Line #4 Headscratchers/BringItOn


1	* Okay, so the East Compton Clovers refuse a sponsorship from Torrance's dad, but will accept it from the corporate sponsors of Pauletta Patton, even though they probably aren't much different from Torrance's dad's company.
2	** One of the other squad members brings this up while they're writing the letter. Isis justifies it by saying that Pauletta is from their neighborhood, so it doesn't count.
3	*** Most likely it was because the help came from the enemy.
4	** Also, it must feel pretty patronizing for the poor and (mostly) black Clovers to accept money from rich white folks. As Isis points out, they don't want charity, they want to make it to the finals through own effort. Writing Pauletta Patton is their own idea and their own effort, so getting the money through her is not the same as getting it from Torrance.
5	** And this year in particular, the Clovers had made it that far on their own. Accepting money from Torrance might have felt tainted. Of course the real question is would Isis have accepted the money if Pauletta hadn't helped them?
6	** If Pauletta comes from the Clovers' neighborhood, she probably didn't have much money growing up either. She knows what the Clovers are going through and is part of the community, so to Isis there's probably no shame in getting help from "one of their own." Meanwhile, Torrance doesn't have any connection to the Clovers or their community, and she's just trying to make her guilt go away by writing a cheque.
7	** Isis is still very mistrustful of Torrance right up until they're at finals together. She's even antagonistic to her when she tries to warn the Clovers about what the judges penalise squads for. She also says she has to look strong for her squad, and accepting money from the enemy probably would be worse for morale and taint their win.
8	* The Toros REALLY dodged a bullet by hiring Sparky, yet it seems that EVERYONE gets pissed at Torrance. If the team had stuck with the original, stolen, choreography, it would have been just them and the Clovers doing the same routine, setting off a whole investigation about WHY, and possibly ending in disqualification and even the NCA taking back some of the trophies. As it was, the school lucked out and became just another victim in a scam ring. Yet no one notices this
9	** Not surprising; all the other cheerleaders on the squad were characterized as less than intelligent, so they probably didn't think this through.
10	** Well, technically it was still her fault that they got suckered by a scam artist. I guess they were mad that Torrance didn't check the guy out more thoroughly before hiring him. If she had hired a legitimate choreographer the plan would have worked perfectly. They dodged a bullet to be sure, but I guess their thinking was that if Torrance had done better research the bullet would never have fired in the first place (if that makes any sense).
11	** The expression 'shit rolls downhill'. Torrance hired the guy, so she had full responsibility.
12	** It's also said that hiring a professional choreographer is frowned upon since the squads are supposed to come up with the routines themselves. But really, everyone hated Sparky because of how abusive he was as a choreographer and they only tolerated him because they'd get a new routine out of it. Then they find out he's a scam artist who gave six other squads the same choreography? They're pissed that they went through all that literally for nothing.
13	* Alright it's been years since I have seen this movie and I just noticed that the Toro's won previously with the Clovers routine at nationals. But the Clovers finally get to come to Nationals and they aren't accused of stealing Toro's routine? Of course I'm assuming the clovers came up with something new or writers didn't think of it at the time.
14	** The Clovers were creating original routines every year to use at games, but Big Red would come and steal it and use it in competitions. Both squads recycled their previous years routines for their own games, while practicing their competitive routine in secret.
15	** Really the Clovers were lucky that Torrance wasn't as evil as Big Red, because without any concrete evidence what would stop the Toros from claiming that it was ''their'' routine that was stolen? Hate to say it, but who would the officials most likely believe? The affluent five time national champions, or the ghetto squad who appeared to come out of nowhere with an award winning routine?
16	*** Except the Clovers probably had some kind of diagrams or something from when they actually created the routines, whereas the Toros learned it from watching videos... of the Clovers. Isis was certainly smart enough to prepare for that eventuality; she just happened to finally be in charge the year that it didn't turn out to be necessary.
17	*** The film brings this up as well:
18	--->'''Darcy:''' How are East Compton going to prove anything?
19	*** Big Red didn't get away with this for so long without covering her tracks; she probably watched the videos, made up her own diagrams, and brought the routines to the squad that way. (It's clear that no one else on the squad had any idea what Big Red was doing.) From what Missy said, East Compton (in the Los Angeles area) and Rancho Verde (San Diego) were in very different cities, so there was no reason for them to interact or anyone else to see both squads in action until Missy.
20	** And the Clovers likely had plenty of routines created in secret that weren't used at public events, especially if they were on guard for someone with a video camera to steal anything they performed in front of a crowd.
21	* One thing that continues to confuse me about this movie. Did none of the parents from the Clovers school record their cheers during games? If I'm remembering correctly Big Red only stole the routines by recording them as they did their halftime show. So if the Clovers wanted to prove that their routines were being stolen couldn't they just check the timestamps of the recording of their routine versus whenever the Toros did theirs?
22	** East Compton is in a poor area of California, with an average household income less than half of the national average. Video cameras at the time were still rather expensive, especially in a poor neighborhood.
23	** And the concept of having camcorders still hadn't caught on to a lot of people yet. In those days if you had a video, you'd have to go somewhere to get it processed to a cassette tape for home viewing. It wasn't until several years later that they made video processing easier by taking it off an SD card in the camera. It's not like today where nearly everyone has a smart phone with a camera built into it.
24	** Maybe they did but Isis instead seemed focused on making it to finals on their own merits and winning simply by being the best.
25	* Where were all the faculty members in this? School organizations require faculty sponsors for their organizations, in this case a cheerleading coach. While students might be creating their own routines, there's no reason a mere student would be 100% responsible for meeting with tournament officials for possible disciplinary action, or budgeting funds for going to competitions. And it's not just the Toros; the Clovers have no adults in sight either.
26	** Presumably because this is a movie aimed at young adults and teens, and they wanted Torrance to be a more dynamic protagonist who does things on her own without a teacher or coach helping her. Or we could assume there is one off screen somewhere, and we just don't see because our focus is with Torrance.
27	* Why is the new Captain being chosen so late? Big Red graduated months ago and she's still coming to practice to decide on a successor?!? This kind of thing should've been decided during the final practice the previous year, or during the summer at latest (when realistically the squad should've began training for the new year, just as football teams do). What if Big Red had gone to a college out of state and thus was unable to make the trip back to her old high school? For a group as dedicated as the Toros, there's no reason for them to wait until after the school year starts to begin training.
28	** Dramatic license? It just looks better that Torrance is chosen as the new captain at the start of the movie, which is also the start of the school year.
29	** In theory, they can't be sure who is going to be back on the team the next year. Families move, injuries happen, people can lose interest. You would have to wait until everyone had returned.
30	** Just how long was Big Red the captain? The Clovers imply she'd been taping and stealing their work for years. Did Big Red run the squad her entire high school tenure?
31	*** It's not outside the realm of possibility that Big Red's predecessor did the same thing and she learned from her.
32	*** Or maybe Big Red got made Captain insanely early (like, her second year of high school) at least partly because she 'came up with' awesome routines that she supposedly choreographed herself. Her personality took care of the rest.
33	** Wasn't the start of the movie that introduces Torrance as squad captain AllJustADream she had, given how it ended with her wardrobe malfunction? She's probably remembering the end of the last school year when she actually was chosen captain, albeit without her top falling off.
34	*** The scene in the locked room has Big Red collecting the votes from the cheerleaders on who captain should be.

Context Headscratchers / BringItOn