The American Dream is an elusive concept. 

The belief that anyone, from anywhere, can achieve greatness if they work hard for it is a bright one to build a nation on. You too can be rich beyond your wildest dreams, and you’ll do it all by yourself. Equality is enshrined and achievable, but it’s you who’s going to have to do the dirty work. It’s conveniently sparing on the details of how you do this, but America is the land of opportunity. What matters is that you COULD be rich and successful, not how. 

That’s down to you. 

It’s a sweet concept on the surface, and would be close to realising a utopian capitalism if that was actually at all possible to achieve. In reality, as we know, the class system functions on a foundation of workers who are paid the least. If everyone moved up, there’d be no one to actually keep the country going. But, instead of paying these workers what they deserve in order to settle their appetites for anything above subsistence living conditions, the American government feeds them a dream instead. 

When we consider the racial boundaries on top of all that, it becomes clear that the American dream was touted to immigrants in order to encourage their emigration to the US. And, fortunately and unfortunately, it’s probably true that many of these people did experience a better quality of life after they made the move. But how many of them really got to greatness equalling their white peers? That’s without even mentioning the audacity of proposing a capitalist utopian concept to a group of people who you’ve systematically enslaved to build, and then excluded from, your society. 

The deeper you look into it, the more it becomes clear that the dream is actually only liveable for a very select group of people. In fact, the American dream has already been achieved by most everyone who’s ever going to achieve it. A generation of white people whose children will keep you down, and suddenly become your competition if by some miracle you do experience significant upward social mobility. For someone to move up the social classes in a modern America, they have to step on those below them, employ the same exploitative practices as those who sit on top, and when they look up, there’ll be just as many people above them as there were before. 

It doesn’t matter who lives it, though. As long as you can perceive it, the American dream will carry you through.

But, what if you could create a piece of media that truly embodied the American dream, while addressing all these logical criticisms that get in the way? What if you could really convince people that anything was possible in America, as long as you worked for it? A piece of accidental propaganda so innocent and inviting and masterful in its pathos, that even the most staunch anti-American must give credit where credit is due.  

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the pinnacle of utopic American bliss: Bring it On. 

How Bring it On was Brung 

In the early 2000s, cheerleading had a bit of a bad rap in the States. To sports fans, these women were simply eye-candy to enhance and distract from the all-important game. To outsiders, it was a “pre-feminist relic that positioned girls and women as not-so-bright sex objects” like Natalie Adams explains in the opening pages of her book, ‘Cheerleader! An American Icon’. The dedicated men and women who did it were about the only people who could appreciate the sheer magnetism and athletic ability of American cheerleaders. But, not unlike beauty pageants, whether you love it or hate it, cheerleading is undoubtably a part of a distinct, entirely American culture. 

Without digging into the inherent misogyny associated with these perceptions of cheerleading, thankfully, the one person who needed to be interested in cheerleading definitely was. 

“It’s like peanut butter and chocolate,” Jessica Bendinger, Bring it On’s screenwriter, said of her plan to bring her passions for hip-hop and cheerleading together in a teen flic for the girls of Y2K. “It would be so funny to put them together because they are so antithetical to each other.”

Apparently, not everyone agreed with her, as Bring it On’s original script was rejected by 28 production studios before it was finally green-lit by Beacon Pictures. Executive producers Max Wong and Caitlin Scanlon were hooked on the idea as soon as Bendinger made them watch the Daytona National Cheerleading Competition during her pitch. Describing the event as ‘super riveting’, and having had their eyes opened to the athletic prowess that high-school cheerleaders possessed, they took the script to their boss. 

But it wasn’t just the dancing that had impressed them. Wong later stated: 

“…we just really, really liked the fact that Jessica was talking about cultural appropriation. That hadn’t been discussed in teen movies, and here’s this sort of poppy cheerleading movie where she’s actually talking about societal issues that are really engaging in a really important fashion.”

The juxtaposition and weaving of these two, almost diametrically opposed, topics was deliberate. You had your teeny rich girls being thrown around to 2000s pop-rock and maintaining their position at the top of the literal and figurative pyramid, in exactly the same place as you had the poorer schooling communities fashioned from minorities fighting for a chance. Like Bendinger had said, peanut butter and chocolate. They don’t go together until someone has the bright idea to put them together. Then it’s the tastiest, most rich, flavourful, nostalgic, homely, and satisfying combination human-kind is yet to experience.  

Bring It On was given the go ahead, and a masterpiece was (finally) put into production. 

The Characters 

There are two main cheer squads that Bring it On focuses on: the Torros and the Clovers. While the Rancho Carne Torros are 5 time national cheerleading champions, the East-Compton Clovers have all the promise but none of the financial viability needed to compete. We join and follow the story through the Torros, and their brand new captain-

Torrance Shipman – Portrayed by Kirsten Dunst, Torrance absolutely lives and breathes cheer. She takes advanced chem just to convince her mother that she is actually focusing on schooling, rather than just waving her pom-poms about all day. However, after having dropped the spirit stick on purpose (gasp) at her last cheer camp, Torrance is convinced she’s going to hades. And throughout the movie she almost does. 

Missy Pantone – While Torrance is the main character, we are Missy. Brand new to the world of cheerleading, Eliza Dushku’s character gives us all the exposition we need to get up to speed in the intricacies of this highly-competitive sport. Missy, despite joining the cheer squad as a last resort, is a lot softer than her appearance lets on. Throughout the movie she and Torrance provide a heart-warming insight into female friendship, and just how much cheerleading can capture your passion. 

Cliff Pantone – Missy’s brother, and the main love interest for Torrance, Cliff is the too-cool-for-cheer rocker boy. With a smirk on his face and The Clash on his t-shirt, Cliff is desperate for Torrance’s attention, to the extent that he convinces his sister to join the Torros just for the chance to see her again. He’s the perfect high school crush for a cheerleader, and he plays the part well. 

Aaron – When we begin the movie, Torrance is in a long-term relationship with Aaron, who’s going to college. As an ex-cheerleader, he tries to assist Torrance with all the trouble she’s having as a new captain. But, too wrapped up in college girls, he actually greatly undermines Torrance’s ability as a leader and athlete. He doesn’t believe in her, and that’s very important to Torrance. 

Big Red – Torrance’s direct predecessor, Big Red, is almost solely responsible for a lot of the mess that the Torros find themselves in throughout the movie. Having stolen cheers from the Clovers knowing they weren’t going to be able to compete, Big Red only appears in the movie to chastise Torrance for striving to be original, before she fucks off back to god knows where. 

Courtney and Whitney – These are about the closest thing Bring it On has to antagonists. However, despite being the Torros’ resident mean girls, Courtney and Whitney have their own agenda that they employ to benefit the squad. Whenever they call Torrance out, it functions less as them picking on the protagonist, and more on them questioning questionable leadership – as you should. 

Isis – Gabrielle Union brings the leader of the Clovers to life. She’s far more cool, calm, and collected than Torrance, but she too wants nothing more than to take her squad to victory at Daytona. She’s watched her routines get stolen time and time again, and seen them on television at Nationals being performed by other teams who go on to win. She’s out for justice. 

The Clovers – Aside from their questionable choice of names that border on the stereotypical, the Clover girls are just as well written as Isis. They’re the real life R&B group ‘Blaque’ who came out with the song ‘As If’ that’s used in the film’s soundtrack. They too are headstrong and talented, and they too want revenge for how their squad has been treated. They’re going to achieve it by showing the world what they’re capable of. They defend Isis and their work to the end, and help push the Torros toward a genuine respect of originality.  

Torrance’s Family – Her parents behave just as you’d expect well-off yet humble creators of this thriving family to behave. The real gem is her little brother, Justin, who represents the perhaps not uncommon belief among the American public that cheerleaders are fucking annoying. He’s your typical little brother, and the interactions he has with Torrance are some of the funniest parts of the movie. 

Have you ever heard the saying “brains, beauty, talent: you can never have all three”? 

The Bring it On girlies have all three. First, the absence of coaches on their teams places all the agency in the hands of the teenage captains. Not only is this a decision made specifically to make the story more intimate, it’s empowering for children who so regularly have the hard work they put into their interests and passions diminished by adults who see them merely as extra-curricular activities. Torrance, Isis, and their respective squads work tirelessly and make intelligent decisions in order to be the best at what they do. And they look great while doing it. Caitlin Scanlon said of the characters: 

“It was about girls being tough and badass and smart and sexy at the same time – you just literally didn’t see that.”

Femme-fatales of all races in competition with each other, yet working toward a shared dream. Sound familiar? Aside from all that, the characters are also perfectly written to be products of their era, and brought to life by performances that you never question for a second. Even if some of the language they use is a little archaic to the ears of the 2020s, the characters of Bring it On remain relevant to their real-life counterparts that you’ll still come across in the world of cheer. 

The Plot

Bring it On opens with a performance from the Torros. This scene was intended to be a satirical take on high-school cheerleading, made evident in the lyrics; 

“I’m wanted! I’m hot! I’m everything you’re not…We cheer and we lead, we act like we’re on speed. Hate us ‘cos we’re beautiful, but we don’t like you either; we’re cheerleaders!”

Already, in the opening minutes the film shows that it’s not taking itself seriously, and you don’t have to either if you don’t want to. This song, which ends with Torrance accidentally flashing her entire cohort, turns out to be a stress induced nightmare brought on by her desperation to get captain of the squad. It’s all good (and bad) though, because that day Torrance is made captain, and within an hour of her promotion has already sent a girl to the hospital after attempting one of the hardest pyramids known to cheer-kind. 

Now that they’re down a flyer, the Torros are going to have to find a new member. That means try-outs. After sitting through countless time-wasters and people who clearly have no idea what cheerleading actually is, in walks Missy Pantone. Described as an ‘uber-dyke’ by Courtney, Missy is an incredibly talented gymnast who has just transferred from LA. Despite Courtney and Whitney wanting their little sister to make it onto the team, Torrance already knows Missy is what the Torros need to succeed. 

However, at their first practice together, Missy storms out with no explanation. Torrance follows her, and is taken to a gym across town wherein the Clovers are rehearsing the very same routine that the Torros have just performed for their newest recruit. As the two are leaving, they’re confronted by scorned Clovers who tell them that if they’re trying to steal more routines they better think again, because this year it’ll finally be the Clovers who get to perform them on ESPN. 

Torrance is heartbroken that what she had come to believe as sheer cheer excellence is actually based on a lie and the talent of their competitors who she has unknowingly stepped on. Her American dream is false and decaying in front of her eyes. After a disastrous attempt at hiring a choreographer to come up with a new routine, that actually sees the Torros perform the same routine as a completely different squad in their regionals grouping, Torrance decides they’re going to do it the old fashioned way. She accepts that she needs to step up, take accountability, and get the job done with hard work. 

However, in the final days of preparation for nationals, Torrance discovers the Clovers haven’t managed to raise the funds for entry into the competition. Her teammates are relieved, but Torrance is not. In one of the most subtle yet most poignant lines in the movie, Torrance states: “I define being the best as competing against the best there is out there and beating them. They have to go.” She gets her father to sponsor the Clovers, but when she hands Isis the cheque, it ends up ripped into pieces at her feet. 

Isis tells Torrance that the only thing the Clovers need from the Torros is for them to bring it at Nationals. Both these girls, despite not seeing eye-to-eye in the moment, understand that they are out for the same thing. They know their squads are up against tough opponents, but they also know that being better than those opponents is the only task they need to complete to achieve their dream rightfully. Isis helps the Clovers raise the funds in a different way, through a talk show host from their neighbourhood. 

At the climax of the film, we watch both routines play out on the iconic blue Daytona stage. In the end, the Clovers take it, as they definitely should have. Having followed the Torros for the whole film, we feel their ‘defeat’ alongside them, but also, with the knowledge that the Clovers have worked hard for this, we understand and rejoice in the conclusion that the Torros are still winners in their own right. 

This plot does so much, and it does it so well. As well as hitting all the highs of high-school cheerleading (tryouts, football games, fundraising, regionals, nationals) it sets up characters and storylines effortlessly then pays off each of them in one beautiful final act, and manages to provide hard hitting yet supremely subtle commentary on race, class, and sexuality, and the way these things affect how young people interact and fight for their ambitions. It never boasts about it, it just puts all these parts in front of you and you can do whatever you want with them. If you want to watch Bring it On as a fun cheerleading romp, you definitely can. But, if you want to read between the lines then the subtext is invitingly dripping from almost every facet of the film. 

Are You Trying to Tell Me You Speak Cheer?

Oh, fluently. 

Remember when I said each of the characters is perfectly written to be an accurate archetype of their era and genre? Nowhere is this better conveyed that in the turn of the century slang that each of these students regularly employ. The dialogue in bring it on leaves nothing to be desired (apart from, y’know, a slight reduction in reliance on slurs), and is truly believable as the way these unreal characters would realistically speak. Slurs included. It adds to the film’s fantasy while simultaneously perfectly representing the high-school kids of the day. 

Not to mention, the dialogue has an incredible rhythmic quality. You bounce through the backs of scenes on some of the most ‘well-thought out to seem not well thought-out’ lines in the history of high school flics. The beats and pentameter are all in time, easy to take in, and so fun to be involved with. It only adds to the overall enjoyment of the film, and once again, tells you not to take it all that seriously if you don’t want to.  

The Settings and Pathos 

Bring it on is also masterful in its ability to create setting. Its saturated to fuck, just like all the most fabulous movies of the era, presenting the finished product with a vibrant and dream-like quality. The locations, specifically Rancho Carne High School, are filled with green spaces, blue skies, and flowers. We spend the majority of the movie outside, or inside wide halls filled with eager spectators waiting for a performance. Everywhere colour can be added, it is. Everywhere detail can be added, it is. This is especially true in terms of lighting. 

One of the coolest things in the movie is the way the spaces represent the characters that inhabit them. For example, we never see the Clovers in the daytime until they compete at Regionals and Nationals. Their gym is usually dark, with only a few warm lights to highlight Isis and her team. In one sense, they’ve been kept in the dark by those who have used the Clovers for their own success, and by their already ‘low’ upbringing. However, when it comes time for them to really shine, they’re provided with just as much light as all of the other teams on the floor at Regionals. Then they return to their dark gym. However, when we see the Clovers next they are gathered in a pool of light together, working on their ambitions. The darkness has allowed them to shine a spotlight onto what really matters, and now they have a clear path to their goal. They come out of the darkness and when the light of day is put upon their routines at Nationals, they can be overshadowed no longer.

Or, how about the Torros? The Torros are already the widely beloved victors, so of course they’re out and about in the daylight. However, they train in multiple different places, giving a sporadic, confusing, and at times unravelling feeling to their teamwork. The Torros, and Torrance especially, are confused. About what to do next and about what the best way is to do it. When they do step into the dark, at the Clovers gym and at the football game, the Clovers are there to justifiably humiliate them and stake their claim to the shadows that the Torros have been forcing them to remain in. The Clovers have become used to the shadows, not receiving the attention and praise they should, and they use it to motivate themselves. While the Torros are never fully pushed into the shadows by their shady practices, they touch it and decide they need to work properly to maintain the popularity, the light, that they take for granted.   

The costuming in Bring It On characterises and elevates every individual in the movie. The delicious late 90s styles only add to the candy coating that dresses the entire visual experience. Torrance and the Torros rarely stray away from soft pinks and blues, while Missy often wears black and heavy accessories, solidifying her as an outsider. But when she puts on her torros uniform, suddenly she’s high-kicking and screaming out peppy chants. She’s one of them. Even the Clovers are given their own styles, but when they come together for competition and achievements they wear their cheerleading uniform, savouring their battles and victories together as a team. As a result, we feel it too. 

Each scene is perfectly timed, structured, and directed to give you a gateway into the emotions being depicted on screen. When the Torros see their visitors off at a football game, you feel cool and capable like they do. When they’re humiliated in the next scene, you raise your hand when Torrance asks who wants to put together a new routine. This is often done through music, such as in the iconic car wash scene that perfectly encapsulates the fun in the sun atmosphere of rich San Diego students with ‘Freakin You’ as a serenade. The cadence of the dialogue also carries tons of feeling. However, the movie also does a lot without any dialogue at all. Take the toothpaste battle between Cliff and Torrance for example, you know exactly what’s happening, and you feel those butterflies because you felt them when you were a teenager with a crush. Bedinger felt them when she experienced the scene for real with her date that one time. Despite the rainbow of colours, heady soundtrack and romanticised visuals, the dainty and delicate moments of teenage friendship, love, shame, and imprisonment within ones own labels are all portrayed with awe-inspiring realism, and touch your heart through the screen in the same way. 

As a final note on the execution of this movie, some of the things are done with such a confident subtlety that you don’t notice them on your first watch. In the same car wash scene, when Cliff brings his car along there’s a split second frame of it absolutely covered in mud. It was only on my most recent watch through that I realised Cliff had deliberately taken it out and covered it like that so he can go to the car-wash and see Torrance. This isn’t conveyed in any of the dialogue, he plays it off super cooly in fact, and we certainly don’t get to see the inner-workings of Cliff’s mind that led him to do this. We simply understand that, of course, there’s no better way to see your teenage crush at a car wash than to get them to wash your car. What else was Cliff to do than put this plan in action? It elevates the story, it elevates their characters, and it elevates the writing into the fucking stratosphere. Movies don’t trust their audiences enough to do subtlety like that anymore. 

Now Everybody Do the Proper Gander  

This is what you find when you dig a little deeper into Bring it On.

Most movies are going to peddle a certain belief or moral that they’ve spent their story conveying to the audience. In this way, many forms of media can be attributed the title of propaganda in favour of whatever argument they choose to back up. In the case of Bring it On, however, aside from the themes of working hard and being happy with what you achieve, the mature commentary is done through examining real situations from a multitude of angles. Even though you don’t necessarily see everything Isis and the Clovers do, you can infer from her lines what they’re up against. When Torrance gets the money for Isis, we see Torrance genuinely trying to help, we understand why she’s upset when Isis throws it in her face. But we also understand why Isis did the best thing for her own squad.

As well as this, the movie consistently provides commentary on cheer and its place in society, simply by showing you these parts of cheerleading. When the Daytona commentator talks about how he loves cheerleading because he gets to watch girls in skimpy skirts, I don’t read it as the girls being over-sexualised for the sake of it (even if they definitely are by the way the movie is shot but we’ll get to that). Real commentators have said things much worse than this about 16 year old girls, and this over-sexualisation of minors by the disgusting perverts who are allowed to get close to them has long been a part of dance education in general. We see it because the film presents such an accurate look at the sport, and by default many other industries with a lot of young women. When things like this are added into the movie it only bolsters the realism. The film doesn’t over-sexualise high-school girls (as far as Jess Bedinger imagined it, anyway), cheerleading does, and it does it because a fetishisation of youth is inherent in many modern societies. Children can’t do a lot without creeps capitalising on it, and American fuckboy feeling, no matter how perverted, is always going to have some control of the media both in terms of production and sales. This was especially true in the early 2000s, and is probably why we unfortunately do have to watch so many choice angles of what are meant to be 16 year old bodies (and often are – Kirsten Dunst was 17 when they filmed this movie. For shame!). 

When you get to know the individual characters, you cannot deny that the girls are incredibly capable and confident at what they do. They know their own abilities and they throw themselves head first into every problem they have to resolve. Not once does Torrance give up, and the only time she falters the narrative doesn’t put our blame onto her. It’s because she’s placed too much trust in her categorically scummy boyfriend. Her shortcomings are presented clearly, and she accepts them, working past them and in spite of them. The agency the female characters are given is unbeatable, with Courtney and Whitney consistently using their voices to speak out against Torrance’s decisions in favour of what they think is right. In the end, they’re never presented as the mean girls who need to be dealt their comeuppance. They win alongside Torrance having done the hard work just the same. I’d argue that no other film from the time puts young women in a position of power and poise like Bring it On does. 

Isis and the Clovers are only presented as antagonists if you choose to see them that way. The ‘angry black girl’ is a dangerous stereotype that invalidates the feelings of black women across the globe, and we have to accept that black women are allowed to show their emotions whatever they may be. In this case, especially, they have a lot to be angry about. The film fully justifies Isis and her Clovers in their attitude to Torrance, Missy, and the rest of the Torros. If you were in Isis’s position, you’d feel just the same as her, although you’d never be able to come at your opponents with quite as much class as she does. But she never takes it too far – she knows that in the end she will triumph using different channels, the same arena, and more hard work than her more privileged counterparts. (Interestingly, Gabrielle Union went on to write in her memoir ‘You Got Anything Stronger’ that though Isis was inspired by Michael B Jordan’s incredible work-ethic and confidence, the actress felt she ‘put a muzzle on’ Isis by offering grace to the Torros and being the bigger person. She regrets that she didn’t show Isis as overtly angry, because that’s truly how Isis would have felt.)

Later, when Torrance hands Isis the cheque with money for nationals, Torrance perceives Isis destroying it as ungrateful and mean for the sake of it. But, Isis calls out the Torros in a way that gets her feelings across but still provides each of the squads with a constructive outlet for what they’re trying to do. She’s assured of herself, and she doesn’t need any help she isn’t seeking for herself. In the end, Isis is an admirable sportswoman, accepting Torrance’s advice and coming to see her as an equal. They’re both fighting for the same dream, and that means they’ve been put in competition with each other. But, that doesn’t mean they need to be cunts to each other. At the end of the day, the best cheerleaders will win. 

The women in Bring it On are beautiful, skilled, funny, and coherent. They each know what they have and what they can offer. By the end, they all believe in themselves and their abilities. They interact with other women with the emotions that the situation calls for, but they are never fundamentally rude or bitchy. They know what they want to say and they say it. They’re multi-faceted human beings with stuff to do, and my god do they do it well. They’re a well-thought out balance of real and fake in all the best ways. I think the best example of this is when Torrance rocks out to the song Cliff has written for her. When emotions run high and the music is good, what woman has not danced in this way?  

The above is wish fulfilment for my 23 year old angry feminist brain, but I was fulfilled in a lot of different ways when I first watched this movie as a kid. Never has any other film or TV show made me want to be an underweight, blonde American girl as this film did, just to have the chance to be a cheerleader in a gorgeous setting with a gorgeous boyfriend. It’s supremely good at what it does, and if Bring it On is vapid and vile in its dedication to its fantasy, then I guess I am too. But I know now, of course, that the America depicted in Bring it On is only experienced by a select handful of people. All that fantasy is just the film making me perceive my own American dream. Another untouchable ideal. 

“Second Place, Hell Yea!” 

When I was a kid, I was so disappointed that the main characters had gotten second place. The Clovers deserved their win, but in my childhood head it was pointless for us to have followed the Torros only for them to lose. When you consider the expert way the film wants you to have fun with the Torros and conveys emotions through their scenes, you’re far more emotionally invested in a Torros victory than you are in a Clover’s one. 

But as I’ve grown up, I’ve realised there was simply no other way this movie could end and end well. It doesn’t matter if you’re emotionally invested in a Torros win, because they get one. Second place is only ever a loss if you’ve become too used to first, just as many of us have done by watching movies wherein the main character always comes out on top. The Torros are trying to maintain the success they’ve achieved by using exploitative practices, only employing true productivity when it was too late. While at the same time, the Clovers have been consistently trying to move up with persistence and dedication. The realisation of the winner’s dream favours those who have not yet tasted it. A meritocracy of some sort, yes, but subsequently the Torros have to make room at the top for the current victors. 

The American dream presents the idea that it is just you and the abundance of potential opportunities on the road to success. This is not true. There are countless occurrences that are going to work both directly and indirectly against your success. Some of these things that work to lessen the opportunities we are provided with, are things we have no choice in and no control over, such as race, gender, and class. It is a competition through and through, but in reality the footing is not quite as equal as it is presented as being in Bring it On. Finally, it’s almost nearly impossible to be able to achieve success without help. We all need people who are behind us, reassuring us, teaching us, backing us, and believing in us. Only with our friends and loved ones can these setbacks be overcome. With a team of people willing to fight just as hard as you, and help from the people who’ve been where you are and have moved up, success is possible. In this way, Bring it On presents a much more tailored, still justifiably problematic, yet infinitely more accurate depiction of the American dream, realised. It’s propaganda, but it worked. On me at least. 

The movie perfectly weaves beautiful teen vibrance alongside real commentary on what less-privileged athletes, and athletes of colour (often the same individuals but we’re familiar with intersectionality here) have to go through in order just to find the same recognition as their rich, white counterparts. But the Clovers defy all that, they rise above, and they leave quite rightly as the victors of the day, just like any American could (in absolute theory, but what is propaganda but idealist theory (and violent othering) afforded to the masses?) I’d like to say that Bring it On didn’t mean to be political, though obviously it did. But, it did it perfectly through the tropes of its genre.

We couldn’t experience the movie from the Clover’s perspective because we know how it would go. It would be a sad experience, watching their cheers get stolen by people already in a more privileged position, and then the story would’ve followed the same inspirational narrative as the American dream always does. Hard work getting paid off with victory. Supremely great propaganda, especially considering it revolves around African-American and other communities of colour that the dream was originally sold to. But, by centering the narrative on the Torros, i.e those that already have the American dream, Bring it On is capable of tearing it all down and rebuilding it again, all in the space of 90 minutes. We see all sides of a story that the American dream conveniently leaves out.

It also shows that social mobility works both ways, the Torros go down, they appear to move away from what they’ve been told is greatness. But when Torrance is asked how second place feels, she can only respond with a beaming smile and a proud nod;

“Feels like first.” 

This line may refer to the fact that Torrance won’t actually have to suffer any real material consequences because she lost. Her cheer team will still get funding, and in a few months she’ll be on her way to a good college paid for out of her parents’ pockets where she’ll join another cheer squad. But, I choose to take the reading that this line provides a subversive view of the American dream rarely seen in media produced in the country. It doesn’t matter if you get to the top or achieve boundless success that puts your peers to shame. If we can group those below us, then why can’t we do the same for those above, for ourselves? Bring it On tells you that no matter where you are, if you’ve worked hard then you can, and should, be proud of what you’ve done. 

The desire for validation through productivity is a capitalist paradox in itself that, of course, there was no way to skirt around in this truly American story. But you know what? 

For once, I just don’t care.