Remember the Titans

"This is my sanctuary," says Coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) as he gazes at an empty stadium in the middle of Boaz Yakin's Remember the Titans. The first black coach foisted on a newly integrated Alexandria (Virginia) high school in 1971, Boone hopes to forge a team committed to excellence and fair play. Yakin, or more likely producer Jerry Bruckheimer, of mindless action fame, has similar aspirations for the movie, which is an exercise in feel-good platitudes untouched by the turmoil of the period in which it's set.

Based on a true story, Titans doggedly depicts Boone's efforts to whip his black and white team into a monochrome bunch of gung-ho stereotypes, demonstrating that neither entrenched racism nor muddle-headed affirmative action can match the quasi-fascist regimen of a winning football program. (That no mention is made of Vietnam, the likely destination of many of these gridiron heroes, is typical of Titans' spinelessness.) It's the car-chase-and-explosions version of a social-issues movie, with a crisis popping up every few minutes so you won't notice that there isn't a genuine idea or emotion anywhere. Washington brings passion and charisma to his cartoon character, and Will Patton as the white head coach whose job Boone usurps has some grit, but these Titans are forgettable indeed. At the Apple Valley, Holiday, Hoyts Providence Place 16, Showcase, and Tri-Boro cinemas.
-- Peter Keough