REMEMBER THE TITANS

Here's the short version: this is one of the best movies of its year, and it earns that praise honestly. Denzel Washington and Will Patton anchor a true story about two football coaches — one black, one white — forced together by school integration in 1971 Virginia, and the film never pretends the road to unity is easy. It's funny, it's dramatic, and its real victory, as the film itself insists, is in changed hearts, not just winning seasons.

It also doesn't flinch from the ugliness of its subject. There are racial slurs, riots, a rock through a window, and a brawl — because that's what the story actually required. There's also one played-for-laughs scene where a player kisses a teammate to throw him off, not as a romantic moment but a joke; parents should know it's there.

None of it is gratuitous, and the film's moral center — replacing hatred with loyal friendship — is exactly the kind of story worth putting in front of your older kids. Take them to see it.

Herman Boone (Denzel Washington), a young black coach, is handed the head coaching job at a Virginia high school newly merged with an all-black school under forced integration. The white assistant coach he displaces, Bill Yoast (Will Patton), and a locker room full of racial foes aren't ready to call him coach — or each other teammate. Before they can win a single game, Boone has one harder job: turning a divided team into a team at all.

Four stars means this is filmmaking that works on every level it attempts, and it does. Washington and Patton give excellent, controlled performances as two coaches learning to trust each other, and Donald Faison stands out as Petey, one of the players, in what the source review singles out as a particularly outstanding turn. The film balances humor and real dramatic weight without tipping into either broad comedy or heavy-handed sermonizing.

What sets it apart from many recent films at the time, per the review, is what it accomplishes without leaning on gratuitous violence, sex, nudity, or foul language — the story itself, and the performances carrying it, do the work. It's a compelling, well-built movie that earns its uplift rather than manufacturing it.

This film exalts something Scripture exalts: friendship that crosses lines hatred built, and courage tempered by good character. Its moral worldview is strong and deliberate — the whole story is built around characters overcoming prejudice by building real, costly friendships, and that theme is never undercut or ironized.

It also carries genuine Christian texture, not just moral seriousness. There's an implied team prayer with a depicted "Amen," a character nicknamed "the Rev" who wants to become a pastor, and a song that recites Isaiah 40:31. Coach Boone even resists being cast as a messiah figure himself — "I'm not a savior, I'm a football coach" — a line that quietly keeps the film's hope pointed past one man.

The one moment worth flagging isn't theological but comic: a player kisses a teammate as a joke, not a romantic act, and parents should simply know it's there before it arrives on screen.

Underneath the football and the history is a longing the gospel names directly — that enmity between people can actually be ended, not just managed. "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14).

This is a film that earns its uplift — a true story of two coaches, one divided team, and the harder, better victory of changed hearts. It doesn't sand down the ugliness of 1971 Virginia, but it never wallows in it either. Worth the trip — ages 10 and up.