8. Remember the Titans: 2000, directed by Boaz Yakin, starring Denzel Washington as Coach Herman Boone, Will Patton as Coach Bill Yoast and Wood Harris as Julius Campbell.
Based on the true story of the 1971 Titans’ high school football team, the movie has come to become a coming of age tale, a story of the discrimination between the Caucasian and African American students who learn to come over their differences and unite as a team.
The main, general idea of the film was correct-the combination of two sides to help win a championship series. But the entire movie was way off. The major difference is that while in the movie, the film focuses very much on the developments between the two different sides of players, in real life, all the players mostly cared for the spots on the team. Besides that fact, there still were racial issues at the football camp. Most of the people were real, and just like in the movie, Coach Boone did integrate the players, telling them to learn each other’s cultures and ways.
Remember the Titans does try to stick close to the Yoast family as well, depicting little Hayden Panettiere as Sheryl Yoast. In real life, there were 4 sisters, but the film makers thought following the four would prove to be difficult and confusing. The film makers decided to make Sheryl (who had died in 1996) an only child living with her pop that loved football. In reality, Bill Yoast (the real one) states on the DVD commentary that, “She was not quite the football fanatic they show her. . . she was at all the ballgames, watched them and. . . was always the first on the field after the ballgame.” And she was angry when her dad didn’t get the head coaching job, but not as angry as in the film. Also, she had come to accept Boone as a coach and equal, but she never came to his house or became friends with his daughter.
The camp was held at the Gettysburg College, although the dates were mixed up, but the team did practice three times a day, and Boone kept his “if you survive camp, you’ll be on the team” by not cutting anyone who wanted to play. Also, “Sunshine” never kisses Gerry and he actually showed up early for the practices. And remember that heart-wrenching scene where Gerry gets hit by the car? It happened after the game and he was paralyzed.
The film pretty much strays far from the truth by changing dates and people around, but for now, you can read more about the movie and the real life differences by reading this ESPN page.
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