Remember the Titans (2000)

Remember the Titans is like one of those now-extinct long-distance commercials. It's sole purpose is to make you have FEELINGS and CRY.

And DANCE. It's a football movie AND a dance movie.

According to whoever wrote all the Wikipedia entries, this movie is VERY loosely based on a true story.

Remember the Titans is about a high school football team that was the only integrated football team in their conference. They overcame their differences to become champions. That is why we need to:

Sort of, because this movie is filled with LIES.

Not really. Kidding. Just remembering them with a Disney-twist on the truth. And who can argue with that? I can't. I'm a sucker for this shit.

This guy is Bill Yoast, for years he's led the Alexandria High School football teams to many winning seasons. But he's fired, err, demoted so the newly integrated school can have a black football coach.

Can you really say no to Denzel? No. No you cannot. Denzel plays Herman Boone, the new head coach of the TC Williams High Football team. At first, he doesn't want the job because that would mean taking the job away from someone who deserved it more. But then, he realizes that coaching this team is about a lot more than football.

The white students aren't happy with the change in their lives because they're racist assholes and they don't mind making that public knowledge. Coach Boone doesn't make being a Bad Ass for all to see and he knocks this kid, Gerry Bertier, down a peg or 263. (CAN I JUST SAY, that of all I've read about this movie and the real story behind it, not a single mention of Gerry Bertier being a jerk. All of the articles and notes and all that say that he was an incredible football player and a wonderful person too.)

On the way to football summer camp, Coach Boone makes the black and white students sit together, because, along with wanting to create the Best High School Football Team in the History of the WORLD, he wants to create unity between these young men.

FOOTBALL

The coach also makes the players get to know each other on a personal basis. But it's not really working out because everyone still hates each other.

So the coach takes them on a long run....

To the field where the Battle of Gettysburg took place. It is very inspirational.

A hippie kid with TOTALLY NATURAL hair shows up to football summer camp.

They let him join the team, but he has to cut his hair, which is really not a tragedy because that hair was busted.

Gradually, throughout the course of two weeks and lots of lessons about life and teamwork, the players form valuable friendships.

And they become a team.

But, while these kids have changed their way of seeing the world, the world hasn't changed the way it sees these kids. On the first day of integrated school, an angry mob is screaming at the students.

But nothing stops FOOTBALL.

Or racists.

The coach finds out that if he loses even one game he'll be fired.

Meanwhile, the team members take it upon themselves to restore the unity they found at football summer camp. They gather together to come up with a choreographed dance to warm up before the next game.

Hellooooo inspirational football dance movie.

Ahh, but not all the guys on the team had a change of heart at football summer camp. One player purposely misses a block so the quarterback gets injured.

And everyone's favorite hippie steps in to lead the team to a WIN.

As it becomes obvious that Coach Boone is leading the team to an undefeated season, the old white men in the town come up with a plan to fix the Regional championship game so the kids lose and Coach Boone gets fired.

The plan is arranged so Coach Yoast would become head coach again. Coach Yoast catches on to what's going on and, knowing his place in the Virginia High School Football Hall of Fame is on the line, he tells the ref to stop cheating and call an honest game--thereby losing his Hall of Fameness.

Of course the TC Williams kids win and all is good with the world.

As he is celebrating the win, Gerry Bertier, who has become the heart of the team, forgets to look both ways and he gets in a car accident.

:(

At the hospital, he will only see Julius, his former enemy who has become his best friend and brother from another mother.

So, here we are. State Championships. WHO'S GOING TO WIN?!

Gerry is watching from the hospital and it's  really moving and teary.

OF COURSE THEY WIN

Yaaaaay!

Waitaminute.... Why so many sad faces?

The movie ends with the funeral of Gerry Bertier, who died in another car accident ten years after the events of the movie. Way to be a downer, Remember the Titans.

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