Friendship and Bonding in Remember The Titans

There are a variety of different themes in the film Remember the Titans, but I believe the most important theme the film explores is friendship and bonding. The team would’ve never won the championships if everyone didn’t come together as one family and work together. This didn’t let only the Titans bond, but it also helped the whole community come together. At the beginning of the film, you can see hatred and tensions between all the white players and the black players and it’s obvious that the team is having trouble bonding at the when all the white players get on one bus and all the black players are the other bus when they leave for camp or the fight that broke out over the intolerance of a poster. The incident that marked the beginning of the whole team coming together was when coach Boone called Lewis “Louie” Lastik to tell everybody what he knows about his black friend, Petey. Louie talked and talked, and you could see that friendship was happening between them. When he was done, coach Boone asked if there was anyone else that could say something about a teammate of a different race, but no one could, so he announced that everybody has to spend time every day with a teammate of a different race, they will learn about him, and his family’s lives then report back to him when they know everybody. Later, coach Boone took them to Gettysburg, and told them to take a lesson from the dead: “If we don’t come together, right now on this hollow ground, we too will be destroyed.” This made everyone think and reflect upon themselves and the next day in the locker room, you could see everyone making jokes and having fun with each other. As the team won more games, the players became closer and closer, and at the championship game, you could tell the team has fully come together when Alan had no trouble giving up his spot for Petey. At the end of the film, we see a long shot of the Titans marching together to the beat of the snare drum, all wearing matching suits. This shows us their unity and how they've accepted one another as one family.

Friendship and Bonding affected many characters, such as Julius and Gerry, or even the whole community. The friendship between Julius and Gerry contributed to the whole team bonding together as one team, because they were like the two captains of the team. As Julian and Gerry got closer, the team got closer as well. They first demonstrated their acceptance for each other when Gerry shouted “Left Side” while shoving Julius. There was a tense moment, but Julius returned the shove and shouted back “Strong Side”. Later you could see Julian and Gerry shouting to each other about the power they have with the team huddled around them and chanting. The bonding of the team also helped the team in their matches because at first, it was all the white players ignoring the black players, the black players ignoring the white players, etc, but as the season progressed, they found out that they have to all work together to achieve something greater than them. When the team came together as one and started winning games, it brought the community together as well, moving past racism and not judging people by how they look but by who they are. I think the filmmaker is trying to teach us a lesson that in our world today, we have the power to stop racism, by showing us how attitudes have changed; he wants us to realize that we can change too, because, in today’s everyday life, people discriminate other people because of their age, disability, race, gender, sexual preference, etc, without even getting to know them. Like how we don’t judge a book by its cover, we should also not discriminate/exclude people without getting to know them or what they’re going through.

In conclusion, friendship and bonding played a huge role in Remember the Titans, and everybody has to come together and help each other out to achieve greatness in a team. The director showed us that on a team if you don’t work together just because you’re discriminating against them just based on what you see, you won’t get anywhere. If you want to win, you have to come past your differences and unite as one team.