Most Americans think of cheerleaders as those smiling females at sporting events who shout cheers for their team and do so in a perfectly choreographed fashion. This point of view, however, is quite simplistic, and totally ignores the complexities involved with modern cheerleading. Whether a cheerleader is throwing his or her teammate in the air or holding up a sign with the team’s logo on it, the entire sport is an exercise, if not a study, in extremely physical competition.

The popularity of this sport has naturally led to Hollywood attempting to cash in on it: if a plot seems like it will make a buck or two, you can bet that someone is going to make a movie about it. One of the most famous cheerleading movies of all time, and the one that really spawned an entire genre based around the sport, is 2000’s “Bring It On,” starring Kirsten Dunst, Gabrielle Union, and Eliza Dushku. This movie, which was a fairly profitable commercial success, centers around two cheerleading squads from Southern California, one from a posh school near San Diego, and the other from an inner-city school in Los Angeles, and the competition that these two schools have. Of course, the common themes of overcoming obstacles and facing long odds are present here. However, one additional theme that this movie has looks at the different cultures exemplified by these two schools. “Bring It On” contains many racial and ethnic stereotypes that can be taken as offensive by some, and do little to add to the overall value of the movie. However, these characteristics enable the movie to appeal to a wider audience, something that is always important when it comes to typical Hollywood producers.

“Bring It On” spawned several spin-offs, although none of them featured the original cast. Many of these movies ended up being direct-to-DVD releases, but have still done reasonably well among the core crowd of fans that the first movie created. This, in effect, is essentially a parallel for the world of cheerleading itself: there is a small core of people who are devout adherents to the sport, its rules, and its competitions, and most other people simply look at cheerleaders as the ones who tell them when to clap at a basketball game. It is unlikely, however, that the producers behind these movies were seeking to create that parallel when they green-lighted production on the sequels: they were probably just following the path that they felt offered the easiest buck.

One very realistic aspect of “Bring It On” occurs when one of the characters breaks his leg while attempting to perform a stunt during a routine. Because so few people fully understand the amount of physicality required to be a cheerleader, it is hard for them to appreciate just how true-to-life this scene is. Cheerleading is an extremely dangerous sport, and it takes a lot of hard work and practice to prevent injuries like the one seen in this film.

“Bring It On” is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a classic movie, but it has proved important in examining one of the fastest-growing sports in America, and is definitely worth an open-minded consideration.

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Category: Sports
Keywords: cheerleading,perform a stunt,physicality,dangerous sport