Day late and a dollar short
At the rate I'm getting caught up on my list of "I really ought to see this" movies, I'll probably not make any great progress on the list until I'm retired...and since retirement really isn't in my plans any more, well, you can see where this is going.
In place of Othello with Fishburne and Branagh, which I couldn't find in a quick perusal of the Chantilly Blockbuster, I wound up coming home with Remember The Titans. Now, I'm not a big fan of football movies in general, any more than I am of football itself, but this isn't primarily a football movie. That's because it's set right here in Alexandria, Virginia, in the year 1971. As some of you may have heard, there was some race relations difficulty at the time. The Alexandria City School Board tackled this head-on by closing the black high school, George Washington, along with one of the two white high schools (F.C. Hammond) and consolidating both colors of students at T.C. Williams, ironically named after the superintendent of city schools who had spearheaded the policy of Massive Resistance to racial integration in the 1950s. Adding more gasoline to the fire, the ACSB hired a black coach, Herman Boone, to replace the highly-regarded white coach, Bill Yoast, who had been nominated for the state Football Hall of Fame. Boone's hardcore, Spartan approach to breaking down the race prejudice on his team and preparing the team for battle on the gridiron doesn't sit well with Yoast, his football-obsessed daughter, or many of the players either, for that matter. There's quite a bit of drama throughout the movie as personalities, races, and situations clash, often violently, and unfortunately the football field is no haven of fair play either. Great movie, great acting, A+++++, would definitely watch again.
In place of Othello with Fishburne and Branagh, which I couldn't find in a quick perusal of the Chantilly Blockbuster, I wound up coming home with Remember The Titans. Now, I'm not a big fan of football movies in general, any more than I am of football itself, but this isn't primarily a football movie. That's because it's set right here in Alexandria, Virginia, in the year 1971. As some of you may have heard, there was some race relations difficulty at the time. The Alexandria City School Board tackled this head-on by closing the black high school, George Washington, along with one of the two white high schools (F.C. Hammond) and consolidating both colors of students at T.C. Williams, ironically named after the superintendent of city schools who had spearheaded the policy of Massive Resistance to racial integration in the 1950s. Adding more gasoline to the fire, the ACSB hired a black coach, Herman Boone, to replace the highly-regarded white coach, Bill Yoast, who had been nominated for the state Football Hall of Fame. Boone's hardcore, Spartan approach to breaking down the race prejudice on his team and preparing the team for battle on the gridiron doesn't sit well with Yoast, his football-obsessed daughter, or many of the players either, for that matter. There's quite a bit of drama throughout the movie as personalities, races, and situations clash, often violently, and unfortunately the football field is no haven of fair play either. Great movie, great acting, A+++++, would definitely watch again.