Titans Analysis Released in September

¶ … Titans Analysis Released in September 2000, the Walt Disney Picture's film Remember the Titans depicts the true story of a year of high school football glory for T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia. However, this story is not an everyday run to the state championship, but rather a story of overcoming adversity in the face of extraordinary racial tension. Coach Herman Boone, portrayed in a lead role by Denzel Washington, leads his team as a token African-American head coach in a profession dominated by whites.

Instilling a sense of hard work in his team and helping the segregated squad unify as one in the face of racial tension and stereotypes, he leads the Titans to an undefeated season and a number two national ranking. These achievements parallel the historical success of the real life 1971 Titans, making the movie akin to a historical fiction.

Also staring Will Patton as Coach Bill Yoast and Wood Harris as Julius Campbell, the film directed by Boaz Yakin and written by Gregory Allen Howard, is factual in many aspects while allowing for Hollywood creativity in its interpretation of the historical events (IMDB). In considering the film's historical accuracies and even the accounts of former Titan players on the movie, Remember the Titans is factual in its historical events and it captures the atmosphere of the time.

Yet many of the events are dramatized in order to re-enforce the movie's primary themes of character development, overcoming adversity, and the power of strong individuals to unify and thus unify an entire city for the better. The historic political and social drama of Remember the Titans is based on real life events in the Untied States as well as Alexandria, Virginia, and while the real life events alluded to in the movie capture the prevailing mood of 1971, they are not entirely factually. While Brown vs.

Board of Education in 1954 ruled that schools must be racially integrated, the reality was that this would not be the case (the National Center)('71 Original Titans). Across the United States, as well as in Alexandria, Virginia, high schools remained subject to unofficial racial segregation (Bos). Then in April of 1971, a landmark ruling was passed down from the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, the court made it clear that integration of schools would have to take place, and allowed for busing to make it possible (Bos). Thus T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia was chosen to become the consolidated city public high school to incorporate the previously somewhat racially segregated high schools in the city, setting the stage for drama both on the field and in the community.

These historical events are described in the movie in the narrations at the beginning of the movie by then Head Coach Yoast's daughter Sheryl. However, the movie depiction is not entirely accurate; Sheryl implies the segregation as official and that T.C. William's High School was a combination of the "white" and the "black" schools. In reality, there were three public high schools in Alexandria that were socially segregated but lot legally ('71 Original Titans). Nevertheless, the spirit of the historical events are accurately depicted.

This consolidation of the three high schools in Alexandria led to an uproar in the community, depicted in the movie, thus making the movie accurate. According to reports from former players, this is all accurate. The results of forced federal (not local) integration, as there could be no more unofficial segregation with only one public high school, led to "a lot of tension and apprehension" ('71 Original Titans). The movie illustrates such an atmosphere in Alexandria as there are scenes of protest at various points in Remember the Titans.

While it is impossible for the exact incidents of turmoil to be one hundred percent accurate, the scenes do present the real life historical dilemma facing Alexandria in 1971. Ultimately, however, there is exaggeration in the extent the racial issues are presented in Remember the Titans. Patrick Welsh, a teacher at T.C. Williams in 1971 reported that, "Disney had taken liberties with the facts, suggesting an overheated atmosphere of racial animosities... that just hadn't exited" (Merron).

This proves that dramatic exaggeration exists in the film, but because the exaggerations were based on historical truth, that the exaggerations are intended to illustrate key points in the movie's theme. An example of a blatant exaggeration was the protestors at the school in the film. This did not happen in real life (Merron)('71 Original Titans). The exaggerations were necessary to help the movie portray the impact and environment in which the Titan football team played in. Furthermore, the T.C.

William's football team was seen as unified, and even a unifying force to rally behind the community. The movie portrays the football team as a symbol that transcended racial lines, and this could be reported of the actual impact of the football team in Alexandria. The teammates and coaches overcame their pre-integration biases and became friends and this rubbed off on the community ('71 Original Titans). The movie sheds light on the football team's ability, through racial acceptance and winning, to have an impact on the community.

This is a historical parallel to the football team's actual role as its success on the field translated into acceptance that would "set the tone for the entire community ('71 Original Titans). It is confirmed by a former student interviewed that the football team did in fact help bring the community together (Merron). Thus the premise of the movie, a football team uniting to unite the entire city, is in fact historically accurate.

The fact that the extent of the pre-1971 division and the unification of the city was loosely interpreted in the movie does not detract from the historical basis of the movie's themes. The team may not have been a unifying force to the extent portrayed by Disney, yet it still did play a role in the community and that is the important factor the movie intends to express.

An interesting and well documented example of exaggeration based on historical accuracies is the case of Gerry Bertier, as acted by Ryan Hurst (IMDB). In Remember the Titans Gerry Bertier develops as a character into one of the heroes of the story (albeit a tragic hero). His inner-character is portrayed as truly admirable, and his development is a microcosm of the emotional growth of the Alexandria community as a whole. A leader (Sanders)on the team in the film, Bertier was also a leader in real life (Agnew).

As in the movie, he was in reality a defensive star and also an All-American and he became best friends with Julius Campbell (Agnew)(Merron). Accordingly, his impact on and off the field for the Titans football cannot be understated (Sanders). And Bertier did become a paraplegic in 1971 ('71 Original Titans). Yet, as it does with nearly every other point in the movie, the film exaggerates certain aspects of Bertier to help make a point.

Bertier, portrayed in the movie was a reluctant leader initially opposed to the challenge of integration. The truth of the matter is much more flattering to Bertier as Bertier took it upon himself to become a leader along with Campbell (Sanders, 2006). His transformation is an exaggeration. Surprisingly, there is another alteration of fact which is almost less dramatic than the reality.

In Remember the Titans Bertier is injured prior to the championship game and the Titans are forced to play their biggest game of the year without their star player and defensive captain. In real life, though, Bertier is injured while driving home from the football team's season ending banquet after the season (Agnew).

So while Bertier is very much a character based on real life events, he is tweaked and drama is added create a movie that offers more drama in order to better emphasize the themes of character development in the film. Nearly every character in the movie can be critiqued in such a way as Bertier as to how the exaggeration contributes to the themes of the film.

Yet it is equally important to evaluate the merits which make Remember the Titans a memorable film, and gave the team the power it had over its community and contributes to its historical importance. The accomplishments of the Titans on the field must be considered for historical accuracy. This is where the movie lines up the most with the truth. The 1971 Titans were in fact undefeated, were in fact #2 in the country nationally, and they were state champions (Merron).

There is not much the film could do to exaggerate this awe inspiring fact. The movie does take some liberties in often portraying the Titans as underdog (perhaps to appeal to general American underdog sentiment) when in reality the team was usual the favorites and very much dominant (Merron). It is likely, however that the on field accomplishments of the 1971 are not exaggerated because they cannot be.

The team accomplished so much in real life and in the movie, giving it the power to overcome racial divisions to unify a community. Remember the Titans is very much based on a true story; fact can back up most of the movie's dramatic events in some way. However, almost every time factual events are presented in the film, they are exaggerated or altered to help direct the audience towards a better understanding of the film's themes. For instance, T.C.

Williams High School was an attempt at forced integration, but not to the extent portrayed in the film. The community was in turmoil, but not so violent in their reaction.