Coach Boone's Speech Outline

Q: Were all men created equal? Did Coach Boone’s speech inspire them to become one?

Rough Thesis: In Remember the Titans, Coach Boone employs his influence as a Southern black head football coach, budding racial tensions in community and his team, and the unified goal to be successful in order to bring his racially divided football team together.

Intro: ½ page
S1: Hook: [how do I hook my audience? What’s interesting about this movie, or about my idea?]
With tension brewing one thing came to mind: Racism is man’s greatest threat to man -- the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.
S2: context/background
Racial tension in the south
In the early 1970s
First integrated school
New head coach over the former successful one

THESIS: In Remember

the Titans, Coach Boone employs his influence as a Southern black head football coach, budding racial tensions in community and his team, and the unified goal to be successful in order to bring his racially divided football team together.

BODY/Summary: (how many paragraphs? At least 1/2 page; 1-2 short paragraphs)

What do I want to talk about?
Positives:
Great emotion
Has all of the required ingredients for the “great football movie” recipe (action, brotherhood, tension, emotion, love)
Brotherhood
Directing
Showing Coach Boone as someone having authority

Negatives:
Similar to most other sports movies

CLAIMS: (2 pages)
1 paragraph about pathos appeal
1 paragraph about ethos appeal
1 paragraph about
1 paragraph about the physical presence of his speech

P1: ½ page

S1: CLAIM: Because Coach Boone was the first black coach he was the perfect man to help the players come together.

S2: Credible coach because he had success at other schools
S3: Humbly went through racism and death threats
S4: Leads by example and dedication to his craft à inspires players
S5: Coach typically has ethos with his players as they must respect him because he holds the power of who plays (loyalty) and he is an authority figure
S6: Calm, deep, genuinely wants his team to succeed
S7: They have all been through a significant amount together (time and experiences)

P2: ½ page
S1: transition AND claim — “as a work of cinema, SW is amazing, but as a work of drama, not so much.”
S2: commentary/explanation — what’s wrong with the dramatic elements? The characters aretwo dimensional and the emotional relationships between characters make no sense, nor dotheir motivations, or their responses to what

happens.
S3: examples — luke’s connection to obi-wan and his lack of concern for his aunt and uncle;han’s willingness to return and help save luke (and why he would get a medal and notChewbacca or Wedge Antilles); leia’s bad attitude towards her rescuers and her sometimesbi-polar responses to them.
S4: granted, many of Obi-wan’s motivations are explained later in the sequels, but the othercharacters’ motivations aren’t. We’re just supposed to assume that these people are friends.
S5: dialogue (what do I want to say about the dialogue?)
S6: plot — as good as the pacing is usually, there are places where it grinds to a halt becausethe plot has to be explained (Obi-wan and Luke in Obi-Wan’s house)

P3: ½ page

S1: CLAIM: The way Coach Boone connects with the players gives him an opportunity to help the players come together.
S2: Focus on the emotional goal of the entire team to feel successful, appreciative, and unique
S2: Players are competitive and want to win more than they are concerned about social issues in the long run
Willing to work together; Coach Boone appeals to the players by pitching success as only possible through racial unity and cooperation
S3: Makes everyone on the team feel equally important, yet not as important as those who died for the nation
Forces them to humble themselves and feel appreciative
Makes them more willing to cooperate
S4: Offers them the opportunity to feel unique in a racially divided community
Young people love to feel special and Boone facilitates unity by offering the football players a chance to be a model society for the rest of the nation

P4: ½ page

S1: CLAIM: The things actually (physically) happening during this scene is enough to convince the players that they have to come together.

S2:Eerie power of his words due to the midnight setting at the cemetery for the Battle of Gettysburg
Patriotic and innate sense of responsibility to make sure those soldiers died for others to unite the nation
Informs the team of the historical background and the importance
S3: Slow and deliberate tone
Provides time for team to truly absorb the message
S4: Starts with a question
Engages the team, makes it real
S5: Made the team run to the site TOGETHER
Promotes unity without even speaking
Forcing the team to listen to the speech TOGETHER in the night when everyone is equal promotes unity without speaking

again
Makes team realized that they wouldn’t be inconvenienced in the middle of the night if they had simply worked together
S6: Team and viewers can feel the emotion Boone emits and want to return the favor

Conclusion