I’ve seen a lot of reviews on this movie. Haven’t read them but I’ve seen them, and yes, I have also seen the scores on Rotten Tomatoes. Marlon does have a point. The critics also didn’t enjoy “White Chicks,” and yet, we all know at least three scenes and from that movie verbatim. My mom and I always believe that you need to see things and meet people for yourself, and I, for one, disagree with the critics. I walked in knowing this wasn’t a Jordan Peele film. I do feel like those who went into this film either though it was a Jordan Peele written and directed film or expected it to the be the next “Get Out” or “Us,” which it is not. I would also like to add that this is very much a movie where you must pay attention. It requires not only for you to watch the movie, but for you to think and interpret the things happening on screen. For me, it was about Cam’s journey of sacrifice. In an interview with The Breakfast Club, Marlon talked about the theme of the movie being sacrifice, so I’d thought I’d focus my deep dive on Cam’s sacrifice and how that lead us to the end of the movie.
Sacrifice 1: His Own Dream.
It’s never clear if football is Cam’s dream or if it’s his dad’s. My interpretation was that football was his dad’s dream, and he lived out that dream to be closer to his dad. Sure, Cam takes football seriously, but if you recall in the film during his media training, he mentions that his last words to his dad were that he wanted to quit. Honestly, Cam seems to be going through the motions with football. He’s good at it and expected to do it, which I feel is the story for a lot of young people. Either you are good at something and you’re expected to do it or you’re good at something but you fight against doing that to do something else. This sacrifice leads me to the next one.
Sacrifice 2: Sacrificing Himself for that Dream and for His Family.
Personally, when watching this film, I figured that because Cam was living this dream for has dad, he believed he had to continue to play football to support his family. They don’t tell us what everyone else in the family does, but they do tell us that Cam’s father was in the military. Based on that information alone, we can assume they have some money, but Cam, for lack of a better term, was their meal ticket. Now, I will say Cam’s mom is very loving and she wants the best for her baby. She did ask him several times if he was sure he wanted to play. He wouldn’t have told her he wasn’t ok because as the oldest, the stability of her and the household was on his shoulders.
Sacrifice 3: His Cool and Demeanor
There’s the cringe worthy scene where he’s throwing and running plays while the guy in the corner is being hit at 70 mph in the face with a football close range. The scene is done beautifully in the sense of how we can start to see Cam unravel. When we’re introduced to Cam, he’s a sweet man. He’s kind, he’s helpful, and he strives to want to do great for the fans, his team, and his family. Isaiah was intentionally trying to get Cam to that point. Now, I’m going to say something controversial. I believe that if Cam really wanted to be the best, he cannot be as sweet as he is in person on the field. Although Isaiah was messing with Cam on purpose, he was preparing him for the chaos that can ensue on the field. There will be times where a player is injured and you have to regroup. Coach is anxious, the fans are yelling, the team is frazzled, and you, as the quarterback, have to hold the team together. But and however, it should not come at the expense of who he is as a person which it started to for a moment.
Sacrifice 4: Belief in Himself
Cam, before his injury, was a shoe-in for being a first round draft pick. After the attack, somehow, he was thrown to the bottom of the list. Now, I can understand what that can do to your self esteem as a player. He went from everyone wanting him to having to make teams want him. Side note: it wasn’t like he couldn’t play but I guess the fake NFL in the movie actually cared about CTE. Bravo for them. Anyway, as the movie progresses, you can see little parts of him fall off. He regresses into uncertainty. Now, the movie itself did not do a great job of showing more of Cam before he went to Isaiah’s camp/house. I feel like if we saw more of that this idea would be stronger, but I’m left to assume and so here we are. His belief in himself changed when he woke up and had to struggle to make his way to that tray to inject himself. He only believed in himself at the end of the movie. He figured out who he wanted to be and acted on that belief.
Sacrifice 5: Freedom
Not only did Isaiah take his phone but he also took Cam’s choice. Nothing that happened at the house/camp was a choice Cam made. Usually, as a regular human person, you get to make decisions for yourself, but in his case, once he entered Isaiah’s house, things started happening to him. Personally, I hated that the movie did this to me. I hate when a character allows things to happen to them and they don’ fight back. It causes me to yell at the screen. Now that I think about it, Cam’s non-reaction to things may have come from being with his hero and not wanting to say or do something to offend him. Even so, at a certain point, Cam, you must fight back. I shouldn’t have to wait until the end of the movie to see the fight. You could have lost the bigger war of your life or who he wanted to be before he got the nerve to finally stand up for himself.
Sacrifice 6: Humanity
I applauded at the end of the movie when he killed everyone. Don’t mind me. I’m weird, but the point is at the end of the movie Cam became not another person but an animal. He was a savage. I didn’t see a human during that moment. He only came back to himself once he left (we’re assuming he left) the house. All of who Cam was and who he used to be was lost in that house in that moment. There was no man. There was only primal instinct in that moment. It was killed or be killed. No in-between.
I know what the reviews say but what do you think about the movie after you’ve seen the film. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to hear opinions from people who did not see the film to formulate their own opinion.
