Good Movie Like Remember The Titans example essay topic

Sports movies, in a way, are like murder mysteries. The denouement of plots in both genres follow a simple, predictable pattern. The athlete or team in a sports movie must train hard, and then overcome obstacles and challenges on the way to the Big Game, which they will either win or lose, depending on what kind of movie it is. Murder mysteries aren't that different; the detective interprets the clues, overcoming obstacles and challenges along the way before the identity of the murderer is uncovered. These genres work (to the extent that they do) on the drama created in the struggles getting to the Big Game or the courtroom showdown, not necessarily on the actual conclusion of those events. (If you want proof of this, watch an old Columbo rerun; the Columbo shows always gave away the ending at the first and then made the drama hinge on whether Peter Falk could figure out the clues or not.) When watching a movie like Remember The Titans, we know going in that the team is going to win the Big Game; the only question is how.

(And of course we know they " re going to win; they simply don't make movies about teams that lose the big game. Anyone seen any movies about the Buffalo Bills lately?) In Remember The Titans, we know going in that the "how" is going to be more difficult than usual. Remember The Titans commemorates the first racially integrated team to win the Virginia high school championship. (I will be generous here and not point out that the Virginia high school football tradition can't hold a candle to the Texas "Friday Night Lights" tradition, but you knew that already, didn't you?) Under the tutelage of their coach, the redoubtable Denzel Washington, the Titans must find a way to play together, to trust each other, to be one team, and to fight, fight, fight their way to victory for the good old school, rah rah rah. The team, naturally enough, is led by their inspirational coach, the assistant coach's cute little daughter, and a group of stock characters like the cocky California quarterback, the hotshot linebacker, and the big dumb lineman.

And along the way, they learn many valuable lessons, such as Racism is Wrong, People Are All About The Same Once You Get To Know Them, and The Opera Ain't Over Until the Fat Lady Sings. That last paragraph makes the movie sound pedestrian and bland, the kind of movie you might see one frosty winter evening on HBO when you " re too tired to go out and have fun, but not tired enough to go to bed early. And that's probably when you " ll see it, too, there's not much reason to actually get up and go to the theaters to see the same old movie you " ve seen time and again with the same old Motown soundtrack you " ve heard time and again and... P t. Yeah, you. C'mere.

My guess is, the casual reader left us a paragraph or so back and is already either at the bottom of the page or reading somebody's review of coconut-flavored rum or something like that. It's just you and me now, OK? Basically, what I wanted to tell you -- the serious reader, and you know who you are -- what I'm trying to do with this review, why I'm writing it this way, why I spent a lot of time running down a really good movie like Remember The Titans just now. I have a theory about this movie that I'd like to share with you; don't tell anyone. I think that Remember The Titans is a really great movie, almost a classic, but it isn't the kind of movie that gets appreciated in its own time. Part of this has to do with its producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, who is famous for action-adventure blockbusters, and this really isn't a blockbuster movie.

Part of it has to do with the way it was hyped as a Denzel Washington vehicle for an Oscar nomination, and this isn't really Denzel at his best because the movie insists on treating him as an icon rather than as a fully rounded character. I have hopes, though, that audiences will take the time to see Remember The Titans a few years from now, pull it off their video shelves and give the movie a chance outside the summer-blockbuster context. And I hope that when they do that, they will see all of the small, good things about the movie that I saw, the parts of the movie that worked spectacular well despite the predictable ending and the resident cliches and stock characters scattered through the movie. I hope people will notice what a good job that Will Patton does as the assistant coach, a man who discovers that he's not quite as enlightened as he needs to be. I hope people will notice what a good job the movie does in capturing the tension of a good football game, and the old-school cinematography effort that went into shooting the game scenes. I hope people will get cold, chilly fingers running up and down their spines when Denzel makes his speech at the Gettysburg battleground.

I hope people will notice how the movie's treatment of racism moves from being ham handed and awkward to subtle and understated -- the same sort of subtle and understated way that Denzel fires up his team at halftime of the big game. And I hope they watch the scene where the team captain faces the leader of the black players in a narrow hallway, and they point fingers at each other about white players missing blocking assignments for black players and vice versa. "You " ve got some kind of attitude", the white team captain The reply is devastating; "Attitude reflects leadership". That scene stayed with me for days, and I still smile when I think about it. It's the kind of scene that sneaks up on you, in the way that I think that the movie as a whole can sneak up to you if you allow that to happen. And so I'm writing this review in kind of a sneaky way, focusing on the bad points first, so that maybe the general public will wait a little while to see the movie and discover its charms for themselves.

Shh. Those average readers are reading the last paragraph now. Thanks for sticking with me. Despite its flaws, Remember The Titans does have a lot going for it; audiences that are willing to look past its predictable qualities and forgive its outright attempts to manipulate the audience will find elements to enjoy and appreciate. And like a good Columbo episode, Remember The Titans won't lose any of its punch as it gets older. There may be better choices in the theaters now, but this is one movie you " ll be glad to see show up on HBO some night when you " re folding laundry.