Remember the Titans

Racism rears its ugly head in a PG-rated social-sports drama that addresses serious themes with intelligence, heart, soul, tension and energy to spare. Based on a true story, the film opens in 1971, just as the South is struggling with racial integration. Black coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington as charismatic drill sergeant, crusader and counselor) takes over command of a previously all-white Virginia high-school football team in a film that asks not only what price glory, but also what price humanity. Director Boaz Yakin, who transcended deeply entrenched drug clichés with 1994’s Fresh, should have skipped the innocuous “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” locker-room sing-along, but otherwise scores again.