Throwback: College Essay — Hitting the Road: An Analysis of the Beginning of Crossroads Starring Britney Spears
Hitting the Road:
An Analysis of the Beginning of Crossroads Starring Britney Spears
31 January 2012
Released in 2002, Crossroads is a dramatic comedy film by Tamra Davis, starring Britney Spears, Zoë Saldana, and Taryn Manning. It was thought by many to be a vanity project for Spears to have her first starring role in a film. Corporate logos at the film's beginning reveal its financial backers. Main titles are done in a way to downplay the preconceived notion that Spears is the film's entire focus and only reason behind its existence. The film's exposition is handled in a clever manner, setting the audience up for both surprises and predictable moments during the climax. The aforementioned elements of Crossroads, as well as the overall logic of its opening, shall be examined.
The film begins with the playing of three corporate logos. The first is for Paramount Pictures, the distributor and main financial backer for the film. Since Paramount is one of the oldest remaining studios in the movie business, this adds a certain credibility to Crossroads. While the audience comes in expecting to see a film vehicle for Britney Spears, the Paramount Pictures logo assures that a major studio had faith in the film. The quality of this logo seems dated far past 2002, suggesting director Tamra Davis chose to feature a classic version of it.
The next featured logo is for Zomba Films, which was a clever way for Britney Spears's record label's parent company, Zomba Label Group, to announce their financial contribution. Zomba Films was created during the development of Crossroads and its logo had never appeared before a theatrical film before, nor has it appeared since. Before its 2009 shutdown, the only other works by Zomba Films were direct-to-video releases for musicians, including Usher.
The third and final logo is for MTV Films. This is an actual film studio which continues to produce successful films. Most of its productions have a tie to popular music, Crossroads included. The film features songs from Spears's 2001 album Britney, which MTV promoted through its cable television station. One such promotion was Spears's famed performance at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, in which she performed with a snake around her neck. MTV Films is owned by Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures. This reveals that the budget for Crossroads only came from Viacom and Zomba Label Group, instead of three sources.
The main titles for Crossroads paint an interesting and surprising picture of the film. Following titles that reiterate the involved studios and backers, a title states that Crossroads is "a film by Tamra Davis." Considering the film was largely seen as a vehicle for Spears to have her first starring role, the pride in this statement surprises. A film that is preconceived by its audience to be all about Spears gets a possessive and proud nod from director Tamra Davis before Spears's name is even mentioned. Another oddity comes in the next title card, which simply states the title in capital letters. Typical Hollywood films with an A-list lead put the star's name before the title, but not the self-aware Crossroads. The film seems to be deliberately establishing itself as more than just a vanity project for Spears, aware of this public perception. Her name comes after the title of the film and is given the same amount of time as names that follow. It becomes obvious that Spears is only part of the film and those in charge its development.
Director Tamra Davis and writer Shonda Rhimes execute the exposition of the film in a very simple and clever manner. During the main title sequence, Spears's character Lucy provides narration, chronicling a night in her childhood in which she buried a time capsule with her two best friends, Kit and Mimi, played by Saldana and Manning, respectively. The three children promise to dig up the time capsule the night of graduation. This approximately two minute scene cleverly lays out almost the entire back story for Crossroads, including the establishment the setting, Georgia, through Lucy's narration. This works better than if the teenage versions of Lucy, Kit, and Mimi were to be reminiscing on this memory for sake of the audience. That sort of unnatural explanation of back story often takes place during the exposition of movies, exposing clunky writing and sometimes breaking the audience's suspension of disbelief.
The exposition continues to work well in the following scenes, set eight years later, where the audience finds the three characters leading very separate lives. A teenage Lucy is seen in her underwear, dancing and singing to a song by Madonna. This introduces her dreams of being a successful pop singer. Mimi is shown pregnant and being questioned about the father and Kit is shown bragging about her engagement to a guy in California, whom others claim is a cheater. All these moments directly set up events found in the climax of the film.
Further exposition unfolds in a key scene with Lucy, Mimi, and Kit. Though they are no longer friends, the three meet to dig up their childhood time capsule the night of graduation. Without previously described opening scene of the film, this decision would seem random and illogical. The three become saddened that they haven't yet realized their childhood dreams. This emotional reconnection adds their eventual reconnection as friends to the canon of probability. Mimi then offers Lucy and Kit to join her and her friend Ben on a road trip westward. As the exposition phase of the film completes, the three decide they need the road trip to achieve their childhood dreams; Lucy to escape her overbearing father and meet her mother, Mimi to see the Pacific Ocean, and Kit to be with the one she loves. All this exposition seems to be done efficiently and naturally, unfolding in a way which does not appear contrived to the audience.
The aforementioned exposition sets up many surprises for later in the film. Some predictable events happen as well. Lucy's dream of meeting her mother is predictably realized, but the audience is shocked to learn that her mother had deemed her a mistake and abandoned her by choice; this serves as the reason Lucy's father never let her meet her mother. Kit surprises her fiancée Dylan once she gets to California, only to find out he is indeed cheating on her. The mysterious father of Mimi's baby is revealed as Dylan, who raped Mimi on his last visit home. This shock proves too much to handle and Mimi turns to run away, tripping and subsequently losing her baby. It is no surprise when Lucy moves to California to pursue her dreams of being a singer. Mimi unsurprisingly gets her simple dream of seeing the Pacific Ocean, and Kit discovers she needs a more transgressive dream than simply getting married. The three friends become closer than ever, as made predictable by their initial reconnection.
The way Crossroads begins seems to abide by a specific logic, intended to downplay the importance of Spears's inclusion, while also capitalizing on it. Overall, the film seems to begin in a way that both appeases and displeases Spears fans who are expecting a vanity project. While the film does begin with Spears narrating, the main titles only briefly mention her and are focused on proving the film has significance beyond her inclusion. Also, while the film starts with Spears's Lucy dancing and singing to a Madonna song, it quickly moves to important plot set ups for the characters of Mimi and Kit. Though the singing and dancing capitalizes on Spears's status as a superstar pop act, and appeases moviegoers who came to see that, the rest of the film offers a welcome dose of reality to viewers looking for a plot. In short, the logic of the opening of Crossroads seems to be the balance between the expected and the unexpected. Expected pop star content sells, but unexpected and valuable emotional content sells as well.
Crossroads is a 2002 dramatic comedy directed by Tamra Davis and starring Britney Spears, Zoë Saldana, and Taryn Manning. Although there are three corporate logos at the start of the film, only two corporations paid for its production, as two of the three logos belong to the same media conglomerate. The film was perceived to be a vanity project for Spears, but Davis uses its main titles to inform the audience that it is more than that. Davis and writer Shonda Rhimes handle the exposition well, allowing the audience to experience related shocks and predictable moments later in the film. All the aforementioned elements of Crossroads have been examined, as well as the overall logic of its opening, which proves the film a success based on its mix of the expected and unexpected.
