Sadly Over-hyped

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

This movie is good but it has a lot of bad point: The end is predictable, too many characters and there is a lot of blah, blah. But I would recommend this movie because the story is touching, Remember the Titans is a true story about racism.

On April 15, 1947 Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Twenty- four years later in, ''Remember the Titans,'' we are still fighting the very same battle. Based upon a less well-known episode in the racial history of American sports, the integration of a high school football team in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971, it provides an awful lot of swelling from within. No matter your skin color, "Remember the Titans" is bound to put a lump in your throat and bring out emotions that you may have never known you had. This movie is not strictly about football. "Football teaches you to control your anger" Denzel Washington says in the movie. "Remember the Titans" provides a compelling and convincing portrayal of how a single group of people, no matter their age, can unite people together. Towards the end of the movie Julius Campbell (Wood Harris) goes to visit Gerry Bertier (Ryan Hurst) who had just been involved in a serious car accident. As Julius enters into Gerry's room the nurse tells him that visitation rights are for family only. Gerry's response is one that can show you the transformation throughout the movie. He responds, "Ma'am, can't you see that's my brother?"Coach Boone (Denzel Washington) and Coach Yoast (Will Patton) meet in the beginning of the movie and Coach Yoast shares his concern that his players won't play. Coach Boone then says that the best player will play, skin color doesn't matter. Coach Yoast then responds with, "Coach, I'm afraid that is the only thing that does matter right now." Coach Boone and Coach Yoast do an unbelievable job of balancing the effects of racism in developing these young football players into men. They use football to teach them to control their anger on the gridiron, but most importantly, in real life. One defining moment comes after Coach Boone issues a challenge for each player to get to know a player of the opposite race every single day and report to him what they learned. Julius and Gerry are undoubtedly the leaders of the team, in particularly the leaders of their race. As they accept the challenge they interact in a heart to heart conversation that could seem confrontational, but to them it was eye opening and inspirational. One event stands out so clear in my mind on the maturity and impact these players have in the small town of Alexandria. Gerry and Julius were talking on the first day of school when Gerry's girlfriend, Emma Hoyt (Kate Bosworth), approaches Gerry to talk to him. Julius was trying to be kind, and gently extended his hand to greet Emma and officially meet her. She refused his handshake and just walked away, which lead to Gerry apologizing to Julius. You could easily see that this was something that Julius was used to, so there were no hard feelings. This is something that you will see occur quite frequently in this movie. In the end of it all, this movie crosses more than one goal line and overcomes defeat. The Titans defy the odds and conquer defeat in the game of football, but more importantly, in the game of life.

This is a good film with a lot of good uplifting music but like all Disney films it is highly sanitized and joyful. Its set in the early 70's in Virginia, and yet the only racial slurs used where "coon" and "boy" both derogatory racial terms for blacks, but still not truly how it would have been back then. That is the problem with Disney is that they try to make every film super clean and G-rated to get the widest audiences but they often forget how to keep it true and realistic to the time and place that it is supposedly taking place. And to top it off, having to compress it into a regular time allotment for a film they sped up the parts of training in which the people actually did bond and become close, but that took most of the training camp for them to do not over night.

This inspiring drama written by Gregory Allen Howard and directed by Boaz Yakin is based on the true story of a Virginia high school football team and the two coaches, one black and one white, who led them during one season to great triumphs both on and off the field. As a team, they learned to practice reverence. "Remember the Titans" is set in Virginia, where in 1971 high school football was everything to the people of Alexandria. But when the local school board was forced to integrate an all-black school with an all-white school, the very foundation of football's great tradition was put to the test. Herman Boone (Denzel Washington), a young black coach new to the community, was hired as head coach of the T.C. Williams High Titans over Bill Yoast, a white man with several years seniority, a steadfast following and a tradition of winning. As the two men learned to work together, they found they had much more than football in common. Both were men of integrity and honor, with a strong work ethic.Although from vastly different backgrounds, these two coaches not only molded a group of angry, unfocused boys into a dynamic, winning team, but also helped guide them into becoming responsible young men. Their determination to work together and win brought together a town torn apart by racial prejudice and intolerance.Remember the Titans shows how radical respect — or, to use the religious term, reverence — is a flinty antidote to the virus of racial hatred and bigotry. In a variety of wonderful scenes, the filmmakers show us how these black and white boys learn to respect the inner beauty of each other's souls. The sport of football(rugby) becomes a basis for racial harmony and common effort. In addition to the stirring performances by Denzel Washington(as Coach Boone) and Will Patton(as Coach Yoast) as sterling moral leaders, mention must also be made of Ryan Hurst as Bertier and Wood Harris as Big Ju, two of the better football players whose interracial friendship serves as a galvanizing example for the rest of the Titans. The extent of the racial hatred shown might hit some people a bit too hard, but having never really known the extent of the problem, I'm definitely not in a position to comment on it. A mention must also be made of the sublime music direction by Trevor Rabin, better known for his stint as the guitarist in the British progressive rock band Yes. He weaves in beautiful lines of music, intelligently composed to never sway the viewers attention while reinforcing each and every move the script writer envisioned, making this a truly complete movie.