Historic Significance - Blog Posts

Remember, Remember the Titans

This is one of those movies, stories, days where I am both excited and appalled about how much and how little has changed in the world. Remember the Titans hits on a lot of topics, some that are only becoming more discussed than they were in 2000 when the film was released, and definitely not when the film took place in 1971.

There is discussion about how this story isn’t real, but of course it’s real. It might not be the day-to-day real actions and challenges faced by this specific number of obstacles but this all did happen. While the main focus of the story is racism, but it also touches upon current-hot phrase toxic masculinity and homophobia. Boys who were taught to be one thing, come to realize what they have been taught is wrong, something especially difficult when it seems that it’s almost everyone that is telling you something else. As the younger generations are showing to be more open-minded and tolerant overall there still are obstacles for them against their parents’ and sometimes friends and shown with Gary and his mother and his girlfriend who couldn’t understand what he was thinking—even though they couldn’t explain their point of view. Separate from general teasing both the players and the coaches have difficulties seeing what they have in common with people they believe are ‘different’ from them—with the players having an automatic hatred of Sunshine and the coaches missing they are both strong leaders who try to be good, equal and fair men and attentive fathers.

So whether this film accurately portrays the Titan players of 1971 of Coach Boone, it does portray the changes and struggles people dealt with once they were able to interact with each other without the rhetoric of others. One of the most important parts of this are the diner scenes once the team starts winning. Gary’s character, who at first hates Julius and is racist, homophobic and a bunch of other crap, gets confused when his girlfriend doesn’t like Julius right off the bat. Excusing the fact that just weeks ago he hated this man for no reason, he doesn’t understand why she does—because his viewpoint has now changed. Gary deals with this again because while the team is okay with black players winning games, they’re not okay with them eating at their restaurants. I think one of the best parts of this film is the constant reminder that while they were able to come together at camp, they had to refight some of their own battles once they left – because the world isn’t just how they see it.