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| Remember the Titans |
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| picture above from www.ew.com/ew/article/review/movie/0,6115,64950~1~~,00.html |
| Rating: Good Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures Genre: Drama, Sports MPAA Rating: PG Running Length: 1 hour, 53 minutes Release Date: September 29th, 2000 (wide) Director: Boaz Yakin Cast: Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Kip Pardue, Wood Harris, Ryan Hurst, Ethan Suplee, Nicole Ari Parker, Craig Kirkwood, Donald Faison, and Kate Bosworth. |
| Plot: T.C. Williams, a high school that applies racial integration in the early 70s is observed through an excellent football team. Herman Boone (Denzel Washington), is a terrific coach who will replace another terrific coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton), in an act to encourage racial equality. Yoast, however, decides to stay as an assistant coach after being asked to by Boone. Although at first the response by white people is deeply negative, Boone works to help people respect each other. Boone, is a great man, but he has a major flaw. Even for a football coach, Boone comes across as being incredibally harsh. Yoast is also a great man, but is flawed in his inability at times to understand another man's perception. |
| Critique: For the most part Remember the Titans, is a well made, compelling and heart felt film. It has compassionate cinematography by Philippe Rousselot, as well as a magnificent score by Trevor Rabin. Boaz Yakin's direction is thorough, and strong. Denzel Washington delivers another powerful performance, and for the most part the mainly young cast (although for high school not young enough) does fine. However 'Titans,' has some large flaws. It suffers from bouts of being sappy, as well as lacking a high level of intelligence in its script. Additionally, the annoying voice over in the beginning and in the end is not needed, and the actress who delivers it needs to find another profession. The surprising strength however of Titans, is its ability to give texture to the two main characters, coaches Boone and Yoast. They are interesting people who do not exist in black and white (no pun intended), but in shades of gray. The supporting cast is very static though. Artisticly, Remember the Titans is terrific, and it delivers a plethora of emotions. Some emotions feel strained and manipulative, but a lot are genuine and effecting. Titans is a feel good movie because it succeeds most of the time in its attempts to bring emotion from its audience. Titans may not be very intellectual, and is probably not a film you'll want to remember later. I guess you could say that although you will like the Titans, you may not remember them. The whole film is, as you might surmise, fairly predictable. Still, it surprised me just enough to keep me interested, often while the film is exercising its surprising depth while the two coaches are on screen. When the coaches aren't on screen depth quickly erodes. Additionally, when I say depth when the coaches are on screen I don't mean tremendous depth, but depth nonetheless. Remember the Titans is far from perfect, but it is effective enough when it tries to be moving. Remember the Titans will be forgotten, but while you're watching you'll have a good time. review by supernothingman |