Remember The Titans (2000)

Remember the Titans is a 2000 sports drama, starring Denzel Washington, that touches not just on football, but dives into many themes that are still relevant to this day. The film begins when an African-American football coach, in the early 1970s, is newly hired at one of the first racially-integrated schools in the United States. The school has struggled for many years with competitive athletics, specifically football, but this newly hired coach has controversial plans to change this. With much divided between the players, based on race, Coach Boone (Washington) wants his players to see past the color of teammate’s skin, but come together as one. This leads to many comical team building moments, but also to many deep conversations about race that are still relevant and important to talk about today. These scenes are directed and written in ways that make the audience understand and question where individuals are coming from about their struggles and their misunderstandings.

This film also has many heart pounding sports moments, as the film follows this football team over the course of their season, including their success, but also their failures. Throughout the film, it does not just tell a story and a journey of these student athletes, but it shows you and makes you feel the emotions that correspond. It makes you understand the relationships that grow and strengthen, it makes you feel the heartbreak, and it especially makes you route for the team, all the way until the credits roll. There is also much nostalgia attached with this film, as it takes place in the 1970s. The aesthetic is clearly depicted in this small town of Virginia, where the film takes place, through the cars, clothing, shops and the community. Overall, this film is quite funny, quite heartwarming, quite thrilling, but it also addresses injustice in the world, commenting that, in the end, we can all be a team together. This film is overall, a 9 out of 10.