Remember The Titans Movie Review Samples

Remember the Titans was released in 2000 and directed by Boaz Yakin. The film is based on true events as a black coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) has to take charge and introduce a racially diverse football team at T. C. Williams High School in Alexandria in 1971. The main protagonist is Coach Boone. While looking at the actions of Boone during the course of the film, it is important to note his background. Before becoming arriving in Alexandria, Boone was very active in the civil rights movement and stood up to the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina. He was passed for a head coaching job there in favor of a white coach. These events have shaped his coaching and leadership style going forward.
Boone comes across as a tough and fair man. He will not back down from anything. He possesses an ‘in your face’ attitude. His leadership style is tough and fair. He demands an almost perfectionist approach from his players. He keeps pushing until they drop and have nothing left in their system. It’s interesting to note the philosophy behind his actions. On one hand, it can be seen that he is driving his players to exhaustion as cruel and harsh. On other hand, he is building character in his players. He doesn’t want them to take things for granted. Nothing was handed to him in his life. He is had to fight for everything he has gotten and works harder when he doesn’t get it. Considering that he is the first black coach at T.C. Williams, the expectation is that he has to be better than a regular white coach. This speaks more to his character as a person with a hard and tough exterior who takes nothing at face value.
Another aspect of Coach Boone seen throughout the film is that he likes to lead by example. For instance, take the scene when they are first leaving for camp. After being rudely spoken to by a couple of white players, he immediately notices the one bus has all the black players and the other all the white players. He immediately mixes both buses according to their playing position such as defense, offence etc. He even makes sure that the one white player and one black player share a room together at the camp and learn about each other’s lives. Like in any other sport, these team building exercises are essential for a team to act as one. Another instance of leading by example and communicating to the team to act as one is when he takes a team for a run early in the morning. It should also be taken into account is that he is running with the team again harkening to leading by example. They finally stop at an area as Coach Boone says is where the battle of Gettysburg took place. He says, “If we don't come together right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were. I don't care if you like each other of not, but you will respect each other.” Through these series of events, Coach Boone makes it clear that bonding with each other is important to the winning experience. A team cannot win is its members don’t like and respect each other.
Is Coach Boone a good coach? To answer that question, it should be taken into the account the time in which has taken over as coach. The short answer is yes. At the beginning of the film, he shows that he expects excellence from his players. He is tough and fair with his players. He doesn’t favor one player over the other. He pushes to team to be better than the rest and deal with the harsh realities of life. To Coach Boone, it doesn’t matter whether the player was white or black. What matters that they were willing to push themselves for the betterment of the team. Coach Boone’s greatest attribute was how he motivated his players. He gives speeches and leads by example to them with the hope they will learn something from it. Because of the racially diverse nature of the team, the reason he probably pushed them so hard is because they would have now have something in common. He doesn’t want to inspire hatred from his players towards him but rather they now understand they just shared a common agonizing experience. Coach Boone drives home the point, ‘United we Stand, Divided we fall.’ It is this same point that he pushes throughout the film that makes his team better for it.