Cricket equipment � The Movies � Wondrous Oblivion

The movies love sport stories that are metaphors for life but who would have thought cricket � the game and its equipment - could be an allegory about race and colonialism?

The movies and sport

The movies love a metaphor � David Wiseman has the cricket kit but lacks the equipment and skill. He is mad about the game but is no good at it. So in the movie when a Jamaican family move in next door and build a cricket net in the back garden, David has all the equipment he needs to make it.

Sport and prejudice

Like Bend it Like Beckham, Wondrous Oblivion takes on deep seated prejudice � in Beckham it was that football wasn't for girls, especially Asian girls from traditional families. The tag line for the movie, �A wide-eyed boy in a narrow-minded world�, showed that playing cricket isn't just about having the right equipment but the right mind-set too.

The plot

In this movie, David is cricket-mad, he has the kit and some cricket equipment but completely lacks ability. He is bullied at school and so when a Jamaican family move next door and they teach him the game, he's in seventh heaven. But of course this movie is more complicated than having the right cricket equipment � this is 1960s England . The West Indians suffer racism, and David's parents are under pressure to end their son's friendship with the neighbours. But David's family are immigrants from Hitler's Germany who know what bigotry in Britain is like.

Quintessentially British

Cricket, the game, the traditional whites, the paraphernalia and the equipment is quintessentially British - and as such it is a leading metaphor in sports movies for class and colonialism. The Bollywood movies often use the sport as a backdrop, for example �Lagaan' was about Indians thrashing the Raj.

Wondrous Oblivion

The lack of cricket equipment helps the plot move along but for writer-director Paul Morrison, class and post-war racism is the real meat of the movie. The Washington Post called it: �A knowing fairy tale that lovingly re-creates a bygone era but also examines its underlying moral ambiguities.�

Love story

As well as a homage to cricket, the movies other central plot revolves around a touching love story between a young Jewish woman and Jamaican man. But the movie's central character David does learn a lot about cricket, its equipment and rules, as well as about morality.

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