Remember The Titans Essay

In Remember the Titans we witness Coach Boone fighting for civil rights, signifying the image of an outsider integrating into a foreign white team as their coach. Director Boaz Yakin, uses techniques to strengthen Coach Boone’s character where the initial hate and disrespect towards him succours the development of a meaningful arc. The disrespect and aggression is employed when a brick is thrown through his house window, threatening him with the derogatory coloured comments calling him “Coach Coon”. The pressure of quitting was not felt and heroically he encompasses the journey with Yakin emphasising Boones evocative discipline and determination forcing integration amongst the segregated football team. This technique is employed when we witness Coach Boone stepping up, pushing equality for the players in a determined strike to stop racial abuse for good. His actions initiate the forced building of friendship and acceptance when he forces both races to get to know and accept each other at the camp. Yakin heightens the themes of overcoming racism when Boone rallies the troops together to support their team mate during a sad time. Instinctively, the implicit segregation is evoked further bringing unity to the team, Coach Boone emerges as a ‘hero’ to both the coloured and white community.

Throughout the film we, see both the coach, individual players, and the team as a whole face numerous psychological obstacles which they overcome to reach the final. The film is based highly around racism and racial divides within basketball. Throughout the film we can see a constant battle with the idea of Perception, and how both player and overcome this. In order to form the 1966 championship winning team,

After Gerry’s disastrous car accident, Coach Boone is faced with the moral dilemma of selfishness. Boone has always been a coach who strives to win, not only for himself, but for the team, however after the accident, he lacks empathy for the boys and thinks more about what he wants. When he suggests that the team incorporate more training to cope with the changes so that they can win, Yoast feels that Boone is being selfish and lacking consideration of the team's loss, so confronts him with the questions “Is this even about football anymore? Or is it just about you?” To express his reaction to being described as selfish, the

In the beginning of the movie, Coach Boone had to build ethos for himself because of racial differences. Coach Boone, being of African American descent, was hired over their current caucasian coach and this caused the white football players to boycott the team until Coach Yoast became their assistant coach. Coach Boone lead his team by example and his dedication to his craft. He showed the players that he did not care about what color you wore on your skin, but of the sport that brought them together. During his speech he states “I don’t care if you like each other or not. But you will respect each other. And maybe, I don’t know, maybe we’ll learn to play this game like men” (Boone). He uses the built trust aspect of ethos very well to close this speech.

Coach Boone sets up a training camp in which every player is required to go. This camp was set up in order for the team to get to know each other and become closer. When getting on the buses for the departure for the camp coach Boone realised that the whites and blacks were split up and on different buses. Boone came up with a strategy to get the players closer by making them sit next to someone of the opposite race on the

The film wasn’t about that 13-0 record and winning a state championship, but the struggle that came with it and all the hardships they had to deal and get past. Racism, prejudice, compassion and love were all key aspects of this film as shown. The racism, prejudice of the team when they first met was severe and had been changed. The love and compassion came as the team grew to become one unit and love each other and be able to become something more powerful than they could be by themselves.

This offer was very tempting, and I think that this was the moment when Coach Yoast experienced the biggest moral dilemma, whether he should help Boone or not. In the beginning of the movie Yoast was not enthusiastic about the fact that he needs to step down, and give his position to a new black Coach. Despite the skin color, Coach Yoast realized that together with Boone they share one common goal. This goal is to win. Coach Yoast ethical dilemma was decision during the game, whether to be a good leader, help the team and Boone, or to stay quiet and see what happens. Regardless of the white and black difference, Yoast was the Coach , a man of his word, not just a random football fan. He faced referees during the game, and that was a crucial moment where two colors started to vanish.

In the movie, Coach Boone is a master motivator. He does an excellent job of energizing his players, sustaining the motivation, directing the motivation to the right players at the right time, and also knowing when to stop motivating. The satisfaction progression hypothesis is also displayed in the movie. Coach Boone knows that the small things, such as making the routine plays in the game, must be done first before the main goal can be achieved, winning the game. He also has a high expectancy of his team. He believes that the effort of his team will lead to performance and that the performance will lead to results. He expects his team to practice just as hard as they play in the game. Julius Campbell and Gary Bertier, the two main characters on the team, are also excellent motivators. They get their teammates pumped up before and during the game.

The team went through a very challenging formation phase because there was a lot of resistance to integrate the school and football team. White players were concerned about loosing their starting positions and were upset that their Head Coach (Bill Yoast) was demoted to Assistant Coach, which almost caused them to quit the team. The black players were under a lot of pressure as well, being placed in a white school and knowing that they would be subject to a lot of hatred. Both the new Head Coach (Herman Boone) and Coach Yoast initially did not want to take on their new positions.

Boone and his family face horrible experiences when moving to Alexandria. When moving to the neighborhood, many neighbors were so upset but many were also happy that he didn’t back down. He was offered the head coach position but turned it down because he felt it would be incredibly disrespectful to Coach Yoast. Boone & Yoast agreed to make the relationship work. The African American students meet with Coach Boone in the gym, the meeting turns into a disaster when Coach Yoast and the white students arrive and disturb the meeting. Gerry Bertier was one of the students among the crowd of white students to interrupt. “I’m Gerry Bertier. I’m the only All-America you got on this team. If you want us to play for you, you reserve over half the positions …we don’t need any of your people on defense we’re already set.” said by Gary Bertier to Coach Boone. Boone makes it clear that all players will be on the team regardless of the color of their skin.

As the movie progressed and Coach Boone’s vision came together, Coach Yoast slowly but surely began to show more support. Coach Boone’s consistent preaching, that he did not view the team as black and white players, but instead, simply as football players who must form cohesion and take actions not for self, but for team, eventually rubbed off on Coach Yoast. This is where the culture in the coaching staff began to form. Trust also began to build and the three coaches, now more cohesive themselves were able to accomplish much more in order to coach their players much more constructively. By the time the Titans had made it to the championship, all three coaches had put their differences aside, bought in to the vision and culture, and were able to coach their players to victory.

While the rag-tag team of players enjoyed several glowing reviews over the decades, the Carlisle men felt like they were denied proper credit. A large portion of the press would attribute their victories to their White Yale coaches. Their losses, on the other hand were the inevitable evidence of their “Indian character flaws”.

On the other hand, one of the players ended up getting kicked off the team as a result of not creating friendships and working with the change. The angered fire inside him only showed the other members of the team how easily it could get out of control and overtake him and impact his actions. Coach Boone (Denzel Washington) comes up with different ways for the team to create friendships that would help them work as a team. The new relationships were key to helping the boys play better, and Louis was a catalyst for this change. When they got past their differences; they were able to enjoy themselves and the

Fear. the one rule about fear is fight of flight. You either run away from the problem or face it head on. In the movie the boys were afraid that they would lose their starting positions and asked to coach to save their spots. Also some of the Coaches were afraid that they would lose their jobs to black Coaches. Mr. King was afraid he would be killed, attacked, or even fail to complete his mission. Though both in the movie and Mr. King fought instead of choosing flight.

One of the main lessons that a modern audience can take from the film “Remember the Titans is that the colour of your skin doesn’t matter, and it doesn’t matter what sport you play or what you do, that not listening to others comments but ignoring them and just doing what you love can give great results in the long run.