COMS 323 - Notes for Remember the Titans PDF

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Summary

Notes for the movie "Remember the Titans." ...

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This assignment is to understand group communication and our own role in the group. ● Look for individual behaviors & group dynamics. ● Look at the communication between all groups. ● What’s interesting? Confusing? Ironic? ● Look for the issues (conflict that groups go through) ● White & black school newly integrating. ● Groups: ○ Whites: Gary being the team leader, he starts being almost equally as hard on whites as he’s been on blacks. ○ Blacks: immense support. Coach Boom is very hard on his team to ensure their success tho. ■ They don’t have to like each other but they will have to respect each other. ○ Team players: they get together in the camp & are able to tolerate each other. However, when they come back to the real world, society wants them apart, treats them differently, forces them to notice their differences and let these differences come between the team. Then one night, they get together at the school gym and hype each other up. They address this racial problem, how society affected them, and actually create cohesion once again. ■ Existing groups: ■ Sub-groups (probably means little friend circles within a group): ● Defense table (blacks & whites mixed) ○ Coaches: ■ Between Bill & Coach Boone there’s conflict from the get go. White coach interrupts boom’s first team meeting in “an unacceptable fashion.” They make a deal that coach Tyrell can coach a special team. Bill blames somebody throwing a brick through Boone’s home window on Boone bragging about his victories. ■ Between Bill & the other white coach, there’s also tension. The other white coach doesn’t want Bill working for Coach Boone because of his racist mindset. The other white coach feels betrayed. ● The forced relationship between blacks & whites in the team: isn’t going so well. There’s tension & racism in the form of belittling from the whites. After boom’s efforts, they actually are starting to get along! They’re making yo mama jokes in the locker room, are roughhousing with each other. ○ Blacks are able to sing their songs and enjoy it ○ Some whites enjoy the blacks’ songs. ● Individuals: ○ Coach’s daughter (white): is just racist. Even openly racist & belittling towards the black coach’s daughter. ■ Starts coming around when she meets Boone’s daughter (Carol; she’s sassy) & they start hanging out together.

■ At the beginning & the end of the movie, she’s the narrator. She says that “they say you can’t make black and white work. Here, we make it work every day” ■ “Before we reach for hate, we always, always Remember the Titans” ■ ○ Bill Yoast (white): the OG coach of the Titans. ■ isn’t openly racist, but doesn’t believe whites and blacks work together efficiently. ■ He diffuses Gerry’s racist worries by vaguely reassuring him. ■ He stops Gerry’s racism with his truck. ■ Taking the year off then moving away. ■ Is skeptical of the integration’s effects on the new team. Believes blacks and whites aren’t going to be able to get along enough to create a team; simply skeptical. However, Boone’s strategies to bring the team together seems to impress him, even though he thinks Boom’s methods are borderline crazy. ■ Decides to take Gary out during the first game to put Jones (black) in, results in them winning the game. Gary’s dad is super racist and very mad about it. ■ Says they’ve taught the city how to trust the soul of a person rather than the looks of them. Very nice saying. ■ Loses his chance of getting into the Hall of Fame because he calls out bullship of the scorekeeper during the first game of the state championship. ■ Finally acknowledges & celebrates the successes and brilliance of Coach Boone. He tells him he is created for this job. ○ Coach Boone (black): is VERY ambitious. ■ They’re all being racist & snarky toward him. ■ He just wants an opportunity to “learn from the best” probably to basically kiss his ass. ■ He’s super hard on his candidates for the team. He makes them go into a very strict camp in which he is the law (dictatorship). He makes the laws and whoever makes it out alive from the camp gets in the team. He wants to prove that he can coach a team to success. ● DUDE HE’S SO HARD ON HIS TEAM OMG, THEY’RE HUMAN TOO but he seems to not care. ■ “Football is about harnessing the anger to achieve team perfection” ■ Literally forces all team members to spend time with a team member from a different race every single day until all the team knows each other. Doesn’t let them ignore each other. ■ Brings them to a graveyard where blacks & whites have fought a war

before & all died (?). He talks about if their team doesn’t come together there on those grounds, they too, will fall. ■ Reminds Bill that he is a winner and he is there to solely win, and nothing else, when Bill tries to remind Boone that there are other important things than winning. Boone’s stubbornness has turned his intentions into a personal, hidden agenda. Instead of wanting the best for his team, he is starting to want the best for himself, which is always winning and ALWAYS showing the Titans in a positive light. ○ Coach Hinge (?)(black): ○ The guy with Boom: seems like boom’s manager or something. ■ He somehow convinced the school to hire Boom as their coach. Didn’t think Boom was going to make it out of the camp; thought that the camp was going to crumble. Now, he tells Boom if he loses, he’ll be fired (and he will be affirming the negative stereotypical thoughts of all whites around them.) ● The team ○ Rev: is one of the first to befriend whites who are friendly towards blacks, like Lastik & Sunshine ○ Petey jones: person who changed places with Gerry in the first game, resulting in the team winning the game. ○ Gerry Bertier (white): team captain. ■ Says julius’ attitude is the worst he’s heard. ■ is racist & afraid he’s gonna lose his placement in the team due to the school being integrated & blacks coming into the school thus the team. ■ Very aggressive towards all blacks, particularly julius. ■ Seems to be getting along alright with blacks, and is doing better with julius, but is still keeping his racist tendencies (ex. He criticizes his white teammates for enjoying blacks’ music) ■ Finally walks away from the whites invite of hanging out, and decides to hang out with a racially mixed group of their teams. ■ Is poisoned by his mother’s racist view of the world ■ Gerry is hit by a truck; is paralyzed from the waist down. Calls Julius his brother. They share a very emotional moment together. ■ Gerry first wins a silver medal in wheelchair sports, then dies 10 years later (was killed in a car crash with a drunk driver, oh man...) ○ Julius (black): him and Gary get into fights very often. After some time, not anymore. ■ Is after securing his position within the team to play the upcoming season (personal, hidden agenda; maybe not so hidden because he yells it out loud but still, it’s not for the team’s benefit, it’s for personal gain). ■ A little while later, Julius becomes actual friends with Gerry, even goes to

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Gerry’s home, meets his mom & gives her a hug! So touching! ○ “Sunshine” Bass (nickname) (white): just transferred from cali (had long, gorgeous hair but had to cut it to get into the team). Is a quarterback. ■ Gary insulted him the second he saw him, Sunshine threw a football at him. ■ He wants to have good relations with both whites AND blacks. ■ Is gay(?) Anyway, he kisses Gary and isn’t fazed by it at all. ■ Is very good at fighting ○ Bosley (white): is kind of racist at first, doesn’t explicitly belittle blacks but treats them differently, almost like they are inferior. Goes with the sheep mentality of the other whites around him. ■ Is one of the first whites to start hanging out with blacks. ■ during the second half of the final state championship, he gives his place to a black guy. The black guy hugs him. ○ Lastik (white): says he “doesn’t have any people” meaning he belongs to every group. Other whites call him a traitor for sitting with blacks during lunch. ■ Very outgoing. Is able to count some good qualities of his black roommates and the people he sat with at lunch The entire neighborhood is being racist towards the newly moving in blacks. The entire black community around the neighborhood is sooooooo happy that there’s a black coach in town now. White & black school newly integrating. During the camp, white and black guys room together. One white guy doesn’t like a poster a black guy puts on his wall & starts a fight. Both blacks and whites in the team actually kind of come together by the end of the camp. Honestly, if that really happened, that’s magical, it almost seemed like a miracle. Game 2: Jones needs to fill in for Gerry bc Gerry isn’t fast enough for the opponent. Titans win. Game 3: somebody broke their wrist. Bass needs to fill in for the person who’s not going to be able to play for the entire season due to his broken wrist. Bass kills it. They end up winning once more. Gerry wants to kick Ray (white) out of the team. Titans win all the games after. Yoast is celebrated for his successes with the Titans. During the Virginia championship, Yoast makes a very good call that changed the team’s play & outcome. Boone’s neighborhood celebrates his & his team’s successes. Gerry is remembered by all who are watching the game. Emma (white, Gerry’s ex, she left because she couldn’t bear Gerry hanging out with blacks at first but now she’s finally coming along) finally meets Julius. Titans win the state championship!...