Remembering The Titans

 

O’Brien Berry

Dr. Leston

English 1000C

29 April 2008

Teachers Draft: Remembering the Titans

 

 

 

When it comes to non-fictional films historical correctness is important when gaining credibility, respect, as well as maintaining interest. Remember the Titans is the ultimate story of struggle and success. The movie is a non fictional story about the 1971 T.C. Williams football team. The movie also depicts how the community as well as the Titans football team struggled with the integration of the school, given the time period as well as the fact that a white store owner killed a young black male whom he suspected of stealing from his store. Denzel Washington plays Herman Boone, an African American football coach who was promoted to the head coaching position of the T.C. Williams football program. This promotion stirred up a lot of controversy, because Coach Boone was promoted over a hall of fame coach in Bill Yoast, played by Will Patton. When the news got out that coach Boone was an African American coach from North Carolina, who coached AA football as in comparison to AAA football, the community didn’t take a liking to him immediately, making the struggle for respect and equality that much harder.

 Due to the fact that this movie non fictional, and set during a rough time in American history, where racism was very present in the south. The facts were relevant thus making the historical aspect of the movie accurate as well. I feel that if a movie, novel, and or even a news report based on an actual event haven’t accurately depicted the event, the entire piece may not be credible. Like giving a speech if the audience finds that the speaker is wrong about a particular aspect of their presentation, it makes it hard for them to believe the rest of their presentation. Being from the area in which the movie takes place, it’s easier for me to believe the events that were depicted in the movie, but for some one who is either from the north or the west might have trouble believing certain events that were depicted during the film. An example of this would be after the Titans won a game and they were celebrating down the street with their teammate Ronnie Bass, also known as “Sunshine”, who happened to be from California. They were denied seating the restaurant because of the color of the skin of his African American teammates Petey, and Blue. During that scene Petey tried to warn and or inform “Sunshine” that they weren’t wanted in that restaurant, and that racism and prejudices still occurred in that area as well as during that time period. “Sunshine” being from across the country in California wasn’t used to the south and didn’t quite realize that racism still took place even in that day and age.  This scene in the move does a great job of depicting history, and how it effected the lives of the characters, as well as illustrate to the audiences the time period were the film took place.

 Now, like I mentioned before about getting all of the facts is highly important, especially in a non-fictional piece. In Remember the Titans the directors and producers did in a way mislead the viewers into believing that Gerry Bertier’s football success all ceased after they won a game, and Gerry got into that dreadful accident, where he pulled out into an intersection unaware of the on coming traffic. In reality on that terrible night he was awarded the Defensive player of the year award, at their annual banquet dinner by his coaches and teammates. Unlike what was depicted in the movie, in actuality he was really on his way home from the banquet when his 1971 Camaro’s engine malfunctioned resulting in his paralyzing accident. This scene in the movie might have been altered for the purpose of keeping the story going, but my only question would be, why not portray the conflict in the movie exactly the way it happened in real life? I think that you could also argue that though they didn’t include the part in the movie where he received the award, doesn’t mean that they aren’t being historically correct. The point that I was getting at was the fact that when the actual events are changed to either make the story less gruesome, or more suitable for a particular age group, that’s wrong and not doing the movie justice.

 Another aspect of the movie that the audience might wonder would be how close are the characters in the movie, to the actual people that the actors were portraying. For the most part the actors did a great job in my opinion of depicting their real life counter parts in the movie. On the other hand some of the characters were created to help move the story along and to maintain the strength of the moral in the film, which has a correlation to Gerry’s accident. For example the character Ray Budds, was Gerry’s selfish and racist best friend, who refused to block for his black teammate. In the movie his selfishness brought the team down, thus making it harder for them meet their team goals as well as obtain success. Gerry put aside his own friendship with Ray for the betterment of the team.  Another example of a fictional character would be Allen Bosley the white defensive back, who gave up his spot for Petey Jones, to help them win the game. Allen was able to swallow his own pride and glory for the betterment of the team. These two examples both show how dedicated and devoted to one another each of the Titans team members were.

 Remember the Titans an award winning film is a non fictional depiction of the 1971 T.C. Williams Titans football team. The movie does a great job of being historically correct with the events that occurred during the movie, as well as showing the unification of the team as well as the community with every win. Though the movie didn’t stay exactly on track, by portraying every aspect of the movie exactly as it happened in reality, it did do a great job of keeping the story going and maintaining the storyline without making it to the audience that they missed or changed something. In comparison to other non fictional representations of sports movies, I feel that Remember the Titans is the best because it is historically correct, gained respect from credible critics, as well as maintains the interest of its viewers.

 

 WORKS SITED

 

1.  Brogan, Patrick. “Remember the Titans” September. 2000. Glendale, AZ.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210945/
2. ESPN.com. “Questioning the Story” http://www.chasingthefrog.com/reelfaces/rememberthetitans.php
3. Family members of the players. “Original Titans” September.2000. Alexandria, VA. http://www.71originaltitans.com/

 

 

 

 

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~ by 121hob on May 8, 2008.