Bring It On [Special Edition]

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The phrase "cute as a button" is tailor-made for this film. Belly buttons, I mean. There was a time well into the 1960s when women couldn't even show their belly buttons on screen. Remember poor Barbara Eden on TV's "I Dream of Jeannie"? Her two-piece genie outfit was so sedate it made people wonder if she even had a belly button. The unveiling of her navel was a turning point in the history of television. Anyway, the movie "Bring It On" not only prominently sports a multitude of female belly buttons, the buttons are positively the stars of the show. You'll see more navels in this PG-rated 2000 film than in a Florida orange grove.

Naturally, for this many buttons to be on display, it has to be about high school students and so it is, high school cheerleaders to be exact. But unlike most teenage comedies, this one isn't about outrageous sex and smut. In fact, it's rather amusing in its innocuous way, thanks largely to its high energy and spirits. Thanks, too, to its star, the cutest button of them all, Kirsten Dunst, who plays Torrance Shipman, the captain of a cheerleading squad in competition with its crosstown rival in a nationwide cheerleading contest.

The plot involves the squad, five-time national champions, finding out at the last minute that the routines they've been practicing for the cheerleading tournament were ripped off from their opponents, forcing them to devise a whole new agenda of dances and activities. OK, admit it; you've never really taken any notice of cheerleader routines. I've been teaching high school for over thirty years, and I've never seen much difference in the cheerleaders themselves, let alone their routines. I mean, beyond capering about, yelling, screaming, and bouncing up and down, their exercises seem more a tradition than a necessity. But "Bring It On" puts all that into a new perspective. It's the "Chariots of Fire" and "Breaking Away" of the cheerleading world. Like the art of comedy itself, we learn that cheerleading is a serious business, and those who engage in it dedicate themselves to it heart and soul.

Now, while the film has gusto, its story and characters are entirely predicable. Torrance is the nice young girl, the naive young girl, the girl who wants always to do the right thing but finds the other members of her squad a bunch of selfish, preening, egotistical, cheating creeps; you know, Hollywood's usual portrayal of high school kids. Yet amidst this den of vipers, she does meet two sensible fellow students who have just moved into the community--Missy and Cliff Pantone (Eliza Dushku and Jesse Bradford). Missy is a gymnast who tries out for the cheerleading squad because her new high school, Rancho Carne, doesn't have a gymnastics team. She eventually becomes Torrance's best friend. The tryout scene involving Missy and a number of wannabe losers is the funniest part of the film. Cliff, Missy's brother, looks at cheerleading the way most of us do, as a rather frivolous way to spend one's time. Naturally, he becomes Torrance's romantic interest in the story. There is also an abusive, maniacal choreographer, Sparky Polastri (Ian Roberts), the team hires to help them out, and he's fairly diverting. "Cheerleaders are dancers that have gone retarded," he tells them. Otherwise, the cast could have been drawn in toto from any recent high school picture.

Mostly, as I say, the plot and characters are predicable. The San Diego high school setting is the kind Hollywood loves to depict when it isn't doing "The Substitute"; Rancho Carne is all white and upper class, the kids wearing bright pastel clothing, living in million-dollar homes overlooking the sea, and driving shiny new automobiles. And with the exception of Ms. Dunst, the actors playing the kids are all in their early to mid twenties. (Dunst was about eighteen when she did the role, so she's the only one who actually looks anywhere near high school age.) Also as expected, you'll find the obligatory girls' locker room scene (minus the nudity), the mandatory puke scene, and the bikini car-wash scene. Finally, the opposing crosstown rivals of the all-white Rancho Carne Toros are the all-black East Compton Clovers, a contrast that is never exploited in the film for any serious purpose.

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