Book Review on "Titans in Greek Mythology"

Book Review 10 pages (3216 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

One of the school officials tells Yost, "We had to give them something" (Remember). The demotion of Yost led to a lot of in-fighting among the coaching staff. For a while Yost felt that he had been robbed of a job he had rightfully earned (Smith 35). Just as the boys had to learn to get along despite their differences, so too did Coaches Boone and Yost learn how to set aside their own egos to do what was best for their players.

Unbeknownst to either coach, there is an under-the-table deal in the works that was designed to remove Coach Boone. If the T.C. Williams Titans lose a single game, then Boone will be fired and Bill Yost will once again become the head coach. The formulators of this plan were the white town leaders who were unhappy with the desegregation of the school in the first place. Many of those in the town of Alexandria, Virginia still had racist opinions, even after the football season started and the Titans began to win. In Remember the Titans, an angry individual throws a brick through the window of Coach Boone's home. The fear that is evident in the eyes of Boone's family members was perfectly and accurately portrayed by Washington and the other actors. In reality, someone did, in fact, throw something through the Coach Herman Boone's window. Only it was not a brick:

There wasn't a brick thrown through my window. It was something far more devastating to any human being than a brick could be. I guess Disney, being the family movie production company that it is, felt that to depict a toilet stool coming through your window was a bit much…I've never gotten over that incident that particular night, because I could never understand how anybody could feel so bad about another human being as to throw a toilet commode through a window (Merron).

Even with the threats to his home and safety, Coach Boone did not give in to the intimidation of the racist members of the town. Nor did he give in to those who wanted him terminated. Instead of being disheartened when he learned that, should the Titans lose he would be fired, Boone is angrier and pushes his team harder. Boone does not tell the boys though that his future is in their hands.

When the boys and their coaches return from training camp, newly united in the spirit of unprejudiced team spirit, they are confronted by the community who have yet to embrace the desegregation. This disharmony is symbolized when Gerry's girlfriend breaks up with him over his friendship with his black teammate Julius. It becomes the football players' responsibility to enlighten their fellow townspeople. Thanks to racial harmony and a unified determination on the part of the players to succeed, the Titans have had a perfect season. At the state semi-finals, Yoast is informed that there is another plan in the works to oust the African-American Boone and reinstate the Caucasian Yoast. The white officials have paid off the game referees and the Titans will lose. The pressure is now on Assistant Head Coach Bill Yoast to do the right thing. He informs the referees that if they do not stop cheating, he will expose the underhanded deal and they will all have to face repercussions. The Titans do go on to win the game and Yoast is informed by the racists that he will never be in the Hall of Fame. However, he is okay with this because he has done what is morally right. Not only has the experience with the Titans changed Alexandria and the players, it has brought the two coaches together and began a partnership that would last for many years (Kilmeade 30).

At the end of the film, the narrator goes on to say that the team goes on to play beyond the state game. The team is no longer a group of individuals dominated by their ideas of race. They are instead as close as brothers. The two protagonist players, Gary and Julius had at the beginning been adversaries, each leading his race. By the end, Gary has been crippled by a car accident and he tells the nurse to let Julius into the room because he is Gary's brother. The entire town of Alexandria has been united. The opposing factions, like Gary and Julius, now united behind the Titan team.

Many critics have pointed to the fact that there are many discrepancies between the film and the historical truth behind the story. Mainly, the issue these critics have is that the racial tensions as presented in the film did not exist in similar extent in real life. Although there were racist feelings in Virginia and the three high schools did come together in 1971, the individual schools were not segregated at the time. There were already some black students attending the white school before 1971. Before the schools were integrated, the three neighbor high schools were in staunch competition with one another for funds and in sports. According to the witnesses of the event:

One of the strongest, bitterest rivalries was in football. As luck would have it, football, the ultimate team sport, would be the first big test of success or failure for the new system. Little did the football team know that they would set the tone for the entire community in a time of tension, conflict, and mistrust. Under tough, uncompromising leadership the players developed a strong bond as a team through a common suffering which stripped away any prejudices based on race, economic status, or cultural beliefs. Their success and dominance on the field began to influence the rest of the school and the community. The community began to feel a bond on to itself, that together they could get through those turbulent times and make Alexandria a better place to live (71 Original).

Whether or not the film got the details of the Titans right, the filmmakers were able to recreate the feeling of harmony that was brought about by a strong football team and their even stronger leaders.

According to Michael D. Giardina in Sporting Pedagogies, the lessons about race and school programming that the film has to teach are still useful to today's educational settings. In the racially charged setting of Virginia, the message of the film is that athletics serves to color-blind the population. The claim of the film, he argues, is that "sport is colorblind, a level playing field where 'race' not only does not matter, but where the institutional structures of sport actively work to form a more perfect union of racial harmony" (83). He goes on to discuss how the film assumes that all racial diversity can be solved on the football field, which is a fairy tale. Although the film does provide a severe oversimplification of the problems of racism, there is much to be said about the unifying effect of leadership. Under a strong influence, real change can, has, and often will occur.

Although not exactly historically accurate, the film Remember the Titans teaches coaches and other leaders, particularly those who lead in a school setting, how important their guidance is. Not only does a coach have the ability to lead his team to a victory season, but he also has the ability to shape the morality and understanding of an entire group of people. The role of any leader is to mold his or her charges into becoming the best version of themselves that they are capable. The theme of the film is:

There is no limit to what people can accomplish when they recognize that their common dreams outweigh their differences. In the case of the Titans, it is the coaches and players, black and white, who are thrown together when their schools are merged. They learn to work together and they learn to trust each other. In the end, they learn to love each other and their success sends a healthy message to the whole town (Didinger 95).

At the end of the film, the character of Yost's daughter says that in Alexandria, when there is conflict based on race and people think to act to violence, the remember the Titans. When trying to influence young people and encourage them to look past superficial differences, a coach should also look to this story.

Remember the Titans is a story about the power of teamwork. In the film, the unification of the football field brings an end to generations of racial hatred and prejudice in the small Virginia town. The team members, led by the inspiration of their coach, become aware of the stupidity of their former opinions. Through him, they have grown; not only as players but as people. Alexandria, in turn, is changed by the T.C. Willimas Titans. United by a winning streak, the townspeople cannot… READ MORE

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