Racism is disgusting. Unfortunately, EVERYONE has at least a little racism in them. I'd like to think that I don't have a racist bone in my body, but that would be a lie. I mean, I'd never use "the n-word," I have black friends, and I had a black girlfriend for 2 years, but realistically, none of that means a damn thing. Spike Lee once said that everyone is racist, but some people are racist to a much lesser degree than others, and I have to agree with that. I have a couple of friends who are racist to a high degree, and use "the n-word" often (and the fact that they know that I hate the word only makes them wanna use it more). I don't put myself in that category, but something happened last night that reminded me that I'm not completely racist-free. While driving around, close to midnight, I saw two pretty young white girls walking down a sidewalk by an apartment complex. Then I saw three black guys, about the age of the girls, coming from the apartment complex and walking up to the girls on the sidewalk. My initial thought was that those girls were about to get mugged, raped, assaulted, or whatever. For all I know, it was just friends meeting up, but that wasn't the first thing that came into my mind. Why is that? Would I have thought the same thing if the three guys were white? Probably not.
"Remember the Titans" is about racism. And football. I've always thought that sports, football, in particular, was the only true common ground between the races. In a football team, whether it be college, pro, or in some cases, high school, you'll get a southern redneck white dude in the same team as a ghetto roughneck black dude, and they'll get along beautifully. Even if the same two people weren't in any team, if you were to put them in the same room, they could probably talk about sports for hours. They may be from different worlds, but with sports, especially football, they'll always have common ground.
Okay, I'll get off my pulpit so I can get on with the review.
While watching "Remember the Titans," which is based on a true story, I was wondering how much of what happened was really true. A lot of it seemed way too idealistic, and very corny, but I read some article that said that almost all of it was true. Can two people who hate each other passionately in the early going become like brothers after a few months? I don't know, but I hope so. If that really happened, then there's still hope for the world, right?
It's really hard not to like this movie. A lot of that has to do with the cast, which is lead by the great Denzel Washington. He's already won an Oscar for Best Supporting Oscar ("Glory"), but I hope to see him eventually get a Best Actor Oscar. I don't think that this is the movie that will get him that, but it DOES prove that he's of that caliber... not that I've ever had any doubt. There's also a very strong performance by Will Patton (in yet another movie produced by Jerry Bruckheimer... he was also in "Armageddon" and "Gone in 60 Seconds"). Those who play the members of the football team are all very, very good, too. But my favorite has to be Hayden Panettiere, who plays Will Patton's daughter in the movie. She's perfect as the tomboy who, despite her age and sex, probably knows more about football than most other people. This is my first time seeing this young actress, but she's already been in about 10 movies, none of which I've ever seen before.
"Remember the Titans" was written by Gregory Allen Howard, and this is his debut. The director is Boaz Yakin. He wrote and directed "Fresh," a very intelligent movie about a kid in a ghetto who uses the game of chess as a way to come up with a strategy to fix his problems, and they're pretty big problems. It's a truly great, well-written film.
The negatives
of "Remember the Titans" have mostly to do with the corny moments,
and formulaic plot, but supposedly, it's all true. Still, even if it is,
I think it shoulda been eased up a little bit. But this is still a very
entertaining movie, and it shouts "yes" to anyone asking if we
can all just get along.