Do you watch your favorite movie over and over?

I don't think I've ever blogged about favorite movies. I do have a list of my all time favorite movies. But I find that although I own most of my favorites on DVD, I usually find them somewhere on cable and watch them there. There are some movies I fixate on and will watch over and over and over. Most of my favorite movies are older movies. Some are from high school. Isn't that really when you really start getting into movies and start marking milestones? Oh I was a junior when that song was popular, or I saw that 3 times with friends my sophomore year. Don and I so that a lot. Well what has really inspired this blog post is one of my favorite movies...Remember the Titans.



The first time we saw this movie it was in the theater with both boys. I was so moved and emotionally upset by the movie that I had to stay in the dark theater through all the credits and still walking to the car, the boys kept saying, "What's wrong mom, why are you crying?" I still cry every time I watch this movie. Every time!

Don and the boys are used to it by now, but others I'm sure are wondering if this movie makes you cry every time, why do you consider it one of your favorites? Well it's an awesome, true story of how an African-American coach is put into one of the first segregated high schools in Alexandria, Virginia. The football team is given a new head coach, and becomes integrated. The white football team is forced to deal with new players, new coaches, and has to face race issues head on. I love it when the characters Gerry Burtier and Julius Campbell go head to head trying to learn about one another, in a not so positive fashion. Julius stands up to Gerry, the team captain, and tells him he's out for himself because the captain is the leader and he isn't leading. By the end of football camp away at college these two are begining to bond and a true friendship is starting to form. Gerry wants Julius to come meet his mom and stay for dinner. Julius is met in Gerry's neighborhood by the police. Julius thinks he'll be in trouble for being black in a white neighborhood, but in the end, the officer tells him he played a heck of a good game last night.

You know it is a true friendship when after coming together and winning the game, Gerry's girlfriend says why are you down here with "them" meaning the black guys and he chooses his "black" friends over his girlfriend.

This team comes together to pull out the state championship after facing the adversity of race and a tragic accident that paralyzes Gerry.

I absolutely love how the community supports this team after they begin to see if these boys can see one another as just people and not just by the color of their skin. I love how even the "dumb jock" raises himself up with the help of others to be successful. I love the relationship between Gerry and Julius. I love when Julius hugs Gerry's mother and she finally comes around. Even though I know this movie like the back of my hand, I cry like a big wus. If you know me well enough, I am just a big bag of emotions and this movie gets me every time.

Today I said to Don and Doug, "You know, this is the kind of movie that all people should be made to watch." If people can see how this team makes it through the difficulties and the adversity dealt to them, then the most of the world could too. It makes me hopeful that at some point the world can be a much better place. I almost see it starting to happen with Barack Obama and the potential of the first African-American president in U.S. history.

If you've never watched Remember the Titans find it on cable, borrow it from the library, put it in your Netflix cue, or rent it from the video store. It's the kind of movie that will make you laugh, smile, cry, and think. Take my advice on this one. You might find it's one of your favorites too.

Heck, I didn't even mention Denzel Washington is in it. I usually like his movies.