Remmember me

Without a question mark, the film's title is an instruction and not an inquiry. Dealing with the issue of racial integration within a high school football team in the seventies, it's clearly meant asa warning. What follows is two hours of unabashed manipulation aimed less at impassioning racial harmony than leaving the audience with a lump in their throat and a tear in their eye.

RememberThe Titans is based on the true story of an African American football coach hired by a Virginia high school in 1971. Denzel Washington plays the dictatorial Coach Herman Boone who arrives at T.C.Williams High School facing the unenviable job of replacing the successful and beloved Coach Bill Yoast (Patton) and of coaching the Titans during its first year of integration. Neither man is happy withthe situation, particularly Yoast who now finds himself under Boone, but their discontent is minimal compared to the resentment felt by his players who now find their positions under threat from the newblack students who themselves aren't exactly thrilled by the situation.

The tension between both factions erupts during training camp when the old team leader Gerry Bertier (Hurst) squares offagainst Big Julius Campbell. Following the brawl, both men form a close bond and when Coach Boone forces each player to ask questions of and get to know each other, the hostility is replaced byunderstanding and tolerance. It's a feeling not so readily shared by the other citizens of Alexandria, the predominantly white town in which the school is located.

By paralleling the team's fortunes withthe issue of integration you cheer for the Titans' success on the field as you cheer for their unity off it. Although based on a true story, it's hard not to think that director Boaz Yoakin and writerGregory Allen Howard have played liberally with its authenticity in their shameless quest to rouse emotions. Everything is rousing, from the impassioned speeches, including Boone's own Gettysburg...