Remember the titans: attempts for the greater good will conquer any struggle

Throughout the span of generations, the ravages of time will always be present and prevail no matter how human’s endless efforts try to avoid them. We can get a little glimpse of that in a sports drama movie, “ Remember the Titans”, which is based from a true story that took place in Alexandria, Virginia of the year 1971. According to Gregory Allen Howard, he initially found out the story of the movie and created a speculative screenplay which was eventually bought by Jerry Bruckheimer. According to IMDb, it is directed by Boaz Yakin. The prominent actors found in the movie are Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Wood Harris, Ryan Hurst and many more. This movie was released September 29, 2000.

The movie revolved around an African-American, Herman Boone, who became the newly head football coach at an integrated school, T. C. Williams High School. Tension arose because Bill Yoast, the former white coach was replaced by a black person. More tension arose when the football team went to a training camp but eventually the team learned to play together as one. As they returned, the reality in the city was still happening regarding the high school’s desegregation. But with the help of the Titans’ combined effort of their success in the season, the city slowly learned to get along with each other. In the dawn of the 20th century, racism was among the most controversial issue, especially in the countries like the United States. In the midst of all these, the story shown in the movie has portrayed significant and meaningful values regarding human development and society’s progression over the past years. One value presented in the movie was perseverance. Persistence will lead the impossible into the achievable. Herman Boone’s perseverance and determination in creating a unified football team with both white and black individuals never cease despite of the challenges and racial discrimination. In the movie, he prepared an intensive training camp in order to have team coordination for the upcoming competitions. Before proceeding to the camp, he mixed all of the students in the bus. He told them that whoever the person sitting beside them will be their roommate in order to produce a harmoniously relationship with the two races. It still didn’t work because of the occurrence of a fight. Boone still never gave up. On a lunch break, he called out Louie Lastik, a white member, in front of the students and asked him all about his black friends. He then asked the other students to spend time with their teammates and get to know each other but even this didn’t have any good outcome. Despite of this, Boone gave yet another try. One early morning, he woke up all the students for a morning run. He showed the Gettysburg cemetery and told his team that people, who were fighting the same racial issue as them, died on that place. He told them that if they were to continue this fight, they will too be destroyed. He told them to respect each other and play the game as men. The result of his speech soon took effect in one of the football game practice where Julius Campbell and Gerry Bertier showed their enjoyment of the game together. This moment ignited the overall solidarity of the football team. This continued to contribute to the success of the team towards the championships. Another value depicted in the movie was acceptance. No matter what our differences may be, a steadfast acceptance on who we are and who other people are will always result in greater lengths towards our journey on our lives. All of us may be different from our physical attributes, our unique attitudes or even our past ancestors and history, every individual is all the same as a human being. Just like in the movie, Lastik didn’t care what race his friends are. Bertier’s girlfriend also learned to accept other people’s differences. She finally shook hands with Campbell as a sign of friendship and acceptance. Same goes for the whole city. Because of the Titan’s unity, the townspeople learned to accept colored people and interact with them harmoniously.

There will always be the presence of conflicts and misunderstanding throughout the ravages of time but in the middle of this, there will always be a solution to leave a mark for the future generations. The movie has shown how our endless attempts for the greater good will conquer any struggle in life. We can see that even our tiny effort can influence and change others for the betterment of our community.