Remember The Titans : Movie Analysis

“How do Boaz Yakin and Tate Taylor depict historical content to develop the theme of racism in Remember the Titans and The Help in similar and different ways?”

Remember The Titans was a movie that was set in a very hostile time in our country. We were in the middle of what I like to call a civil war. Although there were no battles or gunfights our country was torn in half. There was an issue dealing with race in the United States. The movie, Remember the Titans is based on actual events that occurred in the year 1971. Mainly on the integration of a school called TC Williams High School. When the school was integrated the old football coach, Coach Yoast, was let go and a black coach Herman Boone was hired on. The main plot of this movie is regarding the coaching change in the school and the 1971 football season the TC Williams Titans have.

Racism, prejudice, compassion and love is what you get when you break down Remember the Titans. The movie deals with a high school football team that's been integrated and the team has to learn to deal with each other. This is true not just for the players but the coaches as well. They have to overcome huge obstacles dealing with racism and prejudice within the team, school and town.

East Hall High School is where I conducted my coaching interview. I was granted the opportunity to interview one of the most prestige High School coaches in the state of Georgia; Joe Dix. Dix is the head coach for the boys’ Varsity basketball team at East Hall. Dix and his staff were conducting try outs during our coaching interview, which is was pumped about. Coach Dix talked about the pressure on him and his team to bring home a State Title this year since it’s been a decade since his last one. Joe Dix is in his 21st season as a basketball coach and his 11th as the head coach at East Hall. As the head coach at East Hall Dix has won 2 State Titles, with 5 Final Four appearances, and 7 Region Championships.

Born in Toledo, Ohio, one of the most energetic and smartest coaches to ever step onto a sideline, this man is Jim Harbaugh. Son of Jack Harbaugh who spent a majority of Johns childhood coaching at the University of Michigan before moving out to California for a different job. Growing up around the team Jim had the opportunity to get close with the coach, a man named Bo Schembechler. Already having a relationship it really was no surprise when Bo started recruiting one of the top high school arms in the country in Jim's final year of high school to come and play quarterback for the University of Michigan. Of course Jim accepted the scholarship offer and packed his bags to move back to Michigan.

The leader I chose is Herman Boone. Herman was a former American high school football coach,most famous for coaching the team at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria,Virginia. Herman was born in Rocky Mount,North Carolina. He went to school at North Carolina Central University. He was a former high school football coach.

Yanni Hufnagel has gained the reputation of being one of the best basketball recruiters, despite the fact that he was dropped from his high school’s basketball team. That disappointment did not stop Hufnagel, but redirected his energies into serving as color commentator for the team at the local public access television station. As a child, he devoured coaching strategy books. As the color commentator, he gained a reputation for his analytical skills.

Gerry and the other white players were adamant that they would not play for Coach Boone without Coach Yoast staying on staff. Knowing that having his players sit out a year would hurt their chances of getting any kind of athletic scholarships, Coach Yoast agreed to stay on as assistant coach.

Surprisingly, the coach was a fourth grade teacher, and did a great job connecting with his students. However, once he got in his football coach mode, all bets were off with him. He had a strong desire to be right, and to be the only voice in the room. He would go as far to withhold film from other assistant coaches until after he developed a complete game plan by himself. He was also very hard on athletes, and showed no interest for connecting

Coach Boone’s leadership characteristics were that of dictatorship, a strong and inspirational leader, knowledgeable, cooperative, ambitious, persistent, willing to adapt, flexible and adaptable, well educated, encouraging and self-motivating. Coach Boone is a charismatic leader with a military style approach to coaching. He believes in re-building the players as a team. One of Coach Boone’s great strategies was to room white and black players together so they would get to know one another as people. When his players or coaches made bad decisions, Coach Boone used those opportunities for teaching and encouragement that led to success.

The following will give detailed account on the Social-psychological points made in ‘Remember the Titans’. The movie is set in the early 1970s in Alexandria, Virginia when integration of white and black schools was still a hot button subject in a majority of communities in the United States. At the most superficial value ‘Remember the Tians’ is a story about a football team prevailing against the odds with a new football coach and staff. On a deeper level the objective of the motion picture is to shed a light on the social injustices that occurred in that time period. The same injustices still manifest themselves in our society, however they are more concealed.

The primary source that I will use is based on the movie “Remember the Titans”. This movie is based on a true story of a newly appointed African-American coach and his racially integrated football team in their first season game. The movie heavily stress on the journey of a racially integrated team to win the football championship. In the movie trailer opening, we can observed a scene occurs between one of the African-American student and the new coach. The new coach ask the student “Why are you smiling?” and the answer that the student gives, “because football is fun” lead to a repetitive question of “is it fun?” The new coach stop asking once he got a definitive “no” answer from the student. Here, the coach intended to show subtly that playing

Remember The Titans is a novel written by Steve Sullivan and is a film directed by Boaz Yakin. It talks about how Bill Yoast was the real life hero that changed the struggles of black and white high school football athletes to create a championship season in racially charged Alexandria, Virginia, in 1972. The plots and characters are the same in the movie and the book. Much of the movie’s dialogue is taken directly from the book. However, there are many differences in the description of the characters’ relationships, the description of the decrease in racial tension, and the description of the increase in teamwork, unity, and pride.

A wise epigrammatist once said, “the unexpected is usually what brings the unbelievable”. “Remember the Titans” – a non-fiction sports drama, illustrates a sports narrative with a look at racial discrimination during the civil rights era. Director and producer Boaz Yakin and Jerry Bruckheimer respectively, paint a dramatic and emotional image of 1970 Virginia, when a community of African-Americans and European-Americans are forced to integrate. Expected to become a complete failure, Herman Boone (Denzel Washington), is appointed as the head coach of TC Williams High School football team. In his time of coaching, Boone leads his team to unbelievable success, making his whole community proud.

Remember the Titans is a film based on the true story of Coach Herman Boone, who takes on the task of integrating a racially divided football team in order to achieve victory. In 1970, the Supreme Court ruling in Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education permits busing students to achieve racial integration in public schools. In 1971, T. C. Williams High School hires successful, black coach, Herman Boone as head coach to lead the school's newly integrated football team, depriving Bill Yoast, former head coach and nominee for the Virginia High School Hall of Fame, of the head coach position. Yoast debates pursuing opportunities elsewhere, but when most of his white players vow to sit out the season unless he coaches, he changes his mind and stays on as Boone's assistant and defensive coordinator. Throughout training camp and the season, Boone and Yoast's black and white players learn to accept each other, to work together, and that football knows no race. As they learn from each other, Boone and Yoast also learn from them and in turn, the whole town learns from the team, the Titans.