Remembering Black history through Black stories. PHOTO CREDIT: ESPN
I don’t know a lot about football, or any sport for that matter, but I do know about friendship and brotherhood. That’s why “Remember the Titans” is one of my favorite movies of all time.
Football is a way of life in Virginia according to Sheryl Yoast, the coach’s daughter in the movie; this might be the case for states besides Virginia back in the 1970s as well. There was no technology other than television, so people don’t have much to do other than go outside and watch high school sports games.
This movie is based on a true story about how T. C. Williams High School (now Alexandria City High School) became an integrated school in 1971, and how the new head coach Herman Boone, played by Denzel Washington, attempted to integrate the football team.
The two real-life main characters of the film Gerry Bertier played by Ryan Hurst and Julius Campbell played by Wood Harris made this film so amazing and their relationship was the best in the movie.
This movie made me angry throughout the beginning of it and some of the middle because of how childish the white people were acting. They were literally kicking the school bus with the black students on it on their first day of school. I also didn’t like how Boone was only made the head coach of the Titans to cool down the racial tensions.
I really loved the part when the entire team is about to leave on the buses to Gettysburg College and Gerry has the gall to tell Boone that they don’t need any of “his people” in certain positions. Boone doesn’t get angry, but he tells him straight to his face that he’s got his brother on the team and his daddy; implying that Boone is in charge and Gerry is in no position to demand anything from him.
The chunk of the movie where they’re at the college bonding as a team was the best part of the movie for me because both groups of people started off hating each other. Only through rooming with a person of the opposite race and learning things about every single person there did they grow as a team and become brothers.
Well…some of them anyway.
One of the characters, Ray Budds, was such a pain the entire movie. Looking at him and hearing him speak was just painful to me. He was so bitter and rotten to his Black teammates that all I wanted was for him to be absolutely demolished on the field.
At one of their games, Ray was supposed to cover Jerry “Rev” Harris when he got the ball. However, he missed and Rev got tackled down hard and had to be taken off the field.
Thankfully, Gerry noticed that Ray intentionally missed the block on Jerry “Rev” Harris on purpose. Gerry talks to Boone in private and tells him he wants Ray off the team because of this. Now, Boone does not cut anybody, but when Gerry requested that he wanted Ray off, Boone let Gerry as the captain make that decision and stand by it. Gerry then had the honor of telling Ray he was cut and that he was the one who wanted him cut, and just like that Ray left in a little huff which made me laugh.
One of the scariest moments was when Boone was at home with his wife and two daughters and they had Sheryl over. Sheryl was watching football with Boone and making comments about the play which was hilarious. Then, a car drove by and the passenger inside threw a rock at Boone’s window and scared everyone in the house.
Yoast got upset with Boone about that happening and claimed that Boone put his daughter in danger. What made this scene satisfying was that Boone looked back at Yoast and told him that now he has an idea about what his two daughters go through nearly everyday of their lives.
The saddest part of this movie was when Gerry got into the car crash that paralyzed him from the waist down, and Julius found out. I cry everytime I watch the scene where Julius is crying to Gerry’s mother and she tells him that Gerry wants to see him and that tears won’t make him walk again.
Unfortunately, the movie ended where it began, at Gerry’s funeral. This full-circle scene made me so happy because it has all of the Titans at his funeral singing “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him GoodBye” by Steam. It showed their love and brotherhood with each other and with Gerry which I thought was very powerful.
I was about seven years old when I first watched this film, and I didn’t quite get why the white people in the film were so mean to the Black people. After all, we’re all equal and made the same, why should people of a different skin color be treated differently.
It wasn’t until I got older when I learned about racism in America throughout the first half of the 1900s that I truly understood the blatant ignorance of white people.
This movie has such a great story and message about brotherhood and how no matter your skin color, we are all able to love and care for each other no matter what.