The Truth about Historical Sport Films

This article analyzes three new-millennial historical sports films that deal with racial desegregation and integration in the United States: Remember the Titans (2000), Glory Road (2006), and The Express (2008). Specifically, it attends to the ways in which filmmakers play fast and loose with history when it comes to chronology, characters, and past events. The intent is not to focus on micromistakes but rather to consider those inaccuracies most germane to the larger “truths” in these films. Ultimately, the author contends that historical sport films tend to depict racism as a relic of the past and freight sports figures with an excessive sense of responsibility for ostensible racial progress.