Remember the Titans
Remember the Titans is a 2000 American biographical sports drama film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Boaz Yakin. The screenplay by Gregory Allen Howard is loosely based on the true story of coach Herman Boone, portrayed by Denzel Washington, and his attempt to integrate the T. C. Williams High School football team in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971. Will Patton portrays Bill Yoast, Boone's assistant coach. Real-life athletes Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell are portrayed by Ryan Hurst and Wood Harris.
The film was co-produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films and released by Buena Vista Pictures. On September 19, 2000, the film's soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records. It features songs by several recording artists including Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Dylan, The Hollies, Marvin Gaye, James Taylor, The Temptations, Cat Stevens, and Steam.
Remember the Titans had a budget of $30 million and premiered in theaters nationwide in the United States on September 29, 2000. It grossed an estimated $115.6 million in the U.S., and $136.8 million worldwide. While the film was not particularly well-received at the time,
it is now considered to be one of the greatest football films of all time.
Plot
In 1981, a group of former football coaches and players attend a funeral for a former football player.Ten years earlier, in the summer of 1971, head coach Bill Yoast of the newly consolidated T. C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, is leading his white football players in summer workouts. In the midst of the city's racial animus, Yoast meets Herman Boone, a black coach from North Carolina originally hired to lead the city's black high school football team who has instead been assigned to Yoast's coaching staff. Later, in an attempt to placate rising racial tensions and the fact that all other high schools in Alexandria are "whites only", the school district decides to name Boone the head coach of T. C. Williams. Boone initially refuses, believing it is unfair to Yoast, a successful coach who has been nominated to the Virginia High School Hall of Fame, but relents after seeing what it means to the black community. Boone offers to retain Yoast on his staff but is rebuffed when Yoast takes offense to the prospect of working under a black coach. When Yoast tells his white players that he will accept a head coach position elsewhere, they pledge to boycott the team if he is not their coach. Dismayed at the prospect of the students losing their chances at scholarships, Yoast changes his mind and decides to accept Boone's offer to serve as his defensive coordinator.
Boone holds his first team meeting with mostly black students in the school gymnasium but is interrupted by the arrival of Yoast, his coaching staff and several white players. Yoast informs Boone of his decision, but Boone warns Yoast that the Titans are his team, and he will not tolerate Yoast undermining him. On August 15, the players go to Gettysburg College for training camp. Early on, the black and white team members frequently clash in racially motivated conflicts, especially between defensive captains Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell. However, through forceful coaching, rigorous training, and a motivational early-morning run to the Gettysburg National Cemetery followed by an emotional speech by Boone, the team comes together and returns as a united group. Before their first game, Boone is told by a member of the school board that if he loses even a single game, he will be dismissed, and Yoast will reassume the position of head coach. Subsequently, the Titans go through the season undefeated while battling racial prejudice and slowly gaining support from the community.
Just before the state semi-finals, Yoast is told by the Hall of Fame's executive director that they have arranged for the Titans to lose so that Boone will be dismissed and Yoast reinstated as head coach. During the game, the officials make several biased calls against the Titans. Upon seeing the Hall's director and T. C. Williams' athletic director in the stands looking on with satisfaction, Yoast marches onto the field to warn the referee that if the game is not officiated fairly, he will expose the scandal to the press. After this, Yoast encourages the defense to play aggressively and Boone to run up the score on offense. The Titans win in a blowout and advance to the state championship, but Yoast is told by the infuriated director that his actions have cost him the support of the Hall's voters, though the team supports him regardless.
That night, while celebrating the victory, Gerry is severely injured in a car accident and is paralyzed from the waist down. Despite the loss of the All-American linebacker, the Titans enter halftime of the state championship game trailing by only seven points. In the locker room, Boone, Campbell, and Yoast give impassioned speeches that inspire the Titans to mount a fourth quarter comeback. The Titans score a touchdown on the game's final play to win the state title and complete an undefeated season.
Ten years later, after he has won the gold medal in shot put in the Paralympic Games, Gerry dies in another car crash caused by a drunk driver. It is his funeral that the former football coaches and players were attending in the opening scene. Julius, whom Gerry's mother formerly disliked, is now holding her hand as he leads the team in a mournful rendition of "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye".
In the epilogue, descriptions show the players' and coaches' activities after the events in 1971. Coach Boone coached the Titans for five more seasons before retirement, while Coach Yoast assisted Boone for four more years, retiring from coaching in 1990; the two coaches became good friends. After Gerry's death, the gymnasium at T.C. Williams High was renamed after him. Julius would work for the city of Alexandria and remain friends with Gerry until his death.
Cast
Production
Filming
Filming locations for the motion picture included the campus of Dallas, Georgia at Paulding County High School, where the home games were filmed. Berry College in Rome, Georgia, Etowah High School in Woodstock, and in Atlanta, Georgia including Henry Grady High School and Druid Hills High School which both filled in for T.C. Williams High School. Practice scenes were filmed at Clarkston High School in Clarkston, Georgia. Additionally, some of the championship game scenes were filmed at the Sprayberry High School football stadium in East Marietta, Georgia.Historical accuracy
As with any movie that is not a documentary film but is rather "based on a true story", it has strayed from the actual events that had occurred on many occasions to add new dramatic elements of teamwork, commitment, and friendship to the film.- Alexandria City Schools were desegregated in 1959 and T.C. Williams was created by merging three racially integrated schools.
- The Titans were ranked second in the nation at the end of the 1971 season, finishing 13–0. However, despite the movie showing multiple close games, most games were actually blowouts, with nine of their 13 wins being shutouts.
- In the film, Coach Boone states, "We are not like all the other schools in this conference, they're all white. They don't have to worry about race. We do." This is false as well; all the schools the Titans faced were integrated years before.
- While the team is at camp, it shows Coach Boone waking them up at 3:00 a.m. to go for a run. This did not occur; neither did his speech at Gettysburg. The team did go on a tour of Gettysburg, although it was not as dramatic as portrayed in the film.
- Ronnie "Sunshine" Bass was far from being the only one with long hair at the time. Even Gerry Bertier had long hair. But in interviews, Bass said, "I'll say for the record my hair was never that long." He also says the kiss with Gerry never happened.
- Ray didn't exist in real life, and Titans players said if he did, he would have been cut in training camp.
- The climax of the film is a fictionalized 1971 AAA state championship football game between T. C. Williams and George C. Marshall High School. The dramatic license taken in the movie was to convert what was actually a mid-season match-up between T. C. Williams and Marshall into a made-for-Hollywood state championship. In reality, the Marshall game was the toughest game T. C. Williams played all year. As depicted in the movie, the real Titans won the Marshall game on a fourth down come-from-behind play at the very end of the game. The actual state championship was a 27–0 shutout, played at Victory Stadium in Roanoke.
- Bertier's car accident took place on December 11, 1971, after the season-ending State Championship game. He had been at a banquet honoring the team for their undefeated season. After the banquet, Bertier borrowed his mother's new 1971 Chevrolet Camaro. Bertier lost control of the Camaro and crashed. The cause of the accident was determined to be a mechanical failure in the engine mounts.
- Sheryl Yoast was not an only child as portrayed but had three sisters. Her oldest sister Bonnie was in college, her second oldest Angela went to a different high school, and her younger sister Deidre was only three years old in 1971.
- The film omits that in 1979 Boone was relieved of his coaching duties by the Principal who felt "a change was needed." The principal denied it was related to any allegations of player abuse which were never substantiated. Boone continued to work as the head of the school's physical education department.
Music
"Titans Spirit" is a seven-minute instrumental. It has been used on numerous sports telecasts, particularly those on NBC, which has utilized the score during its closing credits for each Olympic Games since 2002, as well as the final closing credits montage ending their 12-year run of NBA coverage in 2002. The song was also played as veteran New York Mets players crossed home plate during the closing ceremonies at Shea Stadium, and as the New York Yankees were awarded their rings from their 2009 World Series championship. The New Jersey Devils also used this song during the jersey number retirement ceremonies for Scott Stevens, Ken Daneyko, Scott Niedermayer, Martin Brodeur and Patrik Eliáš. In 2018, at the conclusion of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the song was used during the Washington Capitals' Stanley Cup celebration as captain Alexander Ovechkin lifted the Cup in Las Vegas.
It was also used during the 2008 Democratic National Convention to accompany the celebration and fireworks at Invesco Field after future president Barack Obama gave his nomination acceptance speech, and was also used immediately following his victory speech upon winning the 2008 Presidential Election.
Although not included on the soundtrack, "Them Changes" by Buddy Miles is heard playing early on in the film.