Bring it On - Rewind Mini Review ~ LightsRemoteAction

Released 10 years ago today...

Original Release Date: August 25, 2000

"Cheerleaders are dancers that have gone retarded", (Sparky Polastri).

I don't believe that this film needs any introduction. It has gone on to become somewhat of a revered piece of pop culture, but when it came out it was heckled and ridiculed to no end. All that hate ended though once people saw it and understood what it actually was as opposed to what everyone thought it was. It was not the shallow teen comedy we all thought it was, it was only disguised as such. The film was a social satire of sorts about the life of High School cheerleaders and their dreams. To say the film was self aware and in on the joke would be a vast understatement.

Torrance (Kirsten Dunst, Interview with the Vampire) has just been promoted to team captain for the cheer leading squad. In the midst of a cheer leading scandal it is up to her, new recruit Missy (Eliza Dushku, True Lies) and the rest of the squad to reclaim their former glory. This movie is just chock full cheer leading jokes that aren't so much insults as they are loving homages to the way we as a culture perceive cheer leading. What really made this movie stand out besides its humor was just how much fun it is. There is a pulsating energy that really helps it chug along and everyone involved just seems to be having a blast.

Most of all though this film is responsible for creating a public perception of the world of cheer leading that was never there before. The characters in this film all see cheer leading as one of the most important things a person can become involved with and it totally plays around with that thought. The line that sells this theory to me is "Wait...people cheering cheerleaders?" when they go to their state championships. Even the fact that cheer leading has a championship blows my mind and I have Bring it On to thank for that knowledge. Regardless of the horrible sequels it produced, the original is still very much a funny and fast moving comedy for the ages. It only gets more cheertasitc with each repeat viewing. Check out the trailer below....

Bring it On trailer