SummaryRemember the Titans is a movie based on the successful and unbeaten 1971 football season of T.C. Williams High School football team called the Titans. The movie unfolds with the high school being desegregated and the local community protesting and student unhappy over racing mixing at the school. Among all this trouble, the high school football coach (Coach Yoast) is replaced by an African American coach (Coach Boone) due to bureaucratic reasons. Coach Boone offers Coach Yoast to join his team as a defensive coordinator. Disgusted by the events, Coach Yoast declines the offer at first, but is forced to accept when other white students pledge to boycott (Yakin).
Once the students reach football camp, Coach Boone makes them go through a rigorous training camp. At the camp, Coach Boone forces the players to learn more about their teammates, especially those from a different race. After several altercations and struggle, Coach Boone and Coach Yoast manage to bring the team together and improve their fitness and performance. The players also start developing better relationships and several players from different races start to develop better understanding of their roommates and team. Many players from different races start integrating and developing friendship, none more than team captain Jerry Bertier and defensive end Julius Campbell (Yakin).
After coming back from camp, the players learn that even though their differences are very much over, but their family and community remain highly segregated. Titans end up unbeaten for playoffs and reach the championship final, which helps in bringing the whole community together celebrating their team’s victory. But, the win does not come without a price as their captain Gerry Bertier is paralyzed after a car accident. The Titans end up going through an unbeaten season and end up winning the championship. The name Remember the Titans is symbolic as the team through their teamwork and unity showed the local community and whole country how to break the race wall (Yakin).
Leadership Theme
Remember the Titans have several themes of leadership ingrained in the story. Since, it is sports themed movie; it is easy to find leadership themes and traits in characters. Different characters and different times show their leadership qualities put their point forward. Some of the themes in the movie are:
Vision
Coach Boone in the movie has a vision, he not only wanted to win the state championship, but he also wanted the white and black players to work together. His vision helped in building a great team and brought the not only the coach, but the local community and family together.
Building Relationships
Coach Yoast shows his leadership ability by listening, coaching and delegating authority at different times in the movie. Coach Yoast listens to his young daughter and asks for Coach Boone’s help and he coaches a demotivated player (Petey) and gets a better performance from him.
Transformation from I to We
Leadership Qualities
Coach Herman Boone
In my opinion, there are several times that Coach Boone displays his leadership qualities. In the movie, Coach Boone shows charismatic leadership while he attempts to motivate his reserve Quarterback to enter the game and make the rehearsed play. Even though the quarterback Ronnie Bass feels unprepared, Coach Boone tells him about his personal struggle of being born as the youngest child in a family of 12 brothers and sisters and his parents dying young, but he still was able to do his role. Such words of wisdom motivate Ronnie Bass who enters the game and wins it for his team with a great performance. Coach Boone’s words make Ronnie feel responsible for his team and he ends up taking a leadership role on the pitch (Yakin).
Coach Bill Yoast
There are several instances in the movie where Coach Yoast shows leadership skills. One specific scene, where Coach Yoast displays his servant leadership is by taking the role of defensive coordinator in Coach Boone’s team. Even though he earlier rejects the role when Coach Boone offers him the role, Coach Yoast is forced to accept when he realizes that most of the white football players would decide to boycott the season. Knowing that the boycott would hurt careers of many of the players who need scholarships to attend colleges and need to play, Coach Yoast gives in realizing that student’s loyalty to him would cost them in the long run and his one action could save many careers (Yakin).
Gerry Bertier
Gerry Bertier is another character that shows leadership qualities in his role as the captain of the team. In one of the scenes, Gerry realizes that one of the teammates (Ray) is deliberately letting the opposite team’s player pass. As the captain, Gerry shows authoritative leadership as he complains about ray’s deliberate action to Coach Boone, who asks him to take matters into his hands and fire Ray from the team. In this case, Gerry displays authoritative leadership quality as he ensures that Ray is removed from the team and no other players are hurt due to his mistakes. His ability to lead and take action against Ray, who is his best friend, shows leadership qualities in Gerry and the ability to make tough choices when needed (Yakin).
Julius Campbell
Julius is one of the black kids who joins the Titans after school segregation and has an altercation with Gerry at camp. But, overtime Julius develops a strong bond with Gerry and there are times when Julius shows his leadership traits. One of the scenes in the movie where Julius shows transformative leadership is in the locker room during the half-time in the state final. The scene involves Julius standing up and making a motivational speech appealing to his teammates to deliver the perfection they has trained for during the training and deliver a performance that gives respect to their coaches and their paralyzed captain and his efforts to bring them together as a team (Yakin).
Conclusion
Remember the Titans is a historic college sports drama that covers the social issue of desegregation in the school system and society. There are several themes of leadership shown in the movie as characters such as Coach Boone shown the vision and ability to bring people together and Coach Yoast shows ability to develop relationship as a leader. Along the way, it is clear that among other leadership skills, Coach Boone displays charismatic leadership, Coach Yoast shows servant leadership, Captain Bertier shows authoritative leadership and Julius Campbell shows transformative leadership through their actions.
Works Cited
Remember the Titans. Dir. B Yakin. Perf. Denzel Washington, Will Patton & Donald Faison. 2000. Denzel Washington Will Patton Donald Faison Nicole Ari Parker, 2000. Film.
