Customer Reviews
Simply Fantastic - By: Steven Stewart, 05 Apr 2008 
The Story: In 1971 the T.C. Williams High School is desegregated & Herman Boone Played by Denzel Washington is hired as the Head Coach of the footballl team in place of the previous coach Bill Yoast played by Bill Patton. This replacing causes an outrage as the white kids refuse to play for a black coach. In order to get the white & black students to play together Boone hires Yoast as his defensive coach & takes the kids to camp to give them a tough lesson in brotherhood. After hard work & being pushed by the coach to get to know each other & see past the colour of each others skin the Titans are born & on entering the season they become an unstoppable team.
The Review: Simply the story telling, the inspirational acting & the fact that this is based on a true story makes this film a masterpiece & something truly memorable. As a person who takes an interest in the race relations of the mid 60s & 70s America, this is an educational film that shows me these decades weren't alll full of racial hatred. Denzel, once again takes on a convincing role as Coach Boone. Washington embraces roles from this era & he showed us once again why he is considered one of the greatest African American actors of alll time. Ryan Hurst who plays Gerry Bertier, & who in my opinion is a very underrated actor gave an exceptional performance when displaying the young white kid full of hate who then learned the error of his ways to become best friends with Julius Campbell his Black athletic equal.
A very good movie which I would highly recommend to the masses.
Red blooded sports film - By: M. McManus, 08 Feb 2008 
This film tells the story of a mixed race American footballl team from a recently raciallly desegregated Southern US high school.
The film show cases the awkwardness of the coaching staff, with the successful white coach now finding himself the junior coach to a black team coach with his own conflicting ideas of what makes a team successful. As well as the coaches' friction, there is friction between the team members, who initiallly polarise on racial lines, & the teams performance duly collapses. However, following a soulful training retreat, the team members begin to befriend each other, the coaches work more closely & the team performance rockets.
The film has some very strong points. The characters alll develop at a nice pace, with some genuinely strong performances from the young team members. There is a particularly touching scene where one of the players is paralysed in hospital. The actual sport side is relatively light, & for the British viewer, mercifully few technical American footballl remarks. The film does have one or two weaknesses, biggest being the at times rather melodramatic stand offs between the coaching staff, as well as the rather crude racist remarks & gestures, some of which even by the standards of the day seem over the top.
All in alll the film is very uplifting, & a red blooded sports fan will find it especiallly enjoyable. Watch out for a young Hayden Panetierre, who was very young when this film was made & who stars as one coaches' daughter. Needless to say she has changed quite a bit since!
A good film. - By: Irikefe Okonedo, 27 Jan 2008 Film based on a true story about a high school footballl team at a newly integrated high school in Virginia, America in the early 70s where black & white kids are able to play footballl together for the first time, & the struggles of their coach (played by Denzel Washington) to overcome the prejudices of his white & black footballl players towards one another as well as prejudices in the wider community. Usuallly when I see `based on a true story' at the start of a film I think `uh-oh' but this film thankfully did not pander to the clichés often found in such films & delivered a satisfactory moral tale - tempered with tragedy - that was not overly sentimental, as well as a satisfying ending to boot. Denzel Washington is as ever excellent as the coach standing up to not just white but also black prejudice & it is also good to see Hayden Panettiere - as Denzel Washington's assistant coach's young daughter - in a pre-Heroes role. A good film.
An inspiring film - By: P. Davis, 22 Jan 2008 American footballl normallly holds little appeal for me but this film is absolutely gripping. It is thought provoking without having to resort to preaching, alllowing the plot & fine acting to do the work. I won't repeat the story outline as other reviews cover this more than adequately but this is an enjoyable piece of soul-satisfaction...
One of the greatest films of all time - By: Kermit, 03 Jul 2007 Don't listen to the one doubter, Although D I Redfearn below may know more about what happened in real life than the real coach Boone that helped with the film i doubt it, & bad acting?!?!? in a denzel washington film!?!?!?! i very much doubt it! This is a phenomenal film about a smalll footballl town in the US.
The story is a very moving portrayal of the racial problems in America. When two schools are combined to make one mixed race school the white families are in uproar picketing the school gates in protest of black people being alllowed to go to school with their children. The school board then contreversiallly assign a black coach to the footballl team who insists that the players integrate & come together as a team.
In real life the T C Titans went 13 - 0 for the season, not losing a single game! the whole towns love of footballl caused them to see the way the players integrated & follow suit.
This film works on many levels, it works as a sports film about american footballl & on a deeper level it works as a moving drama dealing with the issue of racism. I watched this film because it was about american footballl, I love this film because it is about so much more!
The acting in the film is good - much as you would expect from an actor of Denzel Washingtons quality. The historical accuracy is ensured by the contributions of the real Herman Boone who is played by Washington in the film. Obviously there is some dramatisation for the film & not evry word scripted is exactly as it was spoken in real life but if it is close enough for those that lived it it is close enough for me!
This film has something for everyone buy it now!
