Running head: MOVIE REFLECTION 1

Movie Reflection: Remember the Titans

Brianna Frederick

LDRS 322: Leadership Strengths and Skills

Professor Andre Garces

November 20, 2019

MOVIE REFLECTION 2

Movie Reflection: Remember the Titans

The movie ​Remember the Titans​ was an incredible film to watch without previous

knowledge of it. There are multiple leaders within the movie, each using different approaches to

coach the team and each other. Each leader had different roles, motives, strengths, and

approaches to the racial integration during the 1970s. The four main characters that are the focus

of this essay will be Coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington), Assistant Coach Bill Yoast

(Will Patton), Julius Campbell (Wood Harris), Gerry Bertier (Ryan Hurst), and will be referred

to by their fictional names.

The role of each of these leaders goes beyond the obvious roles. Coach Herman Boone’s

role is rather self explanatory. He was appointed the head coach of the Titan’s whose school was

going to be integrated racially that school year. His role wasn’t just the head coach, but he can

also be considered a leader of the integration. He truly integrated the boys on the football team,

not just physically but also by training their minds. Coach Boone played such an integral role in

this piece of history. Assistant Coach Bill Yoast also has the self-explanatory role of assistant

coach, but was also the leader team prior to this season. Coach Yoast was seen as a leader from

the white males on the team, and also played a role in showing the team as a family, not two

separate races. Julius Campbell’s role was a leader of the African-American teammates, while

Gerry Bertier was the team captain of the Caucasion teammates, before they were integrated

together. After the team got to know each other well while playing as a family, the team captains

were just the team captains with no separation of the race.

These leaders were motivated and inspired by different people and beliefs. Coach Boone

seemed motivated by the job offer, by the elimination of segregation, and by the opportunities
MOVIE REFLECTION 3

presented to him. Inspiration came upon him when he saw how the team was separated. He saw

the need and was inspired to improve upon it. In addition to this, Coach Boone is motivated from

his previous winning school record as a coach in an all African-America school, and he wanted

to continue this tradition to the Titans. Assistant Coach Yoast is almost in the same shoes, he had

a successful team in the previous years and was motivated to continue on with the new team to

keep his record. Coach Yoast was inspired by the potential “Hall of Fame” award offer that was

presented to him if he had a successful season. However, this award was later taken away

because the managers were not willing to support an integrated diverse team. Julius Campbell

was motivated by his teammates to embrace the change and inspired by Louie Lastic who didn’t

see race as a barrier. Gerry Bertier was motivated to lead because he was previously a team

captain and already had followers of the team supporting him. He was directly inspired by his

teammates, specifically Julius, throughout the movie.

Hardship is another topic that leaders often go through. Some make it out alive, while

others give up. Starting with Coach Boone, he hands hardship by winning. He gathers up his

team, all of the African-American players, then all of the Caucasion players, and makes them sit

together on the bus ride to football camp. Coach Boone forced his players to room together, so

that they understand that underneath their skin they are all the same. His major hardship

completely focused around this team and making them a family. He never gave up through this

all. He made his players run to Gettysburg to understand the hardship and the wars that was

fought. When Coach Boone gets back from the football camp, he finds out he has to win every

game or he is going to be fired. This made his standard of perfection increases and he never

compromises the end line of playing the best players for the team, regardless of their race.
MOVIE REFLECTION 4

Assistant Coach Bill Yoast also faced hardship in his role in the movie. He is on track to

being inducted into the Virginia hall of fame when he loses control of his team to Coast Boone.

Instead of quitting, Coach Yoast goes back and decides to help be apart of the team. He is the

reason all of the Caucasion players come back to the school because they were only willing to

play for him. When Coach Yoast got back, all of them went with him. He deals with Coach

Boone’s tough love by being the more nurturing coach. Coach Yoast did not give up. Another

hardship can be seen when he gives up his role in the Hall of Fame when he took out Alan

Bosley and played an African-American player in his place.

It would be ignorant to believe that Julius Campbell and Gerry Bertier did not face

hardships in this movie. Campbell’s hardships aren’t as obvious as the coaches, but he was

slowly becoming the mediator through the race war. He took the brunt of the hostility of Gerry

during camp when Coach Boone told the boys to get to know one another. Gerry’s hardships

include quite a number of situations. He’s an all-American, then Coach Yoast gets dismissed

before he comes back as an assistant coach. Bertier was expected to be a leader of the team that

is completely separated. His girlfriend doesn’t accept his new diverse friends he made through

football camp, his mother doesn’t respect his new best friend. He kicked his best friend off the

team because he was being unfair and not blocking players when they had an African-American

quarterback. He got in a major car accident that paralyzed him and turned his life upside down.

He was still being the leader the team needed him to be, even in his hospital bed, cheering the

team on. He faced so many hardships, but was able to bring the team together through it all.

All of these characters possess unique strengths that contributed to their leadership styles

and helped accomplish their goals. Coach Boone was strong in the influencing strengths, and if
MOVIE REFLECTION 5

he had taken the Clifton Strength’s Finder assessment I would put command, competition,

consistency, and achiever at the top of his list. He is able to command the team and gain control

of their fairly easily, while keeping the competition spirits alive. These strengths helped Coach

Boone accomplish his goals of running a successful football team, having the team work

together, and helping integrate the schools.

Assistant Coach Yoast’s top strengths are in the relationship building category, as he is

able to connect with and understand his players form a more nurturing and caring background.

Yoast’s top strengths could include developer, connectedness, includer, and responsibility. Yoast

seemed to act responsible when Coach Boone was too hard on his players, and wanted to make

sure they still felt loved and cared for. This helped Coach Yoast accomplish his goals that are

similar to Coach Boone’s: having a successful football team, having the team work together, and

learn more about himself in this role.

Julius Campbell’s strengths include being a learner, because he was constantly learning

new relational and football traits throughout the movie. He used this to his advantage to

accomplish his goals of being a leader among the team. Last but not least, Gerry Bertier’s

strengths are in connectedness, relationship building, includer, and other relational traits. Unity

was his main accomplishment he was striving for, and he was able to accomplish that with his

team rather easily. All of these clifton strengths can be seen through these characters throughout

the movie.

Using a movie such as ​Remember the Titans​ can be effective in using the arts in learning

about leadership. The arts are able to portray emotion and multiple leadership styles in a creative

approach, which oftentimes relates to the consumer the most. Using film to portray leadership
MOVIE REFLECTION 6

can be a tool to teach the younger generations early on about different styles. It only takes a

discussion around it to make a movie, such as this, educational. Seeing leadership in these ways

instead of waiting for the opportunity to experience it firsthand is effective and efficient.

By taking a movie I had not previously seen before and watching it with the purpose of

analyzing the leadership roles gave me a new perspective for the arts. Leadership can be seen in

so many different venues and this method of storytelling shows both the positive and the

negative results of leadership decisions. Leaders aren’t always just the main characters, but

everyone has unique leadership traits and qualities that they possess that contribute to the team

and just life in general. You can see leadership everywhere, it’s constantly all around you. It’s

just a question of whether you will embrace it or ignore it?