Remember the Titans (PG, 2000)

It wasn't until 1971, 17 years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, that black students came to T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va. Every other team in that football-loving district was still segregated. But the white T.C. Williams players were confronted with not only a whole new set of black players, but a black coach, Herman Boone (played here by Denzel Washington). In a matter of a few weeks, Boone has to make them into a team -- and it has to be a winning team, because the school board is looking for any reason to fire him so they can reinstate Coach Yoast (Will Patton), now demoted to assistant. Boone takes the boys to a college near Gettysburg for training. It's impossible to say which is the tougher workout for the team -- the physical challenges of drills and practices or the emotional challenge of overcoming a lifetime of anger and prejudice. Like all great coaches, Boone and Yoast teach the team that they have it within themselves to be great as well. And they realize that they get as much from the boys as the boys get from them.

This movie about the real-life integration of a Virginia high school football teem teeters on the brink of cliché and stereotype but manages to come down on the side of archetype, thanks to a sure script, solid direction, and another sensational performance by Denzel Washington. This is the kind of movie that begins with all the characters attending a funeral under a bright autumn sun and then takes us back to where it all began. This is the kind of movie in which people say things like, "Is this even about football anymore or is it just about you?" and where the supreme bonding moment is singing Motown songs together. In other words, no surprises here. If everyone hadn't achieved a sense of brotherhood that transcended race and it hadn't all turned out pretty well, Disney would not have made a movie about it. But that just leaves us free to enjoy the movie's appealing characters and special moments. And that's all right. There is a reason for the classic structure of the sports movie -- we like to watch raw recruits learn honor and loyalty out there on the field when it's done right, and here it is done very nicely.

Washington is, as ever, that rarest of pleasures, equally an actor and a movie star. His power to mesmerize and inspire as a performer works perfectly with his role as a coach who can capture the attention and loyalty of these teen boys. Boone is so secure in himself that he can devote all of his energy to the team, so he inspires them by example.