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But while the hard-hitting football action itself is exhilarating, don't look for any fancy footwork in how director Boaz Yakin dispenses his thoroughly rousing civics lesson. Expect no cinematic triple reverses to highlight the true-to-life tale of a Virginia high school's trials and tribulations as it integrates its student body, and thus, its football team, circa 1971. Rated PG and obviously intended for as wide an audience as can benefit and be entertained by its heart-rending observations, the movie pragmatically chooses to be an important film instead of a great one. What it lacks in style, it makes up for in substance.
Dealing with black-white relations in an environment originally hostile to change, the director makes most of his heroes and villains easily discernible. Perhaps figuring that the message is too vital to be obfuscated by a failed attempt at art, Yakin's interpretation of Gregory Allen Howard's script rarely dabbles in the shadows or colours outside the lines. And the straightforward mood reflects in the acting performances.
Will Patton as Bill Yoast and Denzel Washington as Herman Boone are salt-and-pepper football coaches. An indelible sense of mission etched in their faces, they are incongruously tossed together when the killing of an African-American youth prompts the town fathers to disingenuously apply some tokenism. Yoast was the winning coach at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, bound for the state hall of fame before the reverse-discrimination roof fell in. But now, and only through Boone's sports-savvy behest, he's the defensive assistant. Mr. Patton does a nice job as the top-notch coach, forced for the good of all those concerned to sublimate to his new boss. And it's not just because he's a realist. Both in and out of character, it is Mr. Washington's movie.
A fine ensemble cast of young actors as the players, not only on the football field, but also in the social experiment taking place, portray youthful versions of their initially disparate coaches. Ryan Hurst is an ace as team captain Gary Bertier, the sensational white player. Wood Harris is Ju, his black counterpart. Both rail at Coach Boone's dictum that black and white team members must spend a certain amount of time learning about each other or be cut from the team.
The getting-to-know-you scenes, wherein both camps explore and dispel stereotypes, are as funny as they are heart-warming. And adding a novel bit of spice to the lesson in tolerance is Kip Pardue as Sunshine, the quarterbacking, Beach Boyish transfer student from California who may or may not be gay. In the comedy relief position, Ethan Suplee is Lewis Lastik, a gentle giant from Bayonne, New Jersey, in search of identity.
With the various antagonistic relationships established, the sports action-packed film follows the team's exciting exploits from training camp to The Big Game. Naturally, every other team in the league is all white. So of course the question is, will the bitterly divided Titans eventually patch their differences and meld into one big fighting machine? Can they become the entity that will defeat the forces of bigotry? It's sort of a junior version of The Dirty Dozen, but instead of teaming to fight the Nazis, the foe is racism itself.
Denzel Washington does meritorious service in the Lee Marvin role. Yet oddly enough for a movie dealing in the inequities and prejudices associated with skin colour, the character study of this fierce competitor is rarely subcutaneous. He is, with few exceptions, portrayed as an unyielding tyrant. The end justifies his means. And in this case the end is not only winning football games and knocking over the goal posts. It's about tearing down the Tower of Babel that separates humankind. Thus, the film accords him the dispensation reserved for pure reformers. In only one uncertain moment does he ask his wife (Nicole Ari Parker) if she thinks he has taken this winning thing too far. But so much for introspection. Carol Boone boosts him right back up on his pedestal.
In short, Coach Boone is a hero, an icon. Rumour has it that he marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. Unlike the stoical everyman that Mr. Patton plays, he is an uncompromising catalyst of change, reminiscent of the goal-driven labour organiser played by Ron Leibman in Norma Rae. A natural born leader, he knows how to mould mere mortals for their own good. It's first evidenced during pre-season camp at Gettysburg College when the single-minded competitor makes his team run all night until they reach the famous battlefield. When they finally arrive, the rising sun is just starting to unveil the cemetery that this consecrated land has become. And the boys are all dog-tired. But the coach's impassioned recounting of why those 50,000 sacrificed their lives is not lost on them or on us.
However, despite such stirring clichés and an inherent predictability -- after all, it is a true story -- director Yakin creates an impressive level of tension via a thoroughly absorbing, play-by-play choreography. Remember The Titans is as much a sports movie as it is a socio-historical thesis chock-full of fine humanitarian ambition. And it doubtless iterates the noble role our own "fields of Eton" have played in fostering understanding among Americans. Hence, while its inspiring message may not immediately work to solve our racial troubles, it is certain to get the ESPN crowd off the couch and into a movie theatre seat. And then wouldn't it indeed be an ironic act of brotherhood if they bonded there with the PBS and History Channel folk? We can only hope.
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