Remember The Titans Conflict Essay

The movie Remember the Titans is about a high school football team who overcomes many obstacles on their way to win a state championship. It takes place in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1971. The main conflict in the story is racism. The school board forced a white school and a black school to integrate. The school is known as T.C. Williams. Alexandria was a very racist city. A white store owner killed a black teenager and the city was on the verge of exploding. Now that T.C. Williams is integrated, the football team has to deal with integrating their football team and coaching staff. Coach Boone moved to Alexandria in hopes to become the new head football coach. He cares a lot about the boys on the team. At a meeting, when Coach Yoast tells the

boys he won’t be coaching them anymore, all of the players stand up and say they are going to sit the season out because they won’t play for Coach Boone. He tells them to still play and that they are making it harder than it already is for him. There is a lot of hate and angry feelings in the town between the white and black people.
When Coach Boone moves into his new house, he is greeted outside by many of the town’s black people, including the black parents and players who want to play football for him. They cheer and celebrate when he comes out to meet them. Coach Boone is told that they need him and that he’s an answer to their prayers. He claims that he isn’t an answer to their prayers or anything extraordinary but that he is just a high school football coach. Later, Coach Boone meets with Coach Yoast and asks him to stay on the staff. He tells him he could be the defensive coordinator and the assistant head coach. At first, Coach Yoast does not like the fact that he would be working under Coach Boone. He eventually decides to stay and work on the staff, and the white players decide to play this season. Because he decided to stay, he lost his chance in the hall of fame. Coach Yoast has a young daughter, Sheryl, who is nine and goes with him wherever he goes. Her mom left the family because she said Coach Yoast worked too much. She is really into football and throughout the movie she makes herself involved a lot. She hates the fact that her dad is not going to be the head football coach anymore. The football team has a team camp before school starts. This year they are going to Gettysburg College. Conflicts get worse up at camp. Before they leave for camp, a few more of the main characters are introduced. Two of the white players, Gerry Bertier and Ray Budds, confront coach Boone. Gerry tells him that he’s the only all-American on the team. He tells coach Boone to reserve half the spots on offense and special teams for the white players. Then he says, “We don’t need any of your people on defense, we’re already set.” Coach Boone doesn’t like the term “your people.” That phrase is used a lot between the whites and blacks. He also tells Gerry that he is going to be his “daddy” up at camp. He publicly humiliates Gerry and Ray in front of the players, coaches, and parents. He calls them Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. Things are already starting to heat up and they haven’t even left for camp yet. Coach Boone separates the offense and defense into groups outside of the buses. He pairs a white and black player together and says they are sitting together on the bus ride and will be roommates up at camp. Gerry is paired with another main character, Julius Campbell. They strongly dislike each other because of their many differences. The bus ride up to camp is not a pleasant one because nobody wants to be with the people they are by. They are going to have to overcome a lot in order to have the unity that makes a team great. However, things only get worse at the camp.
The white and black players want nothing to do with each other.

They fight over which beds they are going to sleep in. Gerry and Julius get in a fight over a poster that Julius brought to hang up in his room. The fight turns into a brawl and the entire team is in on it. The coaches have to break up the players. Not only are there conflicts off the field, there are many fights and struggles on the field. Players are playing selfish. One example is that Ray will not block for the black quarterback nicknamed Rev. There is only one white player who is not racist. His name is Louie Lastik. He sits with the black players and lunch even though they are confused why. Julius tells him, “Why don’t you go sit with your people.” Louie replied, “I don’t have any people Julius, I am with everybody.” He gets to know a few of the black players and becomes friends with them. That same day at lunch, Coach Boone asked Louie questions about those black players and he was able to answer them. He asks if anyone else is willing to answer questions about their teammates not their race. No one volunteers. Coach Boone is angry and tells the team that until they stop ignoring each other there will be 3 practices a day. The players don’t want to have to practice that much so they try and get to know each other. They don’t ask sincerely because they honestly don’t care about getting to know them. A turning point in the movie comes when Coach Boone takes the team for a jog. They jog a long time and when

they get to their destination, Coach Boone tells them it is the battlefield of Gettysburg. He talks to the team telling them 50,000 people died on this battlefield. He also says, “they were fighting the same fight that we’re fighting among ourselves today. If we don't come together right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were. I don't care if you like each other of not, but you will respect each other. And maybe... I don't know, maybe we'll learn to play this game like men.” I think this inspired Gerry the most. He is the team captain and needs to show leadership. One night at practice, Gerry yells at Ray for not blocking for Rev. Other players see his example and they start playing more as a team. Gerry and Julius start to bond on the field when they yell “left side, strong side.” It is something they eventually do a lot in the movie to pump up the team. It seems as if all the conflicts are resolved when they return home from camp because they finally accepted each other. As they came back to the town and started school, the unity of the team starts to break apart. After the first game Gerry used the term “they.” Julius thought it was racist. Also, some of the team go into a restaurant and the owner refuses to serve them because there were blacks with them. This causes an argument and then the white and black players separate again.
After a player meeting, they seem to be back on track and getting along again. They continue to win. They become so united that they start to do a special warm up before the games. The warm-up in united and in synch. They go on win the regional championship. By now, the school is more united from the victories of the Titans. There is a huge celebration after the game outside of the school. A lot of people are there. This is the start of the climax in the movie. Gerry asks Julius if he wants to get out of town with him. Julius told him that he had to stay with his girlfriend tonight. Gerry still decides to leave. As he is driving, he is looking at fans out the window and not paying attention to the road. He is T-boned by a big car and gets in a devastating car crash. When Julius finds out he rushes to the hospital where Gerry was taken. When he arrives, most of the team and coaches were already there. Coach Boone tells him that Gerry is paralyzed from the waist down and will never walk again. Julius becomes upset and starts crying. He hugs Gerry’s mom and she tells him that he is the only person that Gerry wants to see. Julius goes into Gerry’s room. The nurse tells Julius that only family is allowed in the room. You know that Gerry has completely changed when he tells the nurse that Julius is family. He calls him his brother. They talk for a while and Julius still can’t believe what has happened. He tells Gerry that he is superman and that this could not have happened. Gerry is handling this very well considering how dramatic his life has now changed. The team relies on Gerry’s leadership and his outstanding play on the field. They are going to try and have to win the state championship without him.
The state championship game is played at Roanoke Stadium.

The town and school have come together a lot since the beginning of the season. When Jeane Bertier, Gerry’s mom, enters the stadium, everyone stands up and cheers. The white and the black fans. They all start to chant Gerry’s name. Before the game starts Gerry’s girlfriend, Emma, comes down onto the field. Earlier when Gerry introduced her to Julius she would not shake his hand. She has come a long way with racism and now accepts Julius as Gerry’s best friend. She came down onto the field to shake Julius’s hand. The first half is ugly but the Titans are only down 7-0 at the end of two quarters. In the locker room at half time a lot is said. Coach Boone starts off saying, “It's all right. We're in a fight. You boys are doing all that you can do. Anybody can see that. Win or lose... We gonna walk out of this stadium tonight with our heads held high. Do your best. That's all anybody can ask for.” Julius tells him out of respect that doing our best is not enough. He tells Coach Boone that he has demanded perfection out of them. He goes on to say that no individual can be perfect, but by never losing a game this season, they can be perfect as a team. One of my favorite quotes of the movie is said by Coach Yoast after Julius spoke. It signifies just how important this team really was for the entire town including himself. He said, “I hope you boys have learned as much from me this year as I've learned from you. You've

taught this city how to trust the soul of a man rather than the look of him. And I guess it's about time I joined the club.” He is humbled enough by the score to ask Coach Boone for his help on defense. The coaches work together and the players play as a team in the second half. They come from behind and win at the last second. After the game Coach Yoast says to Coach Boone, “I know football, and what you did with those boys. You were the right man for the job, Coach!” He replied, “You're a Hall-of-Famer in my book!” There season was perfect. 13-0.
At the beginning of the movie, Sheryl states how important football is to Virginia. She says, “In Virginia, high school football is a way of life, it's bigger than Christmas day.” That quote shows how much impact this football team had on the town. The people in the town learned from the players’ example of coming together and accepting each other. One example of this is when Coach Boone returned home after the game, all of the neighbors cheered for him this time, not just the blacks. After the season, the players went their separate ways. Gerry and Julius remained best friends and ended up living by each other. Gerry goes on to win a gold medal in the wheel chair Olympics in the shot put. He was coached by Coach Yoast. When the team was reunited again, it was at Gerry’s funeral ten years later. Gerry was in another car crash and was killed. He was hit by a drunk driver. The players all look older and are saddened by the loss of one of their former teammates and friends. When the players became friends during the season, they loved to sing songs together. At the funeral they softly and reverently sang the words “na,na,na,na na,na,na,na, hey, hey, hey, good-bye.”