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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/

ESSAY COVERSHEET

Instructions: For each essay, complete a coversheet after you have written a discovery draft and then submit the coversheet with all subsequent drafts of the essay, revising the coversheet as needed if your approach to the essay changes.  You may write on the back of this sheet if you need more room.

1.         In a word or phrase, describe your topic. __Critique of Remember the Titans________________

2.         In a word or phrase, give your working title. ______Remembering the Titans__________________

3.         Complete the following sentence that tells why you are an insider on this subject; that is, what qualifies you to write on this subject.?

            I am an insider on this subject because

I feel like I have a personal attachment to the movie because I am from the same area that the movie took place, and I have friends who’s played for and against the team.

4.         In two to four sentences complete the following, which should describe your target audience in specific terms: class, gender, race, age, educational level, geographical location and the like.

            My target readers are

Those that have seen the movie and that have enjoyed the movie are my target audience. I feel that everyone likes to know the truth and even more about a subject when its presented in an appealing manner.

            I have chosen this specific audience because

I feel that I can relate to this audience best, because that’s the way I am when it comes to learning about new and intriguing topics.

5.         Complete the following statements that indicate (a) the purpose that you want to achieve in writing this essay for this specific audience and (b) the response you expect from this audience.        

            My purpose in writing this essay is to

Inform those that are reading what I have written that they writers of the movie did a great job of researching, and being historically accurate.

            I hope my audience will respond by

Appreciating the historical references and relevance in the movie.

6.         Complete the following sentence to indicate what value your essay holds for its readers.

            My readers will benefit from reading this essay by

Realizing that telling the entire story is important to being credible as well as earning respect.

7.         In a word or phrase, identify the role you are playing as the author of this essay:  Are you writing in your role as a university student, new parent, concerned citizen, dedicated worker, or what?

Movie critic

8.         In a complete sentence, state your thesis.  Be sure that this statement is the same thesis that appears in your essay.

Being historically accurate is important when gaining credibility, respect, as well as even 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. The facts were accurate 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 doesn’t have their facts strait, the entire piece is not 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 took place during the movie. 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 their skin. During that scene Petey tried to warn and or inform “Sunshine” that they weren’t wanted in that restaurant, and that racism is still relevant in that area as well a in that time period. “Sunshine” being from across the country in California didn’t 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 effect the lives of the characters, as well as show the time period that this movie was taking 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 the movie, 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?

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, similar 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 as well as didn’t help them to succeed. 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. These two examples both show how dedicated and devoted to one another each of the Titans team members were. In the case of Allen he put his own pride and glory aside for the betterment of the team. Similar but different in its own way Gerry put aside his own friendship with Ray for the betterment of the team.

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 real life, it did do a great job of keeping the story going without giving away 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 of the reasons I’ve mentioned in my critique of the movie.

Due to the fact that this movie non fictional, and set during a rough time in American history. The facts were accurate 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 doesn’t have their facts strait, the entire piece is not 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 took place during the movie. 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 their skin. During that scene Petey tried to warn and or inform “Sunshine” that they weren’t wanted in that restaurant, and that racism is still relevant in that area as well a in that time period. “Sunshine” being from across the country in California didn’t 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 effect the lives of the characters, as well as show the time period that this movie was taking 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 the movie, 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?

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, similar 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 as well as didn’t help them to succeed. 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. These two examples both show how dedicated and devoted to one another each of the Titans team members were. In the case of Allen he put his own pride and glory aside for the betterment of the team. Similar but different in its own way Gerry put aside his own friendship with Ray for the betterment of the team.

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 real life, it did do a great job of keeping the story going without giving away 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 of the reasons I’ve mentioned in my critique of the movie.

·         Remember the Titans

·         Freakonomics

·         I am Legend

·         Fresh Prince of Bel Air

·         House

·         American Idol

·         Work done by Robert Frost

·         Lacrosse team

·         Barak Obama

·         Hillary Clinton

Listing Subjects Related to Identity and Community

• St. Johns lacrosse team
• The filaful guy out side of gate six
• Barak Obama
• Hillary Clinton
• The Pope

Listing Subjects Related to Work and Career

• A division-1 lacrosse player
• The workers at the dining halls
• Peddlers on the street

Choosing a subject

I think that I’m going to review Remember the Titans. I feel like because I’ve seen this movie several times, I feel like I can contribute an accurate and valid critique of the movie, because I’ve seen it so many times. Also because I’m from the same area that the movie takes place, as well as the fact that I have friends who’s fathers played on the team or against the team depicted in the movie.

Reviewing what I know about the subject

1)      I’m interested in this movie because like I stated before it is one of my favorite movies as well as I feel like I have a personal connection with the movie.

2)      I like the fact that the movie is non- fictional and is apart of history. I don’t like that its been critiqued by so many people that I feel like my critique wont match up to professionals.

3)      I look for reasons why the subject is good or bad and not just if its good or bad.

4)      I can become familiar the subject by watching the movie, as well as read reviews on the movie

Familiarizing myself with the subject

I will be watching the movie in the next couple of days or so to refresh my memory on the individual aspects of the movie, as well as familiarize my self with the more unique traits of the movie like quotes for example.

Making a Tentative Judgment

I feel like this movie is one of the greats as well as the precedent for any historical or non fictional sports movie. I also feel like the only other movies that possibly even matches up against this movie would be either Rudy and or Hoosiers. I feel like other movies such as Friday Night Lights made an attempt to create a movie with as much drama and impact as Remember the Titans, but failed.

Identifying and Understanding potential readers.

I’m writing this review for any one who is interested in watching the movie, and or any one who has seen the movie.

My readers are likely to already know that this is a movie that is non fictional, and that it was and an award winning film done in the year 2000.

My readers are possibly likely to think a variety of things, as well as not look at the movie so greatly as I do, because the movie was done 8 years ago and multiple sports movies have come out since then. My readers are likely to not like the movie as much any more, because they might feel that a movie that was released more recently could be better, like for example We are Marshall

The readers of my review my look at the movies more critically than I might as well as might look at the movie with a different criteria than I will.

Learning more about standards for judging your subject

·         Cinematography

·         The acting

·         Dialogue

·         Historical correctness

·         Directing

·         Production

Listing reasons

The movie was well done, it won many awards, historically correct, and the actors were nominated and won many prestigious awards.

Anticipating readers’ alternative judgments, questions, and objections

What makes the movie so good?

Why does this movie have such an impact?

What is the conflict in the movie?

How is the conflict resolved?

Defining your purpose for your readers

My purposes for my readers is to inform them about what I think about this movie and try to convince them how to go and see this movie, and hopefully take my opinions into consideration.

Playing lacrosse and having my schedule revolve around practices; lifting sessions, advisor meetings, as well as team meetings for me personally this year has flown by. The second semester has gone by so much faster due to the routine that we’ve gotten our selves into, with practices Monday through Friday and then games on Saturdays. Our 13 game season is now down to 2 games left. After those games are over it’s the last that well see of our seniors in a St. John’s uniform and possibly the last time most of them will play lacrosse again. I feel like right now I’m burnt out and that I just can’t wait until the summer comes, but I know that ill probably take a few days to get away for a bit, but then I know that I have to get right back at it because with division-1 sports there really is no off-season.

My summer will revolve around lacrosse and fun will fit in some where in between. I just feel like if I want to have a successful career here as well as have a winning season next year, my game as well as my teammates game has to step up, especially with the amount of talent were losing from our senior class this year. We have to keep our tradition going and not let our alumni down with a failure for a program. I’ve never been a loser through little leagues and through high school and I don’t intend to start now. I look at this season as a knock down and like any great champ you learn from your knock downs and get right back into the fight, while making some adjustments to help you succeed.

Remember the Titans a movie depicting the story of a high school football team in Virginia that went undefeated while dealing with racial barriers amongst the team as well as within the community due to a shooting that occurred when a white store owner believed a young black man was stealing. This created a schism in the community between the blacks and whites. T. C.  Williams is a high school in Alexandria Virginia with a hall of fame nominated coach, known as coach Yoast, who is played by Will Patton. Coach Yoast is demoted as the head football coach, and the job of head coach is taken by Denzel Washington’s character Coach Boone, who happens to be black, which causes a lot of controversy in the town.

The award winning actors were very believable in this award winning film. The directors did a great job with filming the movie, especially the scenes where the team was playing the actual games. This was not like just another football or sports movie, this movie had a lot more to it story wise, similar to Hoosiers and unlike Love and Basketball which is more story than basketball. I feel that because there is an equal balance of story and action it keeps the viewers interested an awake through out the entire movie.

Remember the Titans is a movie that I’ve seen several times, as well as a movie I consider to be one of my favorites. Also being from Fairfax, Virginia which is at most ten minutes from Alexandria, and I used to go to church across the street from T.C. Williams I feel like I have a connection with the movie. I also played against a lot of the same schools that they played against in the movie. A fun fact about the movie is that Marshall high school, the sky blue team in the movie that was very good; today they are absolutely terrible in just about every sport today.

I think that a case of the Mondays doesn’t quite describe what I’m feeling and or talking about. A case of the Mondays would be something like I don’t want to go to class today because I was so comfortable in my bed after sleeping all weekend and partying my liver away. This is more of like life is a midget and is kicking me in the head with steel toed Timberland boots, which happened to have poop on them. I think that you can get the gist of how my day has gone so far.

When even after you leave the worst part of your day, it continues to get worse that’s when you know that you either did something real bad in your past life, and or you did something bad recently and karma is here to kick your tail. Like I mentioned before when I had water spilled on my pants, I went back to my dorm to get laptop so that I could go to study hall. While I was on the elevator I was stuck in a confined area with a girl who looked like she would kill me if I just happened to breathe. So yeah I held my breath for the elevator ride up to the 4^th floor, and of course you know the way that my day is going we stopped on every floor on the way to the 4^th floor. Yes my day continues and I have to live every minute wondering what else will go wrong today.

After taking a test which I really hope went well today, I went to eat a normal breakfast from Montgoris dining hall with my teammates. We all went to practice knowing that today was going to be the practice from hell. After lifting lower body with our strength coach we got suited up for a practice in which we knew was going to be WAYYY more pain than pleasure. The drills seemed to go on forever, especially because they were all done at full speed with only a short moment to rest. With our coaches yelling at us constantly practice just became more miserable by the moment.

Later after being exhausted from being run into the ground and being hit with lacrosse sticks for two hours I went back to the place where I started my day, Montgoris dining hall to have a meal and relax with friends. After getting my food and drinks I headed to a table in which a few of my friends were sitting. After painfully walking over to the table that was conveniently all the way on the other side of the cafeteria, I spill my drinks on a girl that I had never met before. Yes, you read correctly drinks not just one drink spilled on her but both drinks. Of course I wasn’t able to avoid the mess; I too had liquids all over my shirt as well. I finally sat down in embarrassment and anxiously ate my food with the intent to get out of there as fast as possible. I leave my table and put my tray onto the non moving conveyor belt. As I began to walk away to leave the conveyor belts starts moving, and an unaccompanied half filled cup of water tips over and spills onto my pants. So now I’m at the point in which I can’t even get mad and just accept that it’s just that day where when it rains oh buddy it really pours.