\"Remember the Titans\" Film Reflection PDF

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Film reflection assignment. Graded 97/100%...

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Running head: FILM REFLECTION

Film Reflection “Remember the Titans” Developing Leadership Thursday, March 21

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FILM REFLECTION

2 Film Reflection “Remember the Titans”

Watching the movie ‘Remember the Titans’ made me think about school football teams not just as guys trying to win the games, but as friends who can go through everything together. It also explains a lot about racial unity, how both black and white people started getting together in the 1980s. I believe that the most interesting leader in the movie is a Coach Herman Boone. He was assigned by the school board to be a Coach Yoast’s assistant, and eventually got a position of the head coach at T.C. Because of his skin color, he had to go through a lot of differences, including dismissal from the previous job in North Carolina, rejection by white students and their parents. However, despite all the troubles, he proved that he is an excellent coach and a great leader. I believe that is exactly what makes him an interesting leader – how he handled the downturns and payed no attention to the people who did not believe in him. In the movie, the previous players did not want to play for Coach Boone, even wanted to declare a boycott, but during the camp, Herman made them understand that color does not make any difference. He rallied the team, which demonstrate his ability to be a leader. The main leadership trait that Coach Boone possesses is his power to encourage and motivate. As a coach, his responsibility was not only to lead the team to the victory, but also to bring the guys together and make them believe in themselves. During the movie, there are two main motivational speeches: on the cemetery and before one of the games. The first one makes us think about the past: “Anybody know what this place is? This is Gettysburg. This is where they fought the battle of Gettysburg. Fifty thousand men died right here on this field, fighting the same fight that we’re still fighting amongst ourselves today. This green field right here was painted red, bubbling with the blood of young boys. Smoke and hot lead pouring right through their bodies.” He links the battle to the football game by saying: “If we don’t come together right now, on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed just like they

FILM REFLECTION were. … I don’t care if you don’t like each other, but you will respect each other. I don’t know, maybe we’ll learn to play this game like men.” Another inspiring monologue takes place before the game between the Titans and Hayfield. Coach Boone says: “I’m not gonna talk to you tonight about winning and losing. You’re already winners because you didn’t kill each other up at camp. Tonight, we got Hayfield. Like all the other schools in this conference, they’re all white. They don’t have to worry about race. We do. But we’re better for it, men… You don’t let anything… nothing… come between us. Nothing tears us apart.” He encourages players by comparing them to the real titans: “Greek mythology, the titans were greater even than the gods. They ruled their universe with absolute power. Well, that football field out there tonight, that’s our universe. Let’s rule it like titans!” All these speeches definitely make Herman a great leader. Speaking about the challenges that are presented in the movie, I would like to emphasize a couple of them: racism, relationships within a team and the injury of a teammate. The main one is obviously racism in the school and society overall. In the prologue of the film, we hear: “Up until 1971, in Alexandria, there was no race mixing. Then the school board forced us to integrate. They combined the white school and the black school into one…” These words make us realize that racism issues will be discussed so many times throughout the movie. And that is exactly what is happening: a new black coach faces difficulties from the very first day. Both head coach Yoast and his assistant don’t want Boone in their team. However, Herman, as an intelligent person, does not want to argue with them, so he just says that he did not ask the school board to be assigned to this position and he came to win. After hearing about Coach Yoast’s achievements, Coach Boom replies: “What an opportunity for me then to learn from the best.” After watching this part, we can say that he will be a great leader, as one of the main leadership traits is problem-solving.

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FILM REFLECTION This leads us to the second challenge – relationships between team members. At the very beginning of the camp, there was a fight between white and black students because of something as small as a poster on the wall. Coach Boone used his power of words and told the sportsmen that it was good they had anger and aggression which they would need. However, “football is about controlling that anger and harnessing that aggression into a team effort to achieve perfection.” After the speech, he clarified the punishments that will be imposed for mistakes done on the field and trained the students really hard. Later, he made everyone spend time with a teammate of a different race every day. Even though guys hated this rule, the Coach knew it would bring positive results. It defines Boone as a great leader as a great leader, because he knew the goal he was leading his team to. The third but not the least significant challenge that titans had to face was Gerry Bertier’s injury. If we think about it for a moment, it is insane how someone who plays a really tough sport, can be paralyzed because of careless driving. He definitely was going through a tough stage, realizing that his football career is over. He did not give up though. After talking to his best friend Julius, Gerry understands that life is not over. The whole team supports their teammate. Thinking about the future, he learns about the Olympics for people in wheelchairs. After the crash, he became a leader and an inspiration to the handicapped community in Virginia. This situation teaches everyone that sometimes problems make a person stronger and help them to become a leader. Going back to Coach Herman Boone as a leader, I think his most used leadership style was commanding. He is a head coach, and everyone has to listen to him. The main characteristic of this style are demanding immediate compliance, giving lots of directives, and not allowing the team to criticize the decisions made by the leader. Let’s see some of the in-film examples. At the very beginning, while telling the team about the camp, Coach Boone said: “We leave for camp… August 15th, 7:29 A.M. If you report at 7:30, you will not be

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FILM REFLECTION playing football this season…” And everyone had to listen to him, with no criticism. Later, he told the players to get on the busses depending on whether they are defensive or offensive players. Again, immediate reaction and no disagreement. At the camp, there were two times when Coach Boone showed his commanding style of the leadership. Firstly, as stated previously, he forced people from different races to communicate with each other every day and then report to him. Until all the team members meet each other, they were practicing three times a day, which was exhausting. The second and the last example was waking everyone up at 3 A.M. to take a run trough the woods. None of his decisions could be discussed and had to be done immediately. After watching the movie “Remember the Titans” it can be clearly seen that Coach Herman Boone is an amazing leader. He overcame a lot of difficulties and became an excellent coach by using his main leadership trait – ability to motivate. His encouraging speeches play a huge role during the movie. On the other side, issues including racism, team relationships and injury were brought up throughout the film. However, the characters always knew how to handle them using the leadership skills. And finally, we noticed that the main leadership style of Coach Boone is commanding. Even though sometimes, this style might seem too strict, it is good to use it in a crisis or urgency.

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