Remember The Titans

Jerry Bruckheimer is one of those producers who surprise me from time to time. He can come up with over-the-top stuff like Top Gun, utter garbage like Days of Thunder, and then he has those brilliant moments where he produces marvelously watchable movies like The Rock and Crimson Tide. Remember the Titans falls into the last category, a marvelously watchable and entertaining film out of the Bruckheimer production stalls.

Remember the Titans takes place in 1971. It is a movie that uses football as the backdrop for a story about race relations. A new football coach moves into Alexandria, Va. This coach, Coach Boone (Denzel Washington), is part of an integration program in Alexandria. As events take it, the school board replaces current coach, Coach Yoast (Will Patton) with Boone and this does not settle well.

The conflict in the movie is that of race. The integration of the two major races in Alexandria causes much pain and this is shown in the microcosm present with the players as they go to training camp with coaches Boone and Yoast. Together, the two coaches must both get their racially mixed team working together and also accept each other and work together to win.

Remember the Titans made me emotional from the get-go, something most movies can’t do to me even the most polished tear-jerker from Steven Spielberg can’t do this! The well-written script by Gregory Allen Howard and the steady direction by Boaz Yakin (Fresh) put me into tears by the end of the film. This movie is the perfect definition of a feel-good film.

Denzel Washington and Will Patton both give excellent performances. Washington is one of the best actors in Hollywood and he lives up to that with his performance in Titans. Patton who doesn’t get enough plum roles is given a chance to really perform and he does. The two performances are what nail this movie. The other players are good also, though the script doesn’t give us enough time to bond with all the players I got a few of the players confused after a while. But there are two standout performers, they are Wood Harris (as Big Ju) and Ryan Hurst (as Bertier). These two performers are excellent.

Don’t Miss Remember the Titans. It will make you laugh and it’ll make you cry. But, in the end, Remember the Titans will make you feel good. And Jerry, please produce more good movies like this.