Such moments reveal Remember the Titans 's inclination to the cartoonish fantasies of the Walt Disney Corporation. Tearfully, the two join hands and pledge eternal friendship. Then Julius suggests that the two will live in the same neighborhood some day. This scene, more than any other, encapsulates Remember the Titans ' desire to mold the complex and contentious history of race relations in sport into a soundbite that the audience can feel good about. As inspiring as all this sounds, the racist dispositions of sports figures like baseball pitcher John Rocker and the continuing lack of black management and coaching in the NFL reflect that some people in the world of sports, if any, actually remember the T.C. Williams Titans or, more to the point, what the film suggests they represent.
Racism persists, particularly in the field of athletics, in an insidious and multifaceted fashion.
The heavy-handed and simplistic narrative in Remember the Titans may inspire good feelings for the short course of a ninety minute movie, but falls terribly short as a social polemic. All rights reserved.