That Moment In ‘Bring it On’ When The Clovers Come To Town

Bring It On is a 2000 romantic comedy about high school and cheerleading while dealing with race and sexuality.

THE STORY: Entering her senior year, Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) says goodbye to her boyfriend as he heads to college while taking over as the captain of the cheerleading squad (who are all white, which is really kind of significant). With tryouts hoping to fill an opening after one girl gets hurt, Torrance recruits a new sassy student named Missy (Eliza Dushku), who then shows Torrance that the routines they are doing were actually stolen (by their previous captain) from a nearby all African American squad, led by Isis (Gabrielle Union). This changes everything. Now Torrance has to defend her team’s national championship standing with a legit win, but can she get her team to work together in time? And what about Missy’s cute brother (Jesse Bradford) Cliff, who seems like he’s got a thing going on for her? Will Isis hate her forever? What’s a cheerleading captain to do?

THE RUNDOWN: A surprise hit on release, earning big at the box office, the film is considered a cult classic for its sharp approach to a number of themes, including homosexuality and race. However, it is Dunst’s epically charged performance that wins the day, taking the somewhat trope-ish role and spinning it on its ear. While its (US) PG-13 rating limits its bite, it has plenty to make this a fun and unexpectedly charming watch, even if some of the slang and themes don’t quite fit so well in today’s social climate (though by it’s end, does right with a terrific aside between two boys).

THAT MOMENT: Torrance’s first hurdle as captain is a big one. After recruiting Missy, which was itself a challenge as a few others on the team had their minds set on someone else, she gets further pushback when Missy straight up walks out of the first practice. Why? Well, she says the squad are thieves, doing the exact same routine she’s seen over at East Compton by the Clovers, and to prove it, drives Torrance right over to that school and shows her. Sure enough, there they are, the cheerleaders doing what Torrance thought was their championship moves. It’s a little shocking.

Obviously, it means the former captain had been coming to East Compton to steal choreography, something confirmed right after when a few of the girls from the Clover team, including Isis, roll up on Missy and Torrance and give them some what for. Seems they are tired of seeing their moves on national television, they themselves unable to afford the entry fee to the competition.

Right away, facing the allegations, Torrance is hurt, swearing to here rivals that she had no idea. The thing we learn about Torrance is that she loves competition, but she loves fair play even more. She realizes her entire career in cheerleading is a lie and sets out to change things. However, when she presents the facts to the team, the majority say it’s too late to learn something new and that East Compton can’t prove they started the moves. Convincing everyone else that winning is more important than ethics, these girls force Torrance to stick to the same, even though she’s devastated by the prospect of doing a stolen routine. Committed to it now, they move on.

That week, there is a home football game, and even though the football team is outright awful, the stands are packed to watch the cheerleaders, their five-time national championship status drawing pretty large crowds. As the footballers take to the field – lacking any grace expected of skilled athletes – the onlookers get far more excited when the cheerleaders come bounding up the sidelines. They kick into their routine and the throngs go wild.

The game goes along with the boys getting trounced and by the fourth quarter, the cheerleaders have their work cut out for them, so … they start up their big routine, but walking into the bleachers just as they do are four girls from East Compton, including a steely-eyed Isis. When they see Torrance and her squad still doing their routine, they take the chance to show so, performing in sync with them from the stands (ending with a bitter burn) … and the whole crowd is watching. It’s pretty clear, something isn’t on the up and up and the once cheering fans go dead silent. Having done the damage, the East Compton girls stride out and leave Torrance and the squad with a big decision.

WHY IT MATTERS: Say what you will about Bring It On, at least it sticks true to its premise and one of the best things going for it is how it completely avoids the awful trend in movies like this to get mean. There are no nasty pranks and insults, no humiliating sabotage schemes, and the ‘ugliest’ characters, meaning foulest personalities, are fairly accurate and not wildly over-the-top, even if the film sort of paints them into a corner.

The message here is fair play, and it extends well beyond the cheers, with how homosexuality is portrayed to racial equality, again, even as the film never overtly drops them on the table as ‘show me’ moments. Sure, the two showcased jocks are ‘dumb’ and oblivious, cracking gay jokes to the boys on the cheerleading team, one of whom is in fact gay, and of course they come around after seeing how physically close the male cheerleaders get to the pretty girls, which is fairly predictable. However, the film completely abandons the typical mean-spirited approach so many in the genre cling to, which is best exemplified by Torrance … and equally so with (the now unfortunately named) Isis.

Torrance desires nothing more than to communicate with Isis and make past wrongs right, wanting the East Compton team to make it to Nationals and compete with them in a legitimate match. Isis too, while initially and naturally tired of the stealing, senses something true in Torrance, the two developing an understanding that shapes the entire second half.

That begins right here at the game though, with the arrival of the Clovers on ‘enemy’ territory, and how they express their position. It’s brilliant. By taking to cheering opposite Torrance and her team, they clearly demonstrate that it is they who are the originators of the moves, something the crowds easily pick up on. They come, they dance, they leave. Not a word is spoken and the movie does right in skipping the lazy route of some extended insult-riddled exchange, instead having Torrance feel poorly for what has happened and realizing something has to change, even if that change is slow to come.

Bring It On is a more layered film that it seems. While it dips a little into American Pie expectations, a popular sex-addled teen romp franchise, it seems to do so just enough to trick its audience into thinking that’s what they are watching. However, this is not a raunchy, degrading excuse to get young girls naked and treat boys like one-dimensional stereotypes, but rather an empowering little film with a dynamic group of young women and men that ends on a terrific note.

The film was followed by five direct-to-video sequels, none of which had any of the original cast members and were of diminishing returns, most adopting a more aggressive attitude. Either way, for a good time and a busload of charms, Bring It On earns a cheer and this mirror shot of cheering is a great cinematic moment.