________________________ / Shannon Patrick Sullivan | "We are all in the gutter, but some of us \ | shannon@mun.ca | are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde | \___________________________|__________________________________________/ | Popcorn Gallery Movie Reviews www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies.html | | Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel) /drwho.html |
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews