BRING IT ON
"Bring It On" is like a cool breeze at the end of a long hot summer. You don’t expect it but when it comes, it’s such a pleasant surprise, you just sit back and enjoy it. "Bring it On" is a remarkably energized look at the increasingly competitive world of high school cheerleaders.
There was a time when all you needed was a pretty face, a cheery smile and a good set of lungs to be a cheerleader. It wasn’t all that long ago when the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders changed all that with performances that sometimes threatened to outshine the football team they represented. As cheerleader fever spread, half time shows became athletic events full of acrobatic routines performed with the precision of Busby Berkeley dance numbers. A trickle down effect to the high school level became inevitable bringing with it pressures, real or imagined, comparable to the ones imposed on the professional athletes of tomorrow. "Bring It On"’s writer, Jessica Bendiger and TV veteran director Peyton Reed avoid all the pitfalls that could have turned the movie into a teen airhead flick by concentrating on the moral and ethical dilemma of Torrance Shipman (Kirsten Dunst), the newly appointed team leader who discovers the routines that led her squad to the championship in the past were not all that original. In a situation that parallels the early days of rock’n roll when White singers reaped financial rewards by covering songs that were not permitted on the airwaves in their original form by the Black artists who wrote and performed them, they were stolen by her predecessors from a predominantly Black school that lacked the necessary resources that would enable its cheerleaders to compete.
A crisis of conscience brings Torrance and teammate, gymnast Missy Pantone (Eliza Dushku), face to face with the feisty Isis (Gabrielle Union) to see if the rumors are true. Isis challenges Torrance to ‘bring it on,’ but Torrance knows the only way she can meet the challenge head on and prove her own self worth is if Isis and her team make the nationals. She tries to help Isis, but Isis is too proud to accept a hand out. Determined to raise the money herself, Isis embarks on a letter writing spree that leads to a fruitful media blitz. Torrance and her resistant peers beg, borrow and - not steal - anything to set them apart from Isis. They survive a goofy choreographer, and physical mishaps to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and come up with a rousing adrenaline pumping mix of mime, dance, and acrobatics worthy of the CNN televised competition. The finale is every bit as exciting and rhythmic as an action scene in a John Woo movie. Instead of bullets, the cheerleaders of "Bring It On" are armed with the physical grace and stamina that makes them all champions.
A couple of teen theme flicks where the competition will make you laugh or kill ya’
"Smile" (1975) - Dir. Michael Ritchie. Melanie Griffith is a contender wise beyond her years in this satire about beauty pageants in the heartland of America. A great Bruce Dern is one of the sponsors who takes it seriously and veteran choreographer Michael Kidd is the guy who puts the girls through the paces to make ends meet. Terrific movie still holds up after twenty five years. It’s about winning.
"The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader Murdering Mom" (1993) - Director Michael Ritchie tried to recreate the humor of "Smile" in this parody of a real life mother who killed the competition so her daughter could replace the dead cheerleader. Holly Hunter is terrific in this made for cable movie.
"Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story" (1992) Another TV film based on the same incident that inspired "The Positively True Adventures…." above. This version plays it straight.
Another great flick about young women and the will to win.
"Personal Best" (1982) The author of "Chinatown," Robert Towne, wrote and directed this tale about a fledgling Olympian contender who must learn what it takes to be a winner. Mariel Hemingway stars with great support from Scott Glen as the coach and real life champion runner Patrice Donnelly as the teammate who only believes in one person - herself. The movie’s lesbian scenes made this a box office disappointment in 1982, but its frankness keeps it fresh, alive and real. As sport movies go, this is one of the best.