Except for the predictability and the visuals, a good film.

Rating: Null/10 (30 August 2003)

Remember the Titans is a film about integration of two societies - black and white - in Alexandria in the 70's. The movie shows how a newly integrated school, T.C.Williams, its new Head Coach and the Assistant Coach, and its football team change a society. In the movie you will find the ugliness of racism and how teamwork and friendship can overcome the colour of your skin(no, nothing about football). The acting's great, structure's okay but it's somewhat predictable, and is visually disappointing. If you are a football fan, don't see it, if you're a visual person, don't, but if you're anything else try it.
Year 1971, Alexandria, Virginia - two races of America collide with each other when a white shopkeeper shoots a black student under dubious circumstances. To satisfy the angry black population the town decides to integrate a white school and a black school together into T.C. Williams and to hire a black football coach for the school's head coach. The new Head Coach Boone (Denzel Washington) is reluctant to accept the position offer and the old Head Coach (now assistant coach) Yoast(Will Patton) cannot imagine himself, the hall-of-the-fame nominee, working under a black person. However they manage to work together and try hard to train the team hard and to change the racist attitude of team members and other people in town, but they have a lot to face...
Characters in this movie are great. Denzel Washington skillfully plays his part as a mean - but sympathetic - heroic coach who teaches each member of the team the importance of respect and teamwork. Will Patton is excellent in his part too, and his inner conflicts - pride, success, doubts - are well shown. Coach Yoast's little daughter Cheryl may be annoying to some viewers in the first half of the film but it gets better. How many of us don't know a little girl like her? The characters are realistic, and it's fun to watch.

The circular structure of the film - how it starts at a funeral, tells the story and goes back to the funeral - is used well to show continuity of the film. They could've done more than just giving the players' moustache to show that they are older, but it was a good attempt.
Shots - this is where the major problem comes in. Yes, we love seeing Sunshine on the close-up and Petey's feelings are better expressed this way but where's the action? The film hardly has any establishing shots or long shots, only midshots to close-ups. This makes the movie dull - even without the cameras it is obvious that the film is trying to follow the documentary format. Could've had more action in it.
Predictability is another major flaw - and perhaps this is why this movie attracted only a few viewers. At the first meeting Lewis Lastik kind of gave it away, even though Bertier tried to make it look menacing with his army-like pals. Also, the story primarily focuses on the white students' distress at having to deal with unwanted black students - if the storyline had some depth in it they would've shown how black students felt about being put into a place they were uncomfortable at; Gerry's girlfriend talks, where's Julius's?
Although 'based on true story' movies are often badly exaggerated and seem more fictional than the fictional ones, Remember the Titans is an exception. It seems real enough, and it deals with an important issue of racism, if rather superficially. A 7 / 10 ?