Remember the Titans

The world is filled with outsiders and insiders. A person may not even realize they have become an outsider until put in a different situation. It does not take much to be considered an outsider; it can be based on appearance, culture or beliefs. An outsider is defined as someone who does not fit into a certain group and is not accepted by the insider group. In some cases people that were once insiders become outsiders by simply not being able to adjust to the changes happening around them. This is what has happen to a high school in Virgina that was once a school for the whites only has now become a white and black school. The film Remember the Titans has illustrated what can happen when the once insiders become outsiders.

Gary who is one of the films main characters is the white all American team captain of a white high school football team. He is considered an insider because he is white, is on the football team and has a girlfriend. To Gary's surprise during his time at football camp he becomes best friends with a fellow new black teammate named Julius. Gary switches from being an insider to an outsider when he comes home from camp and gets back to school. Other classmates were not happy when they have learned that Gary has teamed up with the black kids at school. Gary gets mean looks and comments from kids who were once his best friends and Gary's girlfriend refuses to even shake Julius's hand. He also experiences feeling like an outsider when he tries to bring Julius home to meet his parents and his parents are upset. They tell him that he needs to be in church and not out playing basketball with his new friend.

A side from all the changes and controversy in their town, Gary and Julius stand by each other and continue their friendship. The whole football team of white and blacks stick together in hope that their other classmates will soon follow in their example. Most of them do, when they see how well their new football team is doing; however, a small group including Gary's old best friend Ray remains against them and ends up realizing that he is now the outsider of the school and not the black classmates.

Some people make the change on their own to be different even if it means being considered and outsider and they know they will be looked down on by the insider group. The cafeteria during the first week of football camp consisted of the white players sitting at one table and the black players sitting at another table. A white teammate who is new to the team comes into the cafeteria and sits next to a teammate everyone calls Rev, who happens to be a black teammate. The white teammate is quickly put on the spot and is asked to defend is decision in sitting at the black table. He proudly stands by his choice and explains he picks his friends according to who he gets along with not based on skin color. This scene helped set the film into going towards the direction of everyone becoming one. Soon after everyone was sitting with who ever they wanted to.

The film pointed out that is does not just have to be about the color of your skin, when it comes to deciding who is an outsider and who is an insider. During football camp a white boy is dropped off at camp by his Dad. The boy is automatically considered an outsider to the entire football team because he has long blonde hair and appears to be hippy like. The players’ start to refer to him as Sunshine and assume he is too feminine to play football. He quickly proves them wrong on the football part, but struggles throughout football camp to fit in. He even takes a chance and kisses Gary as a joke. At first Gary is mad because now people may think he is gay, but then realizes so what if they think that it. When returning to school Sunshine has a hard time with the other boys at school due to his appearance, but when they find out that the girls of the school would rather hangout with Sunshine then them, Sunshine starts to feel accepted.

The film illustrates to main points one being that anyone who was once an insider can become an outsider by not accepting change or accepting new people into their lives. It showed that by having a school for white and blacks. Most of the students by the end of the movie had made new friends and the ones that didn’t were cast a side by not only the new black classmates, but also by the white ones and it has nothing to do with their color just their attitudes towards the new changes. The other point of the movie was that it is possible to not even be classed as in insider or an outsider, but that it is possible to come together as a whole. It shows how something as a football team can bring everyone together. The football team keeps winning and everyone gets so excited in the town they forget about all the racial issues and just start accepting everyone for who they are.