Remember the Titans **** (2000, Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Wood Harris) – Classic Movie Review 1839

Director Boaz Yakin’s 2000 sports drama is based on the actual events of 1971. It stars Denzel Washington, who gives a titanic turn as Coach Herman Boone, the newly appointed African-American head coach of a football team in an early 1970s Virginia high school, which has just been racially integrated.

Will Patton matches Denzel for charisma and zest as Coach Bill Yoast, the head coach demoted to his assistant, who helps him build a winning team with its players in racial harmony.

Sure, there’s plenty of corny hokum in producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s enjoyable, feel-good Disney movie, with a screenplay by Gregory Allen Howard. But there’s also a lot of good comedy, big heart-tugging highspots and, above all, a welcome no-messing message too.

There’s strong playing from the whole team, cemented by Washington, sketching a memorable character who warms and humanises during the movie. History remembers the winners, apparently – and this is one!

Wood Harris, Ryan Hurst, Donald Faison, Craig Kirkwood, Ethan Suplee, Kip Pardue, Hayden Penettiere, Nicole Ari Parker, Kate Bosworth, Eral Poitier and Ryan Gosling are among the first-rate cast.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1839

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