Movie Review – Remember the Titans

Movie Review – Remember the Titans

Movie Brief   

            ‘Remember the Titans‘ is a movie that was produced in 2000 but was based on true events that occurred in West Virginia in 1971. Coach Herman Boone (an African American) was hired to train the West Virginia TC Williams High School football team. Coach Boone was hired under the then-current coach Yoast, a Caucasian, who was at that time a Hall of Fame nominee. Later, Boone was given the head coach job and convinced Yoast to be assistant coach. Yoast relented after the Caucasian team members and their families threatened to leave the team if Yoast left the team. The Caucasian team had initially boycotted playing with the African American team but later joined it. On August 15, Boone and the team, along with the other coaches, journeyed to Gettysburg College for a training camp. At the camp, there were frequent clashes between the team members, all racially instigated, including between the team captains, Julius Campbell and Gerry Bertier. However, racial harmony was finally achieved after several motivational talks by Boone and rigorous training that was complemented by ultimatums that Boone set on the team members.

After returning from the camp, the board chairman of the school told Boone that he would be fired if he lost a single game. As a result, the Titans completed the football season undefeated while simultaneously fighting racial prejudice and slowly gaining community support. Gerry cut off his friend Ray from the team because of his continued racial bias following Ray’s intentional miss of a block that nearly cost the team’s Jerry Harris an injury towards the season’s ending. Additionally, Yoast was told by the school board chair that the Titans would have to lose one game if the former wanted to get to the Hall of Fame; the board chair wanted Boone to be fired. Yoast refused to betray the team and threatened to expose the unfair officials. Yoast lost his nomination, and Boone kept his job. As the team went out to celebrate the victory, Gerry was involved in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist downwards. The team played the State Championship without Gerry and won the title.

Ten years later, Gerry was involved in yet another road accident and died. At the time of his death, Gerry had won the Paralympic Games gold medal in Shot-Put. Julius and the former Titan team members, including the coaches, attended the funeral and sang a rendition of  Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye. The movie ended with an epilogue describing what the key actors were doing after 1971.

The Structural and Human Resource Frame

The structural frame within an organization focuses on the organizational architecture and includes the coordination of roles and relationships, technology, structure, and goals. Hierarchies, systems, procedures, policies, rules, and labor that coordinate a firm’s diverse activities into a single effort are linked to this frame (Farnsworth et al., 2015). The human resource frame, on the other hand, focuses on gaining an understanding of people as well as their relationships. Individuals within an organization have development and skills opportunities, as well as prejudices, fears, feelings, and needs. This focus enables one to understand the fit between the organization and the individual. The organization can, thus, train the individual based on their obligations to meet organizational needs (Sandfort, 2009). This section of the paper discusses the movie ‘Remember the Titans’ with reference to the structural and human resource frames.

Mahon, Taylor & Boyatzis (2014) define a vision as a mental image that is clear enough to guide a business to a point in its future and is based on the aspirations and goals of the business. The Titans vision was to win the State Championship, and coach Boone was set to ensure the team met this vision. A mission is defined as the statement that describes the philosophies and goals of a business and which gives it a competitive advantage (Wilson, Meyer, & McNeal, 2012). Coach Boone made the team repeat time and again the phrase ‘I want victory’ Besides winning the State championship, throughout the training, coach Boone wanted the team to see beyond their skin colour and work together to achieve their vision. The acceptance of each other as team members was influential is changing the way the college students and the community at large viewed each other, and this broke to an extent, the race barrier that had prevailed for years in Virginia. The Titans unity fulfilled its purpose of pulling back racial barriers.

The main players in the movie were Denzel Washington as coach Boone; Will Patton who was the assistant coach Bill Yoast; Wood Harris as the African American team captain Julius Campbell; Ryan Hurst as the Caucasian team captain Gerry Bertier; Donald Faison, who was the Right Back/Left Back player Petey Jones; Craig Kirkwood as Quarter Back Jerry ‘Rev’ Harris; Ethan Suplee as Offensive Left  Louie Lasik; Kip Purdue as Quarter Back  Ronnie ‘Sunshine’ Bass; and Hayden Panettiere as coach Yoast’s daughter Sheryl Yoast.

The team Social Structure was designed to give African Americans a sense of belonging. The US had just set up rules that allowed African Americans to school together with Caucasians. The African Americans moved to TC Williams High School which was previously fully Caucasian; with a Caucasian coach and assistant coach for the football teams. Coach Boone was given position of head coach to placate the rising tension caused by the racial differences. There were two coaches and their deputies under Boone who were responsible for training the Offensive and Defensive sides of the team. The different sides had autonomy, and Coach Boone expected that the deputy coaches under him would ensure their side of the team performed to perfection. There was a clear differentiation of work with each coach assigned their side of the team. There was also coordination of the individual roles.  The team members even embraced their new sides, and each side defended its own. For example, when the Offensive team started making ‘mama jokes’ against the defensive side, they each stood by their respective side members, racial color notwithstanding.  However, Boone at one time tells Yoast that he was ‘cutting his legs’ because every time Boone berated a team member, Yoast would try and appease the said team member. At the time, Yoast had put Petey in the game (despite Boone sitting him out on the bench) which resulted in the team winning the game. However, despite the win, Boone felt that Yoast was undermining his authority and told him to stick to training his side of the team.

The management of the team was initially vertical with Boone making all the decisions at the training camp. He told the team and the coaches that his leadership was not democratic but rather a dictatorship and that he (Boone) expected to win. He also told the team that he expected nothing less than perfection. It was not until Yoast confronted him and told him that ‘there is a thin line between being tough and being crazy and you are flirting with it.’ After this conversation, Boone told the team that he expected them to know each other’s families, likes, and dislikes failure to which he would intensify the training from three to four times a day. This left the team with no option but to know about each other.

The structure of the team brought about effectiveness in each side (Offensive and Defensive) which had its own deputy coach to train it to perfection. This brought an overall perfection to the team. Coach Boone held several motivational talks with the team. For example, while doing the night run in the woods, the team and coaches came to the Gettysburg cemetery, Boone told the team of how young boys fought a senseless racial-fuelled war and died and were now buried in the cemetery. Boone told team members that if they did not come together, they would be like the dead. He went on and told them ‘ I don’t care if you don’t like each other, but you will respect each other and maybe even play this game like men.’

The characters progress through the group dynamics. This can be seen with the team captains Gerry and Julius, who become best friends and speak with one voice. At one time there was a fight that broke out in the school, and both Julius and Gerry were at the forefront of preventing each of their sides from fighting with the other side. Gerry talked to the Caucasian side while Julius talked to the African American side and the fight was stopped. The two captains initially did not like each other with each blaming the other for poor team delivery. Julius later visited Gerry in an all-white neighbourhood, and at Gerry’s funeral, Julius leads a sorrowful rendition for his fallen friend. In making the team captains lead the team as one, diversity is promoted as each racial side is represented yet still working as one team. There was good interpersonal dynamics within the team although the same was not reflected in the community. The team members were able to see each other as brothers, and this was best exemplified when Jerry ‘Rev’ helped Lasick with his academics by tutoring him. In the end, Lasick scored a C+ average which qualified him to join college, a thing he did not believe he was capable of when he first joined the team. Diversity is also promoted by having coach Boone head the team and deputized by Caucasian coaches. The team was also a mix of both African Americans and Caucasian players which represented diversification.

The right people in the right role are of importance to the team. Throughout the games, coaches Boone and Yoast are fast in changing the players to fit into the right role. For example, when Jerry Harris had his wrist broken by an opponent, Coach Boone told Sunshine to take over. Sunshine told Lasick to make an unprecedented move that Lasick obeyed, and the team was able to tackle the opponents and eventually win the game. In the State championships, Petey had been told he would sit out the season and would only play in the following year as a senior. However, when one of the team members told the coach that he believed Petey would be a better fit to play the final part of the game, the coach let him switch places, and Petey played into winning the Titans the State championship.

Yoast appears to have more emotional intelligence than Boone. Boone stated from the onset that he expected perfection from the team and nothing less. At one time the team was practising till late at night, and Boone told them that they would not quit until they got the move he wanted right. When Garrett got injured, Boone said that he was not going to let such a setback make him lose the State championship. Yoast at this time told him that he believed that Boone was not talking about the team winning but rather it was about an individualistic and selfish desire to win. Later, Boone would talk to his wife and question himself. Boone told his wife that Yoast thought that he was blinded by selfish ambition. Lastly, there is a formal hierarchy structure with the leadership starting with Boone, to Yoast and the deputy coaches followed by the team captains.

References

Farnsworth, T. J., Peterson, T., Neill, K., Neill, M., & Lawson, J. (2015). Understanding the structural, human resource, political, and symbolic dimensions of implementing and sustaining interprofessional education. Journal of allied health, 44(3), 152-157.

Mahon, E. G., Taylor, S. N., & Boyatzis, R. E. (2014). Antecedents of organizational engagement: exploring vision, mood and perceived organizational support with emotional intelligence as a moderator. Frontiers in psychology, 5, 1322.

Remember the Titans https://www.youtube.com/watch?vpohYXtVFvR8

Sandfort, G. R. (2009). Principal leadership and student achievement: An examination of connections between structural, human resource, political, and symbolic leadership on performance outcomes on the California High School Exit Exam. University of California, Santa Barbara and California Polytechnic State University.

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Use 1 of the movies listed below as a case study to analyze the dynamics of the story and characters through the structure and human resource frames. There is a link provided for each movie that enables you to stream it at a very minimal cost if you have other access to the movie. Each movie is also available through iTunes; however, you need to access the app store through your device and search for the title.

You will likely have to watch the movie once for context (if you have not already watched it) and then watch it again to gain the details necessary to appropriately apply the concepts of each frame. Alternatively, you may need to pause and rewind to achieve the same result, so plan your time accordingly (and it may be easier to watch it alone).

These guiding questions may be helpful for your analysis. You may not address every question based on the movie you select; this is just a guide to get you thinking about the course material as you watch. Please remember that your movie paper submission is not a question-and-answer document. You are to analyze the information you find, organize it, and present it in a paper that is 6-8 pages in length.

Your paper should be written at the college level, adhere to APA guidelines, and include a reference list. Any sources used must be cited properly, including the movie, using in-text citations and a references page.

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