Analysis of the Fiction Elements and Lessons I Learned from the Movie Remember The Titans

The movie, “Remember the Titans” is equally motivating as well as entertaining. It intrigues the viewers to dive deep into their psyche, ending up appreciating the movie as more than just any-other entertainer. The following takeaways from the movie will certainly be helpful in our personal lives:

a) Learn from our past mistakes – As shown in the movie, frustrated with the conflicts and differences between the players, Coach Boone takes the players for a 3:00 am run, where they finally reach the site of “Battle of Gettysburg”. There, Boone asks the players to “take a lesson from the dead”. He says that if they also repeat the same mistakes, then they won’t be able to beat their opponents. In our lives, we need to ensure that we don’t repeat the same mistakes.

b) Achieving goals might demand sacrifice – Gary Bertier drops Ray from the team, after speaking to Coach Boone; as Ray was involved in foul play. He couldn’t be more right there. Similarly, we need to get rid of harmful elements in our lives, no matter how personal they are.

c) Any goal/target is achievable in life – If team Titans could overcome the obstacles like racial discrimination, diverse attitudes/personalities, low morale etc. to win impeccable tournament 13-0 lead; then I believe we should also not be limited by our resources and expectations when it comes to achieving feat in our career and personal lives.

d) Change is the path to success – Trying to build the team spirit, Coach Boone demands change in every activity the player did earlier. He says “Everything we do is change”. He changes the way players run, eat, block, tackle, win etc. Just like them, we too need to change towards the better, if we expect to achieve our goals in life.

Motivation

Initially the players weren’t motivated enough to take up the challenge of winning the tournament. They lacked motivation (intensity) and were reluctant to put efforts towards winning. Each team member had their personal agendas to be fulfilled, thus lacked unified direction as well. Surely, they were not persistent with their efforts in an ambiguous environment. As the movie progresses, they start accepting one another’s positives and negatives. This builds up the motivation towards reaching their unified goals.

In contrast to the players, Coach Boone was highly motivated from day zero. He was highly intensified in his efforts to build in players a sense of team citizenship behaviour. In his mind, he had a direction to proceed, which would help him integrate the team. His persistence level is high, as he dodges all the obstacles, be it racial discrimination, low morale, Bertier’s accident etc. to take the team to glory.

Perceptions/Stereotypes

The movie is filled with several wrong stereotypes. The blacks, perceived the whites to be inferior to them and vice-versa. Its shown that the team players perceived that Ronnie Bass is a gay, Coach Boone is heartless and tough person who only cares about his position among several other wrong perceptions.

Leadership

Not just the coaches, but the team players also show leadership. From the start, Bertier and Campbell present themselves as leader/Captian of their respective race. The transition in seen, the way they evolve as leaders, ending up leading the whole team up-front. After Bertier meets an accident, Campbell is seen stepping forward and taking responsibility to lead.

Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour

In the initial part of the movie, when Yoast is replaced by Boone as the head coach, Yoast is deeply aghast and decides to leave job and move elsewhere. At that point in time, he surely had negative attitude towards the job and Boone, still he chooses to stay with the team as defence coach. This decision is influenced by pressure from his team players and colleagues (subjective norms), because of which he accepts to work under Boone.

Self- fulfilling Prophecy (Pygmalion Effect)

Situation 1 - As part of game strategy, Coach Yoast shows faith in Petey and puts him in defence position in the match, which is out of his comfort zone. Seeing high expectations from the coach, Petey gains self-belief and we see him performing better.

Situation 2 – Louie Lastik, academically very poor, never expected to pass High School and enter college. But, Coach Boone instils confidence in him, says that he will surely go to college. Towards the end of the movie, we see that Louie clears his exams and about to join college, credit to Boone’s high expectation from him.

Operant Conditioning – Re-enforcement Theory

In-order to unify the players, Coach Boone asks the players to spend time with players from other race and learn more about their interests, likes, dis-likes, etc.. If, they don’t follow it religiously, then he will ensure that the players have 4 -5 day-practice, contrast to earlier 3 day-practice. This could be seen as “Negative Re-enforcement’, as he ensures that if the players jell with one-another, they don’t have to go for 4 -5 day practice.

Power and Politics

Here, both the coaches are seen influencing the players to behave as per their wishes. Coach Boone, on one hand exercises coercive and legitimate power to put everyone in discipline. He instils fear in the minds of players by projecting himself as tough and heartless person. He uses “carrot and stick” approach to mould the players as per his need. By virtue of his position as head coach, he holds legitimate power over the players is capable of deciding their fate in the team. As the movie proceeds, the players are convinced of Boone’s expert power and referent power, accepting him as source of motivation. Before the beginning of every crucial match, we see Boone using inspirational appeals to bring emotions and confidence in the team players. Coach Yoast on the other hand, holds Referent power, where the players have high regards for him and thus look up to him for guidance. His personality traits like calmness and openness were held high by the players.

Did Boone become corrupt because of power!? The answer seems to be No, as he was the major reason behind team’s tournament win. But a deeper analysis of his character shows some sign of dirt on him (at least from Coach Yoast’s perspective). After Bertier meets a severe accident, everyone is broken from inside. But Boone is more interested about the tournament, rather than Bertier’s health. At that point, Yoast questions Boone, “Whether its football anymore or it’s about only him (Boone)”. Yoast alleges Boone that he just wants to win (using others as means to achieve his ends), cares only about winning and saving his reputation.

In another scene, we see Boone unhappy with Yoast’s behaviour on field as he (Yoast) challenges Boone’s authority in front of the whole team.

Conflicts and Negotiations

Conflicts, aroused due to differences in personality, value-systems are seen in the movie. The decision of the School Board to unite the whites and blacks into a single football team gave rise to strong repulsion from the players and society at large. The replacement of Yoast by Coach Boone, again stirred anger among the masses. Wrong perceptions held by players and coach Yoast acted as catalyst to the already present tension.

In order to contain the conflicts, we see negotiations happening in between the two coaches. Coach Yoast and Boone negotiate that they won’t cross eachothers path when it comes to coaching the players. Yoast would take up defence coaching whereas Boone would be the head coach. They set their working terms right. Also, Yoast puts forth his conditions to have Coach Tyrell by his side throughout the tournament.