The Underdog

Underdog

by jab471

The Enduring Value of the Underdog Story
Underdog themed stories will never go away. They capture an aspect of everyday life that we all feel at one point or another – that desire to belong and be respected, which is why I’m okay with the over saturation of these stories we see every year.
As much as I rail against the inequities of a Hollywood machine that continuously produces the same old schlock, hoping to capitalize on nostalgia and good intentions rather than decent story telling, there’s something to be said for some of those good old-fashioned formulae.

For hundreds of years, popular entertainment has relied on any of a few very prevalent themes and archetypes in its characters that will always be successful. For as long as there are those out there who feel picked on, weaker than their brethren, and held in disgust for that weakness, there will be films about them overcoming. It’s an ages old formula that has worked again and again in films since the medium was created.

It worked for the likes of Harold Lloyd in his classic silent films and in the comedies of the 50s, 60s, and well every other decade beyond. The same old formula when put to the ultimate test by Sylvester Stallone in 1976 with Rocky managed to garner 10 Oscar nominations and wins for best director and best picture.

What works so well for the genre in the long run is that it doesn’t try to do anything more complicated than present a classical dilemma. It’s not good against evil. There is often a romance, though it’s marginalized for the sake of the film’s focus. There are only the underdog and the rest of the world. And we, as film goers, enjoy rooting for the underdog more than anything.

It’s a phenomenon not rooted only art. For anyone who has ever watched the World Series and found themselves not caring one way or the other about the two teams playing, nine times out of ten, they’ll ask “who is the underdog”. While popular music and entertainment is home to a great deal of powerhouses, people with big names, big money, and big power, there are plenty of underdogs.

The public doesn’t tend to go out of its way to find these underdogs. We wait for them to come to us. Without the inclusion or arrival of the slew of different underdog contenders though, what are we left with but the same old people, making the same old films and albums?

We recently saw the catapulting of a young Federal Way resident into the top 6 contestants of American Idol who had minimal if any talent as a singer. His was an underdog story, one that America fell in love with and allowed to capture their hearts for just long enough to realize that the formula does not always work.

That’s right; there are certain characteristics and circumstances in which the underdog must exist to be effective. First off, the underdog in question must be someone we can relate with. A millionaire in a boat race who happens to be not as good as another millionaire in a boat race doesn’t feel like an underdog. A true underdog hero is someone who comes from the areas we come from, the streets we grew up on and the schools we attended. Often full of weaker personality characteristics and lacking the skills of their more talented competition, the one thing they always have is the tenacity to become better.

An underdog stands up to society and its opinions of them, trying hard to become stronger and better, no matter what everyone tells them. There’s a reason that we see films every single year play out the same formula as their predecessors – people enjoy watching them.

If you look at children’s shows, cartoons and the like, note that the characters are never the rich kids in town or the athletic jocks. These are the nerdy, quiet kids who are gifted with special powers, an amazing quest, or the chance to overcome all odds. They are often faced with all sorts of obstacles and eventually overcome them, joining the ranks of the truly great.

The moral message inherent in these and other stories is vital to the state of entertainment media. There’s a good reason that this kind of film returns every year and people willingly shell out more money. It’s a chance to vicariously live one’s own experiences through the triumphs of another. It’s a psychological release as well as an exciting chance to witness something we can only dream for our own lives.

When Rocky goes the distance with Creed, we can’t help to think that if a regular guy from the streets of Phillie can make it, why not us? When we see the formless, talentless kids of The Mighty Ducks win the championship, we wonder why our own ill-shaped bodies cannot someday overcome the laziness that plagues our days and nights and become an athletic superstar.

I’m okay with the repetition of this theme among so many other overplayed stories and film genres because it’s one of the best and one of the most enduring themes in human society. We all want to overcome adversity and become something special. These films offer us a glimpse of the determination and will needed to do so. If a film can be inspirational despite awful acting, horrible direction, and dredge writing, I can manage to deal with that.

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