A typical American spectacle

Rating: 7/10 (8 June 2005)

It certainly wasn't the sport shown in this movie that made me decide to give it a try. I don't know anything about American Football and it's probably one of the least known sports over here, because we only get to see something of it once a year: when the Superbowl is on. So that didn't do it for me, but what made me decide to watch it was the fact that Denzel Washington played an important role in it.
He's coach Herman Boone, a newly appointed African-American football coach who will have to lead a high school football team in Virginia, during the early 70's. Racism is still the norm and even though the school has been recently mixed under federal mandate, integration is far from reality. Many white players even threaten to sit out until he is replaced by a white coach. But he doesn't give up that easily and during a training camp, he learns the white and black players how to get along. In the end they all become friends and it's that bond that will get them through the season undefeated. But when the captain of the team gets injured in a car accident, just before the state championship, they will have to prove that they can adapt and that they still can win the match...
True stories have always been a great source of inspiration for Hollywood, but personally I can't name too many of these movies that I really liked. The main reason for that is that they are almost always preachy and as sweet as syrup. "Remember the Titans" doesn't completely get caught in that trap, but isn't really able to avoid it either. Or wouldn't you call a movie that shows a coach, who goes with his team to one of the greatest battlefields on the American continent, while giving away a speech about team spirit, fighting for each other and things like that, not preachy??? I certainly do, but I'm glad that not everything about the movie was like that.
The acting for instance was OK. You can't expect anything less than OK from a man like Denzel Washington of course, but most of the other actors did a nice job too, even though most of them were complete strangers to me. The direction too isn't bad. Again, Boaz Yakin is a complete stranger to me, but what he has done with this movie could have been a lot worse. OK, there is nothing exceptional, original or daring about it, but he knows the conventions of the genre and has followed them rule by rule.
All in all I must say that this wasn't the worst movie about sports. OK, it will never be in my list of favorite movies, but there are worse ways to spend your time. I'm sure that it will be loved by the American audience, especially the young males, because this is one of those typical American spectacles. But even the others might give it a try. I did and wasn't completely convinced, but also not entirely disappointed by it. That's why I give it a score in between a 6.5/10 and a 7/10.