‘Attitude reflects leadership, captain...’
I’m a sucker for an inspirational sports movie. I was raised on Kevin Costner staring into the middle distance while stirring music plays in the background. I should have been raised on milk and bread, of course, but times were hard. Remember the Titans is a giant of the genre, but one that has somehow passed me by. Until now…
In suburban Virginia in 1971, the closure of two schools leads to the black and white students heading to the same school for the first time. This results in tension at the schoolyard, in the town and on the football field. Coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) and Coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton) must somehow unite two warring factions. On the field is captain Gerry Bertier (Ryan Hurst), cocky quarterback Petey Jones (Donald Faison) and Ronnie ‘Sunshine’ Bass (Kip Pardue). Rounding off the main cast is Ethan Suplee, Ryan Gosling and a nine-year-old Hayden Panettiere as a precocious football fan.
Despite being popular with audiences, critics were a little sniffy about Remember the Titans. This is very much sports movie-by-numbers, but when the numbers are this damn good, it really doesn’t matter. Sure, it’s predictable and it’s overly sentimental in places, but that comes with the territory. Sometimes, it’s ok to admit that tropes and cliches becomes tropes and cliches in the first place because they work.
Here, the starry cast, led by a ferocious performance from an on song Denzel Washington masks the workmanlike direction from Boaz Yakin. Elsewhere, Hurst shows why he went on to have such a long and storied career playing beloved characters in Sons of Anarchy and Outsiders, Faizon is as bright eyed and likeable as ever and Patton really was born to play these kind of avuncular roles.
Remember the Titans is far from perfect, the pacing is off with too much packed into the final 30 minutes, but as a pure cinematic experience it deserves to be mentioned alongside the greats of the sports movie genre. This is a director and a cast playing the hits and playing them to perfection. A classic.