We need to Remember the Titans (2000).  It is a sobering thought to think that this film is set in 1971.  In 1954, the United States Supreme Court struck down segregation in schools with the landmark Brown v. the Board of Education of Topekadecision.  Pause for a moment on the title of that case.  It was brought against the education system in Topeka, Kansas.  It was not Rome, Georgia, or Marion, Alabama.  Keeping races from mixing was not solely a Southern problem.  In the North, people of color had to deal with more pernicious forms of racism, like housing codes and job discrimination.  Of course, Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka was an important step, but it took years before places like Alexandria, Virginia, allowed black and white students to attend class together.  Where I went to high school in Florida did not integrate until the 1970s.  We need to Remember the Titans because these problems remain unresolved.  In Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, 120 miles southwest of Alexandria where the film takes place, racial unrest exploded when white nationalists clashed with police as authorities came to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee.  How many more Charlottesvilles, or George Floyds, or the events of this movie do we need before we realize this is not Christian behavior.  I pray that it never happens again, but in the meantime, you can read my review of the movie.

In the beginning, what people Remember the Titans for is their players gathering to pay their respects to former All American linebacker Gerry Bertier (Ryan Hurst).  How they get to this point is narrated by Sheryl Yoast (Hayden Panettiere).  She is the young daughter of Bill Yoast (Will Patton), current head coach of the newly integrated and renamed T. C. Williams High School, which happened ten years previously.  As a part of this process, Herman Boone (Denzel Washington), an African American coach from North Carolina, is brought in to be a part of Bill’s staff.  However, without consulting anyone, they quickly elevate Herman over Bill.  The school’s white supporters are not happy, to say the very least, about this move and they loudly voice their opinions on the matter.  Bill is about to find another job elsewhere when he faces the parents of the players and notes the hatred coming from them.  Seeing the impending chaos, Bill takes Herman’s offer to stay on the staff as a defensive coordinator/assistant head coach.  With that, it is time for the team to head to Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania for a two-week training camp.  Though there is one player, offensive lineman Louie Lastik (Ethan Suplee), who is willing to cross the color line, the rest of the players stick to their own races.  This includes Gerry, a team captain who, along with his white friend and teammate Ray Budds (Burgess Jenkins), try to tell Herman who will be on the team and who will be sent packing.  In response, Herman makes an example of Gerry and Ray before splitting up the buses between defense and offense.  This means that the races will have to intermingle, which becomes a large part of what Herman is trying to accomplish during the next fortnight.  The first to crack are Gerry and his fellow player on defense, Julius Campbell (Wood Harris).  Gerry tries to be a leader without needing to get friendly with anyone of the opposite color despite Herman’s express instructions to learn something about every teammate.  Julius calls out the hypocrisy, saying he is only playing for himself, but Gerry is equally adamant that such an attitude will not lead to winning.  Though a few holdouts remain, their budding friendship brings the team together.  However, once they get to the start of the school year and face the intense hatred from the community and students alike, some of the newfound enlightenment is lessened.  There are also problems for Herman.  Before the season begins, he is told that unless he goes undefeated and wins a championship, he will be fired.  He tells no one else, but it weighs heavily on him as they go into their first game.  For example, when Bill takes running back Petey Jones (Donald Faison) aside after yet another fumble, telling the young man he is going to go in as a safety, Herman suspects the assistant is undermining his authority.  Rather, it is a matter of a different style of coaching, Bill being just as dedicated to winning.  This is underscored when Bill is told he is up for a local hall of fame honor, and that the board has arranged for the referees to adjudicate the next game so that T. C. Williams will lose.  In this way, Herman will be gone and Bill can reassume the position of head coach.  Instead of following through with their plan, Bill confers with the referees and tells them he will go to the papers with the scandal.  It is also the semi-final match to get to the championship.  T. C. Williams triumphs in a lopsided fashion, and they return to Alexandria to wide acclaim.  It costs Bill his place of honor, but it also shows that he is a man of integrity.  Sadly, Gerry is t-boned in his car in the celebration and ends up in the hospital, paralyzed from the waste down.  It is Julius who is most aggrieved by the development, and he is the only one allowed into Gerry’s hospital room.  Naturally, Gerry becomes their inspiration to go on to take home the state title in their most difficult victory to that point.  The film concludes with the funeral for Gerry, who had died ten years after these events in a separate accident.  There is also a post-script discussing what many of the players did after high school, noting how Bill and Herman remained friends.

That Bill and Herman remain friends after the events of Remember the Titans is the film in a nutshell.  There is a word that is used a couple of times in describing the attitudes on both sides of the racial divide, one with Christian connotations: pride.  Known as one of the so-called “Seven Deadly Sins,” which are discussed in The Catechism of the Catholic Church, pride is a problem of estimation.  Those with an excess of pride esteem themselves too much and that gets in the way of proper worship of God.  The Almighty will always be greater than ourselves, but prideful people have difficulty with this truth.  As they approach the championship game, Bill accuses Herman of being prideful.  The latter does not admit the pressure he is under to win, but you can see the rightness of this perception in other ways.  One of the first things he says to his players is that he demands perfection of them.  Nobody can be perfect outside of God, yet Herman punishes every one of his teens for any infraction.  To be fair, he lets them back into the fold once they have done their penance, a Catholic way of looking at the laps they are told to run for their infractions.  While such stringent policies do run the risk of pride, you also see some of their opposite virtues on display.  Indeed, though there are Seven Deadly Sins, there are also Seven Cardinal Virtues.  Among these, the one I would highlight is fortitude.  The player we see this exemplified in is Petey.  He came into the season thinking he was going to rush for 1,000 yards as a running back.  When he is called upon to play defense instead, he trusts in what his coaches tell him and does a good job.  There is a stretch where he is removed for his play and does not take it well, but he eventually sees the lesson in his benching and is put back in during the championship game.  This is a virtue because he did not give up, at least not permanently.  God does not promise an easy life, but rising above our challenges with fortitude makes us great.

That this football team was able to overcome many more challenges is why Remember the Titans is great.  Its lessons are important then, and now.  It is about standing for the right principles, and that is something that Faith asks of us as well.  If you are someone you know needs reminders of those principles, show them this film.