Bring It On is a movie about Kirsten Dunst’s character Torrance Shipman who comes to a new high school and becomes the captain of the cheerleading squad. The cheerleading squad has a reputation for being a top squad in the country and has won the national cheerleading championships several times under their old captain. As Shipman settles in to get ready for another run at the national championship she comes to realize that all of the previous championship routines were stolen by the previous captain from a cheerleading squad out of Compton in California. Shipman then spends the remainder of the movie working her squad to the point of exhaustion to develop new routines for the upcoming championships which are her attempt to save her cheerleading squad’s damaged reputation as cheaters. Meanwhile the Compton cheerleading squad where all of the routines were stolen from is having problems raising enough money to make it to the national championships.

Bring It On is a movie pointed right at teenagers that attempts to show teenagers that when you do hard work on your own the pay off is that much sweeter. Bring It On also tries to show teens that the only glory worth having in life is the glory that you make for yourself and not the glory that can come from stealing other people’s ideas and other people’s work. Bring It On deals deeply with the conflicts that come up in teenagers when they start to reach positions of responsibility within their school and community and how the decisions they make can affect their lives forever. Bring It On also shows how even the most strained of relationships can gather respect for one another when the right thing is done and past mistakes are accounted for and rectified. Bring It On was a surprise success and it’s success even got it a spot as a plot device in the parody of all teen movies called Not Another Teen Movie.

Bring It On wound up being a financial success along with being a success with teens and part of that is the realistic approach that the producers took to making this movie. All actors that were to be involved in cheerleading scenes in the movie had to undergo rigorous cheerleader training and many of them had never been cheerleaders before. The dedication was so deep that one of the male actors who was playing a cheerleader in the national championship scene did all of his scenes on a damaged ankle making what he did very painful. It did help, however, that the two lead actresses in this movie were cheerleaders in high school and could draw on that experience to help bring a little more authenticity to their performance and help the movie have a little more realistic look. Bring It On seemed to really deal closely with the Kirsten Dunst side of the story and the personal trials and tribulations she was going through. The Compton team captain Isis, played by Gabrielle Union, did not seem to have as much invested in the personal plot but was able to more than keep up her end of the competition.

Bring It On remains as one of the more popular teen movies ever made and continues to be a popular DVD rental even 7 years after its initial release. The ability to portray the cheerleading competition with varying levels of accuracy helps the film remain valid.