The Football That Brought Us Together
“Remember the Titans” is a film directed by Boaz Yakin, starring actors Denzel Washington, Ryan Gosling and Will Paton. The film is based on a true story with the underlying genres of sports and drama. The director’s intention is to reflect on racism in the 1970s. In my personal opinion I think that the film had a good message, but could have been improved with a little less sports. I find that sports films bore me, and although the time period (1970s) does interest me I felt that even though the film was based on a highschool sports coach, the sport involved detail did indeed ruin the effect of the movie.
Football, Racism and Death, what’s not to love? Well, quite a lot if you are like me, once you have seen one American football movie you have seen them all. “Remember the Titans” is different in this way. Although the underlying message in the film is “black lives matter”, the predominant vision is Football, Football, FOOTBALL! Although some scenes of the movie were moving and meaningful, sport took the win. The story takes place in Alexandria, Virginia in America. When African American football coach, Coach Boone comes to take the highschool football team, tensions run high once white students find out they have to play with coloured students. When Coach Boone takes the team away on training camp, they eventually grow to trust and love each other. Sure it’s a good message but although the movie is based on a true story (Coach Boones) I do not believe that the importance of the message (Black lives matter) was represented well enough.
For serious football players the sportsman seemed to spend an awful lot of time in front of the bathroom mirror if the state of their hair is anything to go by. With hair perfectly presented, and skin on fleek it seems unbelievable that the students spend any time on the football pitch. I thought that the makeup needed to be more realistic, I’m no expert on stage makeup but even I can see that a little sweat added does not take any more effort. If tiny critiques such as these- extra touseles, extra mud and sweat on the field- could make a big difference in the realism of the film.
I thought that the costume in the movie, compared to the makeup worked well with the themes, the costume looked realistic and worked well. Even the comparisons between the African American races and the White races, Whites wealth showed by the standards of their clothes and belongings and clothes meanwhile the Black students had a few less items and their clothes had a second hand appearance, as if they had already been worn. On the playing pitch the Titans wore football gear that looked realistic. The helmets and shoulder pads had an authenticity that made the sport scenes work well. Together with cheerleader outfits that a few girls were wearing in the crowd, the sport scenes did come together well.
The music and sound was picked well in the movie. Whether it be the cheers of the crowd when the Titans were playing, strong music when the Titans score a touchdown, sad music in a melancholy scene. In my opinion the music, compared to other aspects and genres of the film was one of the movie’s strengths. Viewers can tell what mood a character is in or what message the director is trying to put across by just closing their eyes and listening. Though many other things in the film were poorly executed, sound and music production excelled in putting through the deep message that Yakin should have been showing from beginning to end of film.
In conclusion I think that Yakin was well able to make “Remember the Titans” a more memorable film for the right reasons. Black civil rights is a strong and topical subject and should be presented as a strong subject. Especially at the moment with the “Black lives matter” movement we need movies that reflect powerfully and show the horror involved with it. But, if we are going to have movies such as these, how about we resolve to make them about racial integration and not about American Football!
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