The movie I chose was Remember the Titans. It is based on actual events from the year of 1971. Two schools in Alexandria Virginia integrate forming T. C. Williams High School. The movie is about a football team and the Caucasian head coach of the Titans is replaced by an African American coach. Tensions arise when players of different races are put together on the football team. During the two-week training camp in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the black and white team-mates come together and learn to get along.
When players returned from camp, they found the community in turmoil over the desegregation of the high school. As the season progressed with an undefeated winning streak from the Titans, the community and the students of different races became closer and finally accepted each other. An interpersonal conflict is a disagreement between two individuals or subgroups of an organization involving significant resentment and discontent. In the movie Remember the Titans, conflict occurred when a school became segregated and there were racial issues with the football team.
The white players did not like that the team had a new “Black” head coach who was given the position over the “White” head coach. One specific part of the movie where two team mates were in a conversation is a great example of the conflict between the blacks and the whites. “ Bertier: Listen, I’m Gary, you’re Julius. Let’s just get some particulars and get this over with. Julius: Particulars? Man, no matter what I tell you, you ain’t never gonna know nothing about me.
Bertier: Listen, I ain’t running any more of these three-a-days Julius: Well, what I’ve got to say, you really don’t wanna hear ‘cuz honesty ain’t too high upon your people’s priorities. Bertier: Honesty? You want honesty? Honestly, I think you’re nothing. Nothing but a pure waste of God-given talent. You don’t listen to nobody, man! Not even Doc or Boone! Shiver push on the line everytime and you blow right past ’em! Push ’em, pull ’em, do something! You run over everyone in this league, and everytime you do you leave one of your teammates hanging out to dry, me in particular!
Julius: Why should I give a hoot about you, huh? Or anyone else out there? You wanna talk about the ways you’re the captain? Bertier: Right. Julius:: You got a job? Bertier: I’ve got a job. Julius: You been doing your job? Bertier: I’ve been doing my job. Julius: Then why don’t you tell your white buddies to block for Rev better? Because they have not blocked for him worth a blood nickel, and you know it! Nobody plays. Yourself included. I’m supposed to wear myself out for the team? What team? Nah, nah what I’m gonna do is look out for myself and I’ma get mine.
Bertier: See man, that’s the worst attitude I ever heard. Julius: Attitude reflects leadership, captain. ” The team as a whole wanted to be a good team, but they as team mates needed to learn to get along and gain trust among each other. At the football camp the boys grew closer and resolved part of the conflict however when they returned home, they had parents and other members of the community who did not see eye to eye with the “blacks”, nor see eye to eye with their children who had grew to be friends with the black students.
When they arrive back and were about to get off the bus, they were all singing and being “normal” teenagers on a football team, one of the parents made a comment along the lines of “what did they do? Brainwash them? ” Another conflict arose between the coaches when a brick was thrown through Coach Boones window and the assistant coaches little girl was at the house at the time of the incident. Coach Yoast “white coach” told Coach Boone “it was because of his sins” and Coach Boone replied “he was sorry that his little girl went through that, but now he had a dose of what his little girls went through”.
Another conflict between the coaches was that Coach Boone felt that Coach Yoast was over compensating or “babying” the black players when he punished them. Another conflict was between Bertier and Ray Budds. They started out in the movie as close friends, however as Bertier and Campbell grew closer, Ray remained at a distance due to his prejudice against the blacks. At one point in the movie Ray did not block for a black player during a game which resulted in an injury to the player. Being the captain of the team, Bertier cut Ray from the team for his actions.
In the movie I don’t thing Ray ever grew to accept the segregation. Among the players, students, coaches, parents and community in the beginning was turmoil, however after seeing how the players grew to know and trust each other and form a perfect union as a football team, they all started to come together. By the end of the movie acceptance was at a high level. Before the championship Bertier was in a car accident, and only family members were allowed to see him at the hospital, Bertier told the nurse the Campbell was his brother, and asked “don’t you see the resemblance? When that occurred it inspired the team and at the championship game they are playing a very tough team and it’s a close game all the way to the end. The Titan’s won the championship and defeated racism all in one year. Coach Yoast tells Coach Boone that he was the only man that could have done this job. My personal reflections about the movie is that I seen the fear of the unknown. The different races didn’t know each other, or like each other for that matter.
When forced to work together and they learned to know each other, the realization that the “blacks” were still people with morals, standards, feelings and more, they began to accept them. Personal victories, team victories, and victories over racism all combined with the victories won with embracing change and finding conflict resolution is what made this movie so enjoyable to me. Nobody likes change, but it is something everyone must deal with at some point or another. This movie shows the victories that come out of accepting change and the consequences and hardships that may be faced by not accepting it.
