It’s interesting that underdog-against-the-overdog movies have been so plentiful in this country (especially recently) since it takes a relatively comfortable middle-class audience of complacent jello- bodies to enjoy them.
If people out there were really hurting due to their own underdog sagas being suffered on a day-to-day basis, I suspect that today’s underdog films wouldn’t sell as many tickets. American audiences emotionally identify with underdogs — it makes them feel good to see themselves as never-day-die believers who finally win the blue ribbon — despite their actual lifestyle realities, which naturally feed into the spiritual.
I’m thinking of typical hinterland Americans…sea lions deciding whether to go out or order takeout as they slumber in an easyboy, half-assedly channel-surfing while their tweener kids sit at the dinner table with iPod plugs in their ears, wearing leave-me-alone expressions.