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Week 2 Day 3: Power Struggle – REMEMBER THE TITANS
1. Please watch this scene and provide your insights/breakthroughs into what makes this character great from a writing perspective.
2. Read the other writers comments and make notes of any insights/breakthroughs you like.
3. Rethink or create a scene for your script using your new insights and rewrite that scene/character.
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10 Replies
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How is this power struggle created?
Gary (student player) tries to dictate to the new coach who can play in the game.
· What is it about these characters that demand this power struggle?
Gary assumes because he’s a white student, that he can get away with it.
· How does each character’s audience influence and depend upon this power struggle?
The white coaches and faculty feel threatened by the presence of a black man as their team’s new coach. They (vicariously) try to put him in his place through their star player who is a white student.
The coach thinks on his feet and calls out the student’s behavior (to the gathered crowd) by comparing them to Martin & Lewis … buffoon & white male sex symbol.
What drama is this scene built around?
The white assistant coaches resent that their coach who they have to answer to is a black man. One of them is expecting to be named the coach later, as insinuated by another… their conspiracy is whispered after he walks away. The white player Gary, tries to take control of the team and undermine the coach.
· How are they expressing their Profile (right character, traits, secret, wound, future) through their words and actions?
Gary is arrogant and assumes he’s in charge of the situation because of his status as a star player … & that he’s white. (he’s even above a coach)
The coach uses intelligence and a sense of self respect to convey he’s in charge. He is reactive & wastes no time putting Gary & the other kid back into their place.
Gary’s wound emerges when the coach makes fun of his behavior … his ego shrinks.
Breakthrough: the coach immediately addresses the problem by re-establishing the family dynamic … who’s Gary’s mother, his brothers (teammates) & who’s his daddy? Coach has him say its daddy’s team … the family.
* What makes the coach a great character is that he seems a step ahead of everyone.
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Week 2 Day 3: Power Struggle – REMEMBER THE TITANS
How is this power struggle created?
This power struggle was created long before Denzel walked into the picture. Whites stacking the deck against a black coach, and it appears the whole town is in on it. A white school merges with a black school and their football teams are merged, as well. This does not sit well with any of the white people especially the captain of the white team. Even a little white girl looks at the black coach with utter disdain.
What is it about these characters that demand this power struggle?
This is the moment where the color, and power, lines are drawn in the sand. Will the black coach back down when confronted by the super spoiled white captain and his sidekick or will he stand his ground and establish his dominance over the situation? As we see, he dominates the situation, going so far as to make fun of the captain and get his compliance to who is really in control of the team.
How does each character’s audience influence and depend upon this power struggle?
This isn’t just a struggle between a coach and a spoiled player. This struggle effects everyone involved in this situation. The white people present a united force against the black coach, fully expecting him to be intimidated and compliant. The black people are concerned about the same thing but are hopeful when he stands his ground.
What drama is this scene built around?
The newly integrated football team is off to football camp which will force the white and black players to learn how to cohabitate and practice and become a team, despite their differences, fears and prejudices and mutual distrust of each other. The coaches have to learn the same lessons, maybe more so.
· What profile items (right character, traits, secret, wound, future) showed up in these two character’s words and actions?
These two characters are ideal to this situation and are possibly the only two that could establish the eventual and necessary outcome. They appear to have similar wounds: the black coach struggling against the dominance of whites his whole life and the captain struggling to maintain his position and dignity against some unseen oppressor, perhaps a dominating and abusive father.
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All of the above, plus I would add that, even setting aside race, the black coach shows himself to be a brilliant psychologist. We can see how he could really take this team to the top even with the race conflict, which he shows he can handle. This is no ordinary coach.
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He knows he has to create a team.
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I think everyone hit the mark on the comments. With Green Book, both characters initially set out that they have the same goals. One the musician that needs a driver, the other a driver seeking a job. But the musician lays out a set of expectations that the driver doesn’t want to meet (butler work). At the end of the scene, they both seem to come to an understanding: the driver says the musician needs a tough driver for protection, the musician respects that the driver has personal limits.
In the Remember the Titans scene, it’s similar in the sense that everyone there wants to win games and eventually a championship, but they appear to have different ways of doing it: the previous coaches waiting their turn, the top football players that want to call the shots. In this case, the coach lays out his expectations and it’s either follow those his rules or leave. The players eventually decide to follow the rules, because they ultimately know they share the same goals and don’t have a choice if they want to play.
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Week 2 Day 3: Power Struggle – REMEMBER THE TITANS
What I learned rewriting my scene/character? This aspect of my characters has been in my writing from day one. It is my motivation for writing. I see how people misjudge each other and disrespect each other, assuming they know the different side’s values in every situation. Then by jumping right to emotional conclusions without taking the time or the inclination to understand all the issues each side is forced to deal with, they expose their ignorance and show the world how uninformed they are. That is sad on a number of levels.
I just need to continue to learn how to jack up this aspect of my characters.
What makes these characters great from a writing perspective is that it portrays how passion, emotions, and old information that does not apply anymore can blur the best intentions.
Coach is wounded but trying hard to make the transition with his team while trying to maintain order and a winning way forward.
The white players are understandably influenced by their family’s point of view, which is outdated and painfully trying to hold on.
The Black players have the same problem with little hope that things will change even though it is being forced to happen.
A fantastic portrayal of the pain of this transition our country had to experience and encouragement that it has happened and continues to happen as long as we work together in new ways despite the naysayers that try to design all the process that has been made despite all the missteps that come about whenever people move forward in the unknown territory of themselves.
How is this power struggle created?
From IMDB
“Suburban Virginia schools have been segregated for generations. One Black and one White high school are closed and the students sent to T.C. Williams High School under federal mandate to integrate. The year is seen through the eyes of the football team where the man hired to coach the Black school is made head coach over the highly successful white coach. Based on the actual events of 1971, the team becomes the unifying symbol for the community as the boys and the adults learn to depend on and trust each other.”
—LMN13 IMDB
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What makes this character great from a writing perspective.
The coach is great from a writing perspective as we see how easily he will handle conflict, how he can remain the authority even against change. He is great because we see he can ‘take on your momma’ and we foresee that he will use calm wit and truth to keep to the focus. This leads the audience to look forward to how future conflict will affect him and we wonder if Jerry Lewis will get even somehow.
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The power struggle stems from, for the first time, a black coach taking responsibility for a white football team.
Gary thinks he can boss around the new coach because he’s “the only all-American”, and it’s up to the coach to put Gary in his place, in front of his parents and the other white coaches. He reminds Gary that he won’t play unless he adheres to the demand of, “Who’s your daddy?”
The white coaches are unimpressed by the new coach’s playbook. And when Gary starts his power play, they look back supportively to him. The black coach has the reverend on his side, shaking the coach’s hand, looking to him to break new ground.
The scene is built around racism.
Coach and Gary are the right characters because both are in a position of power, making for an immediate clash.
Traits, noted from this scene:
Coach: Confident, won’t back down, demands respect
Gary: Arrogant, know-it-all, naive.
The future points to, perhaps, a continuing power play, then a meeting of minds and mutual respect.
If Gary is wounded, it’s a wound of growing up racist.
It’s great writing because tension is there from the start, making for good plot development.
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The power struggle stems from racism and a new situation that neither side created. Gary is interesting as a character because he believes he has power based on his All American status and backing of his coaches and parents. But Coaches psychological ploys and strength of character essentially void whatever power Gary believed he had… and he caves almost immediately when threatened with losing his spot on the team, while not receiving any overt support from his allies. More importantly, it sets up the opportunity for either escalating conflict or possible unity.
Great writing delivers within coaches character traits of strength, confidence and courage.
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How is this power struggle created?
Numerous power struggles are going on between the white coaches who feel they’ve been passed over for the black coach. To the racist who’s telling the white coach that his time is coming, insinuating he has a sinister plan. Then, there are the 2 jocks challenging the coach’s authority. Finally, the subtle disdain shown by the parents watching everything from the sidelines.
What is it about these characters that demand this power struggle?
The black coach is confident & assertive, challenging the social norms of that time. The coaches, racist, and two jocks, Gary & his sidekick, have been used to dictating their demands on staff. They see a coach who isn’t intimidated or cowering to any of them. Then, he further asserts his position over Gary and his sidekick until Gary is humiliated and backs down for all to see.
How does each character’s audience influence and depend upon this power struggle?
The racist, the white coaches, the white parents, and Gary & his sidekick want the black coach to fail so they can show themselves as being superior. The black coach & asst coach want to show that they’re no different from the white folks, but will demand the respect and obedience of their position.
What drama is this scene built around?
The drama is created by the tension between all the characters and the black coach.
What profile items (right character, traits, secret, wound, future) showed up in these two characters’ words and actions?
The black coach’s quick reaction to the disrespect shows that he has experienced this more than once in the past and will cut them off at the knees before allowing the behavior to escalate. We see that Gary’s confidence is quickly deflated when challenged reflecting many insecurities. But, what are they? The class bully isn’t used to being challenged. So many blatant and subtle prejudices are seen in this short scene allowing for many setups and payoffs as the story continues.
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