An overall enjoyable family film

Rating: 10/10 (25 May 2001)

I will definitely say that Remember the Titans was one of the best films of 2000, but unfortunately received little acknowledgment. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the film lacks special effects with bloody, gory bodies. Or perhaps many viewers were disappointed since there were no depressing characters addicted to some type of illegal substance. Now, don't misjudge me in any way. I found movies such as Gladiator and Traffic to be incredibly well done and absolutely mesmorizing, however, can't viewers become engrossed in a film that might make you feel somewhat good when leaving the theater?
Remember the Titans offers touching comedy and drama with a lesson of friendship supported by an excellent cast. Denzel Washington brilliantly portrayed Coach Herman Boone, the tough, dedicated football coach of the new T. C. Williams High School. A good deal of his performance was due to the writing of Gregory Allen Howard, but a talented actor was still imperative to deliver some of those moving monologues. Although many would strongly disagree with me, I feel that Denzel Washington deserved an Oscar nomination, not necessarily a win but at least a nomination. This should also be partly due to the fact that he was robbed of it the year before. I was also very impressed with Will Patton's performance. I must admit that I had never thought him to be much of an actor, but he really portrayed Coach Bill Yoast in a manner that led the audience to believe him to be a dedicated coach who cared about his boys. I'm still trying to understand why he did The Postman.
The remainder of the cast was made up of several unknowns. Ryan Hurst who portrayed Gerry Bertier was easy to overlook in Saving Private Ryan and The Postman. When the film ended though and everyone was getting ready to leave, he was the one people were talking about. "Who played Gerry Bertier. He was great." In my opinion, these people are entirely correct. Ryan Hurst gave a heart-wrenching performance alongside Wood Harris who played Julius Campbell. The chemistry between the two was absolutely incredible and I am disappointed to say that the two deserved more recognition than they recieved. The rest of the cast was great as well including Donald Faison as the comical Petey Jones, Ethan Suplee as the unbiased Luis Lastik, Kip Pardue as the good-looking Ronnie "Sunshine" Bass, Earl Poitier as the soul-singing Blue Stanton, Craig Kirkwood as the gentle, religious Jerry "Rev" Harris, and Ryan Gosling as the adorable, country-dancing Alan Bosley. I hope you enjoyed my descriptive adjectives of each character. I also want to point out that although I described Kip Pardue as "good-looking," I must say everyone who wore a football jersey in this film was quite enjoyable to look at.
Despite the fact that Remember The Titans was absolutely superb, I found that there were a few down falls. Hayden Panettiere who played Sheryll Yoast was quite cute but somewhat annoying at times. This wasn't the actresses fault though. Sheryll Yoast was written as a girl who adored her father and all he was passionate about. But sometimes I got rather irritated when she would yell at the defense constantly. Yet, Hayden Panettiere was quite good at depicting a kid who was loving along with quite humorous at times. Another aspect of the movie that I didn't care for involved the character of Ray Budds played by Burgess Jenkins. The audience is supposed to see the character as "the bad guy", yet I must say I kind of felt sorry for him. But, then again I'm the type of kid who feels sorry for the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, however, Ray's different from the wolf. First of all, he's not that racist. He only said "coon" once in the film and that's about it. Second of all, once Gerry befriended Julius, he kind of dumped Ray implying that he should try to befriend some of the offensive players. It's almost as though a different type of segregation was developing within the team. I just feel that his character could have been developed more by Howard. I mean, what actually happened to him after he was kicked off the team?
Although the film had minor defects, I was very impressed that I could become engrossed in a Disney film at age thirteen. Yes, I'm young, but I'm also quite mature. I know the supporting actors of the cast will soon become household names. This is an enjoyable film for people of all ages (and races). : )