In the movie “Remember the Titans”, Coach Boone, a Southern black head football coach, played by Denzel Washington, delivers an unforgettable speech to his team about the racial tensions in society that are breaking up his team by making them wake up at breaking dawn to go for a run into the woods while attending football camp,
The clip starts off where Coach Boone tells them they are going to all follow the rest of the coaches as well as himself through the woods and if they are to get lost, not to go back to camp, to go straight home. After taking them across rivers and tress they come to a stop where Coach Boone asks them “anybody knows what this place is” (Remember the Titans) and then tells them that they are standing where the Battle of Gettysburg was fought. He begins with a brief history of what happened at that time, by stating, “50,000 men died on this field, fighting the same fight we are still fighting amongst ourselves today” (Remember the Titans). He references this battle to them because they are aware of the event and know exactly how it is to live in a segregated state, where race differences is at its highest point and is not only affecting their life but their performance as a team in football, since their team makes up both blacks and whites. He tries to reach out to them by bringing out their heritage and how even though the battle has ended the terrible hatred and fights amongst themselves is still happening.
As the Battle of Gettysburg becomes the basis of his speech, Coach Boone gets the team’s full attention with his slow deliberate tone trying to get them to grasp every single word he says. He uses imagery of battle senses where he says, “This green field right here was painted red, bubbling with the blood of young boys, smoke and hot lead pouring right through their bodies” (Remember the Titans) to get them to realize not necessarily what would happen to them if they don’t stick by each other’s side when playing a football game but what will happen to the unity of their team. It will end without even giving it the chance just like those young men did for not fighting together with unity.
As Coach Boone keeps delivering his speech, the team realizes that in order to win not only do they need to gain the respect of each other but become a big family. They will have to leave pride and racism behind and come clean as a big brotherhood. It is up to their generation to open the eyes of others and show them that they can play as a team and get along equally with any race either black or white.
Coach Boone knows well that before he gave them the speech they hated each other. They would go up against each other and tensions ran high, so he compares their situation with that on the field of the Gettysburg. He succeeds at being an inspiration to them and getting them to work together to try to resolve this racism issue in the town. As the movie concluded they became unified and are able to overcome their past issues and historical tensions that they were raised hearing. They’ve won every football game bringing not only a championship title to their hometown but equality amongst each other. Coach Boone’s words of emotion, imagery, and familiar ideas put new perspective in each and every one of the boy’s minds. He was able to help spur on a huge change that affected a whole town and made a very big difference in many people’s lives.