MovieChat Forums > Bring It On (2000) Discussion > A Different Perspective on this whole mo...

A Different Perspective on this whole movie...

posted 8 years ago by austin1183
3 replies | jump to latest

I happened see this movie years ago when it had first come out and happened to see it again just a few weeks ago, it's corny and predictable of course but it was a good piece of nostalgia given that I was in high school when this movie came out. With that said, I decided to come on here (since imdv wasn't really around when I saw this movie the first time) and I found the discussion on the Toros cheating to be very bland and predictable. I wanted to offer my own perspective on this and see what you all think.

The biggest thing many people on here say is that the Toros cheated and didn't work hard and therefore really never earned those National Titles. Yes it is true that the Toros stole the routines and therefore you can question the validity of those National Titles, but they actually still worked hard. As they mentioned in the scene where the team is debating what to do after finding out Big Red had stolen the routines, one of the cheerleaders does mention that they worked incredibly hard to learn that routine. Given the routines were so good it's not likely you would learn it in just a few days. Just like you could give me the greatest piece of piano music ever conceived, doesn't mean I could play it. Just because you give me a great ice routine doesn't mean I can suddenly become a great skater. They do deserve credit for the hard work, since you can have the best routine in the country, but if you don't practice and perfect it, you'll just fall apart at the Nationals. Especially given that the team outside Big Red didn't know the routine wasn't stolen, you could argue they still deserved those National Titles.

Besides that, there is the way Torrance decides to address the problem. Of course we all know very few things are black and white, with most of life being a gray area. In the movie Torrance takes the most moral perspective, and decides not to use the stolen routine. From a moral perspective this is the absolute right choice. Again though the other cheerleaders do offer a more realistic perspective, that trying to learn a new routine so close to regionals is essentially conceding. And again the other cheerleaders are being punished for really doing nothing wrong.

While this would be a horrible perspective to take, Torrance could've easy just not told the team, kicked Missy off the team and continued as originally planned. She could also plan to confront the Clovers and accuse them of cheating if they tried to interfere. Like at the football game scene, Torrance could've easily got right up in the Clovers faces and accused THEM of stealing the routines. Given that they were in the Toros stadium with their parents, my guess is most of the fans would've sided with the Toros, which would've caused the entire Clovers plan to backfire on them.

Even more than that, at regionals if the Toros and Clovers had done the same routine the Toros could've claimed the Clovers had stole their routine. Given the inherent prejudice against black people anyway, and the fact that the Toros were the established super power team and the Clovers were the new girls, my guess again is the judges would've sided with the Toros and potentially even kicked the Clovers out of the competition.

They could've done all this as the Clovers never showed that they had any concrete proof that the Toros had stolen their cheers. Obviously they did but unless someone had taped Big Red taping their cheers they had nothing to go on.

Again not the moral argument and morally Torrance did the right thing, but ways the Toros could've easily gotten around the situation with the Clovers and the stolen cheers and in real life many cheer teams would've probably done just what I explained.

[–] Kumagoro 8 years ago

I don't get your point. Yes, Torrance could have acted like a callous racist bitch, taking the easy way out at the expenses of others and getting away with it because of rich white people privileges. But she was a sweet, honest, sensitive kid instead, so that option luckily was non-existent for her. Just like she didn't think to raise the money by mugging someone. That would certainly require some effort as well. But only a sociopath would suggest it.

It's a movie about doing the right thing and be honest. So your observation that they could have done the immoral thing instead is kinda absurd. Yes, they could have, but they chose not to, because they weren't a bunch of sociopaths, and just the thought that she was lying and screwing deserving people over was enough to make Torrance lose her sleep.

[–] krispykremekiller 8 years ago

It's really simple and basic. The girls on the Rancho Carne cheerleading squad worked hard and learned the routines and performed them amazingly well. Big Red and whomever wrote the routines was at fault here. Torrance found out, thanks to Missy, and that got fixed. The real question is where is their coach? That's the most unrealistic part of this movie. They were unsupervised. Typically the coach choreographs the routine, and here we have the inmates running the asylum.

This is comedy. It's best when it's not analyzed I guess.

[–] magdalene_1024 8 years ago

I would agree that it's true that the Toros worked hard to learn the routines, so they got bitten in the ass for something that wasn't their fault, since they (initially) didn't know the routines had been stolen.

However, if they'd continued to knowingly use them, then there was a situation waiting to blow wide open, now that the Clovers had a captain who wasn't going to put up with that (the movie indicated the former captain didn't want to pursue the issue.) And at least before, the rest of the Toros could have claimed plausible deniability--only Red knew the routines were stolen, the rest of the squad didn't. But once Missy brought it to Torrance's attention, that was gone. (And kicking Missy off the squad wouldn't have done any good--it wouldn't change what Missy knew and what people would be able to see for themselves--that the Clovers and the Toros were doing identical routines.) Maybe they could have fought the Clovers over it and been given the benefit of a doubt since they were 1.) Defending champions, and 2.) White and well-off, but such a charge being made public would always leave a question mark next to them. (Plus Missy probably would have weighed in on the side of the Clovers, telling whoever that she saw the Clovers perform those cheers years before she moved to the Toros' school.) It would've been an ugly mess, and there's no guarantee the Toros wouldn't have gotten dirt stuck to them. Though it's entirely possible the Clovers could prove the routines were theirs--while they were poorer and black, it's still likely there were folks at that school who had video cameras and had recorded their routines, and could show the Clovers were doing the cheers before the Toros were. (most videocameras, as I recall, had a date/time stamp on them, so it would've been fairly easy to prove.)

Plus, you have to consider--Torrance took her cheerleading *very* seriously, because it was the one thing she considered herself to be good at. To find out that maybe she was only good because of cheating probably gave her ego a huge blow (you notice throughout the movie she goes through a lot of self-doubt and insecurity.) Coming up with an original routine and making it stick was really the only way she could prove to herself (and everybody else) that she really *was* that good (and coming in second place with a routine thrown together that last minute is a pretty big accomplishment!)

And if she had taken the 'rich white bitch' route, then...well, we wouldn't have had much moral conflict while watching the movie, because Torrance and the rest of her squad would have been the antagonists. The way the movie played out, you could kind of cheer for both squads and be annoyed with both squads when they weren't behaving at their best.