The pre-determined movie for today's "Best Shot" is appropriately Bring It On, which, as I mentioned this morning, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. It was a bit difficult to choose just one single shot that I liked, which is partially why my first entry this morning were chock full of "rejected" shots. Ultimately I chose one that features one of the, if not the most, memorable character from the film, or at least a part of him...
The legs wearing these fierce back-lace boots belong to one Sparky Polastri, he who put "Spirit Fingers" in the pop-cultural lexicon. I was actually debating whether or not to instead pick an image of him mad-eyed with his hands and fingers outstretched, but ultimately I chose this shot because frankly it's far more interesting.
At this point of the film, the kids and audience have no idea what to expect from Sparky. When he finally gets going, who could've known the torture and amount of crazy he would put the kids through? And how about his colorful way of expressing himself?
"Good general tone and musculature. Report those compliments to your ass before it gets so big it forms its own website."
"I am a choreographer. That's what I do. You are cheerleaders. Cheerleaders are dancers who have gone retarded."
"Follow me or perish, sweater monkeys."
"In cheerleading, we throw people in the air and fat people don't go as high."
But back to the shot, I am a huge fan of its composition with the boots in the foreground, dominating and foreboding, while the kids are blurred and uncertain in the background. This is also the third time we are introduced to a character via their footwear, which I like to think wasn't random. Our first glimpses of Cliff and Isis (see below) were also of their shoes. Of course I'm not sure if there's a bigger implication to these character introductions, but I thought I'd just point it out.
So here's to Sparky Polastri, his boots, and his spirit fingers! His entire scene was a little more than four minutes, but he definitely made his impact. And just for that, here he is in all of his Tom-Cruise-crazy glory with bonus spirit fingers:
THESE are spirit fingers. And these? Are gold.
Awesome, oh wow! Like totally freak me out! I mean, right on!
ReplyDeletetom cruise glory is right haha.
ReplyDeleteseasondays also commented on the footwear and it just goes to show you how much there is in good movies. i've seen this many times and actually watched it closely and for some reason never registered all the feet.
thanks for playing along.
Peyton Reed, in the director's commentary (which I totally recommend to everyone: he knows what he's doing, and it turns out he was responsible for stuff like Isis' rejection of Torrance's dad's money), says that he conceived Sparky as a "failed, angry Bob Fosse", including the signature goatee and costume and misguided jazzhands. And I immediately loved the character a lot more. =D
ReplyDelete@Aki - How many times have we both yelled that cheer randomly? I can't count any more.
ReplyDelete@Nathaniel - So much fun! Thanks for the series! Will definitely try to do more of these Best Shots with films I've seen. Was going to do Angels in America, but indecision crippled me a bit!
@Colin - Watching the movie with director's commentary is next on my list. I can't wait!
That shot (and his amazing one-liners) could have been so bad if it weren't for the script/actors/director. I remember getting really nervous when that shot happened because I didn't want the movie to fall into bad cliches and unfunny jokes. It seemed like such an ominous turning point when you saw the cast from the boots. Thankfully, it didn't fall into teen-movie traps.
ReplyDelete