Crooked Arrows

In some ways, the standard Mighty Ducks underdog story is socially irresponsible and ignorant. It posits that any idiot or screw-up can overcome the odds and emerge on top if they just try hard enough and focus on the end goal. But as we all (should) know, in the real world, most people are mediocre and riddled with limitations. Moreover, the whole Western concept of the self-made (wo)man achieving success through hard work and an unwavering spirit is less the defining ideology than, say, the child of a privileged, connected (wo)man having the world handed down to them without having to demonstrate any particular aptitude or ability. If anything, instilling the notion of unique specialness in the populist lexicon is cruel and self-defeating, encouraging the worker to invest their life in trying to achieve a dream that is either unobtainable or redundant and unsustainable. For example, Crooked Arrows star Brandon Routh surely has it in his head that practice and hard work will make him a successful, famous movie star. But, as we can all tell — from this movie and everything else he's done — there isn't any inherent ability underneath his looks to sustain, or even warrant, a great deal of success. Similarly, this movie, though likely aware of its limitations, seeing as it's a film about a Bad News Bears-like team of native teen lacrosse players that learn to work together and win a championship, isn't special and is unlikely to help anyone involved obtain any degree of notoriety or success. It, like most people, is saddled with mediocrity, banality and even minimal emotional complexity, showing that sometimes hard work and an unbreakable spirit just aren't enough to overcome the unremarkable disposition of a movie, or person, incapable of interpreting or questioning the status quo or its own construction in relation to the bigger picture. Still, since we've collectively instilled the concept of individual importance and specialness ubiquitously pointing out these limitations are typically met with defensiveness and hostility by the offending party, seeing as their ego is infused with the same delusion that the Crooked Arrows text purports. In such, it's best just to tell them that they've done a good job, even though they've screwed up the most rudimentary of cinematic formulas with atrocious dialogue, desultory direction and dreadful acting. This will keep them working hard and injecting money and taxes into the existing economy. Included with the DVD are an abundance of supplements on the making of the film, lacrosse and the importance of the Onondaga spirit, which come off much like one of those unintentionally funny Canadian Heritage commercials.