8814 – Remember The Titans.

While learning about Remember The Titans, a learning activity we had to do in groups of three, after learning about the different camera angles and shots, was we had to go out and re-enact three shots from the movie, then go back and explain why each shot was used and the detail it gave.

The purpose of the activity was to learn about how having the perfect angle, or using the right shot could give the audience so much more detail from the movie, and to give them more understanding of what is happening in the scene, or even the emotions being felt.

So after going out and re-enacting three of the shots, I learnt that camera angles do actually tell a lot, and after working on that project, I watch other movies, and watch out for the angles, and can find out a whole different moral to the movie scene that I had noticed before I did the activity.

8814 – Work and Play.

The poem, Work and Play, by Ted Hughes, is about the contrast between the ideas of work and play, as well as comparing the benefits and by-products of work and play, showing how they can differ from their definition with attitude. For example, the swallow is hard at work, contentedly so, and ignoring factors that could make the work not so fun, just enjoying itself while the humans are so intent on having fun, and are trying so hard to make everything perfect and ignoring the simple pleasures in life, it just turns from play to work.

After reading the poem for the first time, I would have never fully understood the poem without the learning activities we did. One in particular was when we printed out the poem and made a poster with it, and had to find pictures to match up with the stanzas of the poem. Because of that visual aid, I was able to understand the poem and the meaning behind it, and would be able to explain it to someone else if needed.

Blog Response to Remember The Titans

The movie, Remember The Titans, directed by Boaz Yakin, tells the story about a recently integrated school, T. C William’s football team. At the beginning of the movie, Herman Boone is asked to take the job as head coach of the football team, taking the place of former head coach Bill Yoast. The integration has only just began, and nobody is accustom to it, or trying to accept it, so therefore, Coach Boone is by himself as because he is African-American and seems to be against everybody in the school. Eventually, an agreement is worked out between the coaches, and the football team is pulled together in order to go to a training camp.

Before the camp starts, neither races will stand next to each other, let alone talk to each other, so Coach Boone starts putting them through increasingly difficult practices and games in order to get the boys learning teamwork and befriending each other. After this happens, they return back to school to be shunned by the rest of the community who look down on them because the two races are friends. The football team pulls together and manages to win the whole season, showing that their teamwork and friendship paid off, and eventually changing the views of everyone who had once discriminated against the integration.

I enjoyed this movie because I hadn’t seen it before, and it opened my eyes to how bad the integration was. Before I watched the movie, I knew little to nothing about the integration, and just accepted the fact that our society was diverse, but by seeing Remember The Titans, I saw not just how ignorant both races were, but how it affected people personally, and how much pain was inflicted on lives. It made me angry at how neither race treated each other as equals, and although I am happy to see the improvement we have made today, it is still not perfect and needs working on. By watching the movie, this became clear to me and showed me that the goal of equality has still not been reached.

Remember The Titans also held a valuable lesson that friendship, teamwork and acceptance can pull a friends, a team and a family through anything life throws at them. Without all those, the Titans would have never won the season; they would have never made new friends, learnt new differences or changed the community’s outlook on the integration for the better.

The soundtrack to the movie was also a positive, as I felt that the songs and the lyrics were just right for the scene that it was accompanying. The music used had the ability to give me a higher understanding of the scene, whether it was because the lyrics fit the event, or the music just made it more realistic, making the scene more imaginable. The music also helped hold my attention, because I knew most of the songs, and I understood them, therefore helping me have a better grasp on the concept of the movie, and the subtle lessons it was telling us.

My overall response to the movie, Remember The Titans, is that it is an amazing film with such a remarkable and bold story to tell, with many amazing and valuable lessons to teach viewers and have them carry away to apply to their own lives as I did mine.

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – Remember The Titans Soundtrack.

The song ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ by Martin Gaye and Tammi Terrell is played in the movie Remember The Titans, directed by Boaz Yakin, in the scene where the whole football team are in the locker room, cleaning up after their training and talking, just generally getting along. The song is being played out of a radio, when one of the boys picks up and starts to sing, and then eventually they all join in. This symbolises how all it took was for one member of one race to befriend one member of the other race, and then eventually causing them all in turn to become friends and a team.

The lyrics of the song also held a powerful meaning, and supported the situation it was used in. The meaning behind the song is not letting anything get in the way of being there for someone important to you, and looking out for someone you care about. In the locker room, they all started to sing and it showed the emotional and physical bond of something deeper than friendship they had created just by getting to know each other, and they seemed to be letting each other know that they were not just teammates or friends, they were brothers.

The last effect the song had on the locker-room scene was the music for the song ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’. The music was a bouncy, happy, feel-good music and it reflected the emotions the boys had at the time. They all started to sing and move to the beat, and it showed that they were all in good moods and having a good time hanging out with one another, despite what colour their skin was.