Michal Searles Dr. M. Varela ENC1102 6 April 2018 The Address at Gettysburg The movie Remember the Titans is mostly known for its powerful scene that took place at the Gettysburg battleground. While at football camp, Coach Herman Boone takes his segregated football team for a run at 3 A.M., into the woods. Racial tensions were high among the teammates as things surrounding them began to integrate, including their school. The attitudes of prejudice, pride, and hostility were at an all-time high between the black and white players leaving their practices in vain because of their failure to act like a team. This leads Coach Boone to teach his team a lesson. After running for a while, the players were given a break. In this time, they realized that they were at Gettysburg, a famous Civil War battleground. Coach Boone seizes the opportunity to deliver an empowering, inspirational speech. …show more content…
In Coach Boone’s convincing speech, he uses the location to aid in the effectiveness of the speech, as the history behind the battleground is well-known. Not only is this his way of appealing to his team on a historical level, as the facts behind the setting are undebatable, but he appeals to them emotionally as well. It is very powerful to stand on the grounds of a place that many people had once given their very lives upon. He points out the actual history of the site when he says, “Fifty thousand men died right here on this field, fightin' the same fight that we're still fightin' amongst ourselves today.” This is Boone’s way of showing them where they came from, where they are, and where they should be trying to reach. His combination of history, ethics, and emotion evident in this statement alone makes it a very strong opening to his