if one examines it at a subliminal angle, "Remember the Titans" is not as conventional as it may seem

Rating: 8/10 (25 September 2009)

I freely admit that the primary reason why I dislike so many motion pictures of the 21st century is because they are repetitive. They are predictable from start to finish. They are hackneyed and tiresome. They just do the same thing over and over again. But amongst all of those examples of reused themes and stories, there are a few individuals that stand out as not only passable, but even glorious and inspiring such as Boaz Yakin's conventional, but surprisingly moving "Remember the Titans": a film about the true story of the T.C. Williams football team that not only became one of the first integrated football teams in the nation, but the one that went on to become one of the best despite the ups and downs they had from the start.
The movie stars Denzel Washington as Coach Herman Boone, who not only was hired to supervise the integrated team, but was promoted to head coach over Caucasian coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton) who had been the head coach for years prior. Boone and Yoast take the reluctantly integrated Titans under their wings and very slowly begin to transform them from racially divided groups into a unification that begins to inspire change in their southern town.
Now, the plot and story of "Remember the Titans" is one that has been used over and over again and will be used again and again in the future. The story is entirely predictable. You know how it's going to start. You know how it's going to end. You can even make some pretty accurate guesses about what's going to happen in the middle. But what really surprised me was what an involved film came out of all of this convention. Director Boaz Yakin is due enormous credit for this as are the writers, but the primary thrust behind the hand of "Remember the Titans" are the characters of the two coaches and the actors who portray them. Denzel Washington, one of the finest actors we have today, is hands-down brilliant as the school's first African American coach and Will Patton is also very good in the movie as well and their performances strengthen what the screenwriters did.
The irony is that although the plot is conventional, if one examines certain aspects of the movie at a subliminal level, it's not as recycled as it may seem. A typical conventional football movie about integrated teams would have the white coach be a racist, perhaps due to change, perhaps not and the black coach a thoroughly perfect individual. But here, that's not the case. In fact, Washington's character is not all that noble and Patton's character not all that prejudicial. These men are portrayed as professionals, but also as human beings with strengths and flaws.
Now in regards to the players themselves, there are some high points and some low points. The focus set on the team is a friendship between a white player (Ryan Hurst) and a black player (Wood Harris) and their struggle to convince the rest of the team and their families and school that people are people regardless of the color of their skin. Their story I found interesting if conventional. Another great touch was Coach Yoast's ten-year-old daughter who loves football as opposed to dolls. There was also a good subplot about an obese player and his strive to make it to college. But there are also some weak points and characters such as one in particular who backs out on his team at one point and the movie doesn't really center in on that moment the way it should have. And there were a lot of supporting characters that didn't strike with the impact that I think they were meant to be. Perhaps the filmmakers tried to include too much given that it's a true story.
Despite the fact that it is conventional, perhaps too conventional for the tastes of some people, I was very enthralled and absorbed by "Remember the Titans" and the two stellar performances by Washington and Patton. The message of racism and the strive to dissolve it has been carried out better (and worse) in other films and here it plays its part just fine. It is a Disney movie, so it doesn't get carried away with itself, but rather just tries to communicate a good, inspiring message for the whole family, which is what a movie of this sort should do. It takes a certain genius to mold something inspirational out of a convention-packed formula, but Boaz Yakin has scored with "Remember the Titans."