The syrupy, inspirational Remember the Titans, set in 1971, is a race-relations drama that's about as far removed in tone from Bamboozled as you can get. Denzel Washington's Herman Boone becomes head coach of the T.C. Williams High Titans in Virginia, the school board having passed over the expected choice, Bill Yoast (Will Patton), after being forced to integrate an all-black school with an all-white school. Whites and blacks, initially at odds, learn to respect one another, and at each sign of respect the music swells. The story is based on real incidents, but the uplifting tone is laid on so thick that it's difficult to believe a minute of it. Because this is a Disney movie, the N-word is never used, although its substitutes here, monkey and coon, sound even worse in context. It's time for Denzel Washington to stop essaying role models for a while. He's beginning to confuse playing an admirable human being with giving an admirable performance.
Advertising
Most Popular Stories
Most Viewed
Last 24 Hours
- Paul Ryan: Free Lunches Make Kids Soulless [Updated]
- How Oscar Pistorius Might Avoid Prison
- The Best of Twitter Interrupting Cameron’s Phone Call With Obama
- After Newsweek Reveal, Man Insists He Isn’t Bitcoin’s Creator
- The Plot From Solitary
- Mike Lee’s Tax-Reform Plan Does, in Fact, Suck
- The Hijacking of Satoshi Nakamoto
- Broke Law Firm Dewey & LeBoeuf Was Also Fraudulent, Prosecutors Say
- Only 39 Percent of New Yorkers Approve of This Bill de Blasio Character Now
- Bro Who Never Worked at Goldman Sachs Deemed Unqualified to Write Goldman Sachs Elevator Book
Most Emailed
Last 24 Hours
- The Plot From Solitary
- How Not to Talk to Your Kids
- Justin Davidson: How Can the Vienna Philharmonic Change Without Changing?
- Why You Truly Never Leave High School
- Bar-onomics
- Space of the Week: A Firehouse, Revisited
- How I Got Over My Al Gore-a-phobia
- By Noon, These Two Will Have Brought In Another Half a Million More Dollars
- Listening to Xanax
- New York Wedding Guide - Makeup Artists Directory