(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Remember the Titans)
Doug (vo): So for years, people have been telling me, "You got to see Remember the Titans. It's an amazing film, it's a classic! Like, man, it's so touching and moving!" And for years, I stayed away because I'll be honest, I'm not super into sports movies. Like, make no mistake, there are some I really, really get into, and I'm not at all going to say that they're bad films, it's just I'm not a sports guy. To me, a sports movie has to do something different in order to get me invested, like, giving a nobody boxer the chance at the title or the first women's baseball league, like something I haven't seen before. And whenever I saw the advertising for this movie, it just looked like another sports flick. Like, a good one. It didn't look bad, but I just see the Disney logo on there and Jerry Bruckheimer and that schmaltzy music that was everywhere in the 2000s and I just kind of shrugged and said, "I'm sure it's fine, but I don't know if it's for me." Well, after years of people saying, "Oh my God, this is really good, have you seen it? It's really great," I finally sat down, put it on, and guys, this is really good. Have you seen it? It's really great. Yep, everyone is correct, this movie is really quite fantastic. Like, I was blown away by how good it was. I might even enjoy it more than the average filmgoer enjoys it because I'm not even kidding, I kind of think this film should be studied in film class. And I think it would be if it wasn't for just one or two little moments that are fine in other movies, but I think this film is a little too good for them.
Story[]
Doug (vo): The film is based on a true story and takes place in the 1970s in Virginia. An all-white high school is combining with an all-black high school, and needless to say, a lot of people aren't too excited about it. Segregation had been in place for a while, and when those walls were finally tumbling down, the prejudice of many was fighting to build them back up. When the football coach, Bill Yoast, is replaced by another football coach, Herman Boone, he's aware of the prejudice and knows he has to smooth things over as best as possible. On top of that, he recognizes what a good coach Yoast was, so he makes an offer that they coach the team together. Even though they have very different styles of handling things, they also have a lot of similarities, particularly not only wanting to win, but really caring about their team members. Originally, the all-white football team was going to follow Yoast out the door, but seeing how he's joining again, they decide to join as well. Obviously, there's a lot of culture shock and people don't exactly get along at first, but through some smart strategy, psychology and teamwork, they do eventually find common ground. But things get even more tense when Boone finds out that if he loses even one game, he'll be kicked out as coach forever, which he obviously acknowledges as insane, but knows he has to play the cards he's been dealt. So the game is literally on to see if they can compete and not lose one single match throughout the entire season.
Review[]
Doug (vo): So yes, on the one hand, the film does sound a little traditional when it comes to sports movies, but this is one of those films that takes a lot of tropes you've seen before and just does them so well, you swear you're watching them for the first time. I talked about before how I don't really like watching sports movies. Even if they're done well, there has to be something that separates it from the others, mostly because I just don't have that much interest in them. Well, I'm kind of the same way with movies about prejudice, except it's the opposite. It's not that I have no interest in them, it's that I get too interested in them, they piss me off. It's so hard for me to watch a film where just this very obvious, dumb prejudice is accepted by the majority of people and so many have to suffer because of it. Even when they're done well, they just get me angry, which I know is the idea, but they are hard to sit through for me. But again, I do get into them more when they take kind of a unique angle, like seeing what's going on from a little kid's point of view or turning all the people into animals, just adding a slightly different element. And funny enough, I think by combining two elements I don't usually get into for completely different reasons, it does surprisingly make a great film. And I'll be the first to say this could easily be a film that could not work. It could be too corny, it could be too drawn out, there could be too many speeches and too much hammering the message on the head. But this film is very tight and precise in what it wants to get across and how effectively it wants to get it across.
(Footage focusing on the characters is shown)
Doug (vo): I really feel like I know these people. They all have very distinct personalities, despite there being a lot of characters in this, and it's very difficult to get across what these people are like when there are so many juggling for screen time. But they don't do the Shyamalan thing where they just give a character a gimmick or a quirk or something like that. No, they're just very direct in how well they're written and how well they're acted. I feel like I understand a lot of these people so quickly, even when I disagree with them, even when they have a prejudice that I really hate. They do such a good job showing the humanity of these people in such a short amount of time. There's one character who gets into an accident and is paralyzed, and yeah, you have the scenes where everybody's like kind of crying and really feeling bad for him and it's hard to watch, but then he says at one point, "You know, there's sports for people in wheelchairs, like even the Olympics." That's all you need to know in that moment. You know he's going to be alright for that time being because he was so well set up before and you saw how he interacted with everybody else. And that's how all these characters work, that's how a team works, they all have to interact off each other and they have to grow stronger and tougher for it.
(Footage focusing on the football scenes is shown)
Doug (vo): This is a film that not only makes me want to understand the psychology of prejudice more, but it makes me want to understand football more. It really drags me into this game, it really makes me interested in what's going to happen and how they get into another player's head or how they motivate another player on their team that might be having trouble or what a certain decision says to their team or says to the other team. The idea of breaking through prejudice by finding that common ground that everybody can enjoy, I think is very powerful, it's very prominent in this film. Everybody here likes football and the film likes it so much, it takes people that don't really get into it like me and it really makes me interested in it.
(Footage focusing on Herman Boone and some of the other characters is shown)
Doug (vo): It probably goes without saying that Denzel Washington is fantastic in this. I mean, he just always knocks it out of the park. Even when he's in a terrible movie, he's always great and gives a million percent. And this is one of those leaders like from Master and Commander or 300 where I just feel like yeah, I'd follow this guy into hell. He is really great at what he does. But that shouldn't take away from the other performances, either, because again, a lot of these people don't have as much screen time as you would think, but they make them count. I also really like, too that this film is talking about prejudice, but it isn't just racial prejudice. For example, there's a player on the team who's homosexual and he does stuff that's inappropriate, but you see clearly why. You see how the other players talk to him and you understand this time period and you do get why he would be so repressed and lash out at times. There's a little subplot about these two girls trying to get along and one's a tomboy and one likes more girly stuff, and again, it sounds silly, and maybe in any other movie would be really corny and lame and forced, but against this backdrop and with this tight writing and these good performances, it is surprisingly interesting. They both do and don't find common ground, and again, I don't even think it's really a race thing; it's more they're just very different people.
(Various footage is shown, mostly focusing on the editing)
Doug (vo): Now like I said before, I really do feel like this film would be studied in film classes in terms of editing and writing and performances, but there are just one or two little things that hold it back, and it doesn't make it by any means a bad movie. Like, in my opinion, this is still clearly a 4 out of 4 star movie. One is, there's an opening and closing narration and it's not needed. It feels like the movie is trying to spell out its message, and the message is so well put together and so well handled, you don't need these bookends. There's also one or two characters that in any other movie about prejudice would be fine, but because this film does such a good job humanizing everybody, they seem a little one-note, like one of the players' girlfriends and some of the people in charge. Like, again, they're not handled badly, it's just this film does everything else so well that they seem a little flat. Also, for as tight as the writing and editing is in this, it might be a little too tight at the end. Like, the final game, I think they could have drawn it out more. Like, I never thought I would see a sports film where the last big competitive moment is a little rushed. Like, I am into it, I am rooting for them and everything, but I really thought there was going to be a lot more. But the biggest factor—and I really feel like I'm going to lose some of you when I say this—is the music. I'm not talking about whenever a song plays on the radio or something, I'm talking about the musical score, which, let me make it clear is totally fine. This is your typical Bruckheimer/Michael Bay sports movie score that was everywhere in the 2000s, and it does it to the best of its ability, but not only do I think there's way too much of it in this movie—like there are moments I know I would be crying watching it—but because that score comes in kind of like a laugh track, telling you this is where you're supposed to feel something, it feels a little manipulative. But I actually go so far as to say this movie is so good, I don't think you need any musical score. I would love it if somebody could find a way to edit this film and just take out all the music. There are a few films that have done this, where there's no music throughout the entire flick, and when it's done well, it's done very well. I think this could have been one of those movies. There are scenes where they're giving a speech and I'm really, really getting into it and I'm thinking, "Man, I would listen to this dialogue a lot more if the music wasn't telling me this is where you're supposed to get emotional, this is supposed to be where you feel something." Like, yeah, the movie's good enough, I don't need you to spell that out. These performances are so good and these situations feel so real that the music constantly reminds me, "Oh yeah, this is a Jerry Bruckheimer movie, brought to you by Disney." And again, I feel bad for saying that because the music is totally fine. I bet there are even people who probably listen to this music to get inspired, but I honestly think the style of the film is too good for it.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): But at the same time, I know it's a film that wants to be seen. It wants to be a big hit, it wants to really connect not only with adults, but also younger people. It is about younger people, and I feel it represents them very well, particularly in this point in time where prejudice was so strong and everybody was being taught something different. So to some extent, I do get it. And again, I want to reiterate, it's not even that these nitpicks are even that bad, they would be totally fine in any other movie. I just feel like this film has worked so hard to evolve beyond what we've normally seen in these types of movies that it could have evolved even beyond this, too. But like I said, it doesn't stop it from being a great film. This is so fantastically put together. I was sucked into every moment. I love the performances, I love the writing, I love the editing, I love the directing, everybody felt so real to me, despite the fact that it's using a bunch of tropes we've seen so many times in other films like this. It makes you remember why these became tropes to begin with, and honestly, even if I found out this wasn't a true story, I would still love it, it's that well put together. So yeah, if you're one of those people that just kind of saw it as a generic sports flick and not worth checking out—so did I—I'm telling you, it is definitely worth remembering.
(The scene where the Titans celebrate winning the state championship is shown)