"Touchdown for the 'Titans'"
by Scott Mantz

"Remember the Titans"
Denzel Washington, Will Patton
Directed by Boaz Yakin

"Will Patton and Denzel Washington are team players in 'Remember the Titans'"

Few actors have been able to balance Hollywood vehicles with artsy fare like Bruce Willis and Tom Cruise, but nobody goes for the extra point quite like Denzel Washington. Not only is he a critical and commercial favorite, but his critical roles tend to steer towards movies that tackle the dicey subject of racism. Between his Oscar-winning turn in "Glory" to other challenging roles in "Mississippi Masala," "Malcolm X," and last year's "The Hurricane," Washington has become something of a Hollywood role model for films that explore racial issues, past and present. Now you can add "Remember the Titans" to the team, and the result is an immensely enjoyable crowd pleaser that will have you rooting all the way home.

Based on a true story, "Remember the Titans" centers on the integration of two Alexandria, VA, high schools in 1971. An all-white football team now has to contend with adding black players to its roster, while coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton) has to swallow his pride and deal with being replaced by new head coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington). The rest of the town doesn't like it, and neither does Boone, but he has a job to do and a season to win. Boone and Yoast take the team to a boot camp-like training getaway, where they learn to overcome their differences and respect each other, but once they get back to the real world, the racial tension that's imbedded in the rest of the town threatens to tear the team apart.

"Remember the Titans" is the third time in 12 months that Hollywood has taken to the football field. Last year's hyper-kinetic "Any Given Sunday" did for football what "Platoon" did for the Vietnam War (which makes perfect sense, since they were both directed by Oliver Stone), while the in-and-out-of-theaters-before-you-can-blink "The Replacements" was so silly that it should have been confined to the sidelines. After two incomplete passes this year with "Gone in 60 Seconds" and "Coyote Ugly," producer extraordinaire Jerry Bruckheimer is back in the game with "Remember the Titans," and the result is the most enjoyable football-related movie of them all.

It's incredibly difficult to keep the audience engaged in a film where you know how it's going to end, but Bruckheimer and director Boaz Yakin have put together a movie that's more about tolerance, compromise, and acceptance than it is about football. The film is a virtual roller-coaster of emotions, and if your don't find yourself moved by the experience, then you better check your heart to see if it's still beating.

The scenes during the training sessions are easily the most powerful in the film. In some ways, one can't help but recall the grueling boot camp sequences of Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket," with Boone as the drill sergeant. Boone is clearly more than a football coach with victory on his mind. He has the unenviable task of wielding a bunch of warring teammates into a cohesive unit, which will in turn set an example for the rest of the town. He succeeds in transforming destructive racism into constructive competition, but he is far from being a martyr. He's way too hard on the team, and assistant coach Yoast comes to the rescue whenever he's too hard on the players.

Once the team gets back to reality, that's where the film starts to lose some steam. The townspeople are more like stereotypical bigots than realistic human beings, and their inferior dialogue drags the film down. The predictability of the structure means more of a detachment from the progression of events, but there are more than enough motivational speeches to cover these flaws and make it all worthwhile. But I just have to say one thing--can we officially call a time-out to any more locker room scenes where the team breaks out into a song to psyche themselves up? First "The Replacements," and now this!

Any good team is only as strong as its coach, and in that sense, Denzel Washington is one helluva coach. It is the strength of his performance that leads the film to victory, and he effortlessly commands both power and sensitivity while remaining flawed enough to give his character an air of believability. Bruckheimer mainstay Will Patton puts in one of the finest performances of his career, as the former head coach who is replaced by Washington. His demeanor is more subdued than Washington's, but he steps to the fore when Washington can't see the forest through the trees.

"Remember the Titans" is a unique Hollywood film for a variety of reasons. There're no gunfire, no gratuitous sex, and no car chases, yet it still manages to keep the audience engaged with its uplifting and positive message. What you end up with is a feel-good movie that examines an issue that's just as relevant now as it was then. It leaves you feeling inspired, and if that isn't the Hollywood equivalent of a touchdown, I don't know what is.

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