A League of Their Own

Movies and Nationalism

            Nationalism is the loyalty and devotion of a person to his or her country and the culture and interests that go with their country.  Almost every person feels some sort of nationalism for their country.  The Olympics are coming up and I would argue that they are one of the biggest shows of nationalism that this world has.  People are dressing in their countries colors, they fly their countries flags, and they participate in their national anthem any chance they get.  Not only is nationalism seen in actual events and competitions, but nationalism is often shown through movies.

            One famous sports movie expresses nationalism for the country of America in a different way than most movies would.  This movie is called “A League of Their Own.”  This movie is about a group of women who take the spots of the American men who played on the baseball teams.  It was during World War II, and the men had to go fight for their country.  The baseball teams did not want the sport of baseball to be vacant for years so they decided to create women’s teams.

            The idea of nationalism is clearly evident in this movie.  Baseball was America’s sport at the time.  If baseball were to be nonexistent for a few years, would it ever return to the great sport that it was before the war?  The managers decided not to test that theory and just hire women to play the sport.  This proves that there is so much love for the game of baseball in America that they needed to have it to keep everyone happy and allow America’s sport to prosper even in times of war.  People loved going to games and being a part of their team and the game.  Therefore in the movie, even though the girls weren’t good at first, people still went to the game because of their love of the sport.   When the girls got better, more and more people began to show up to the games.  The nationalism was growing. 

            Also, the girls did not have to participate in the sport while the men were gone, but there was this sense of nationalism within them as well.  They wanted to help out the country in any way they could and if it meant that they would be playing baseball then they would do it. 

            This movie pushed national issues through sports.  It showed that everyone can participate during times of need.  Just because you cannot go to war and fight for our country doesn’t mean you cannot make a difference.  These women didn’t hold guns and shoot people.  They kept up the morale of the country.  The women helped to keep the people entertained and not worrying about the war at all times.  The idea of doing what you can to help out was shown in this movie.