Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this edition of
Undercurrent: What Really Lies Beneath the Films of Crimson Tide Masterpiece Theatre.
There are many viewers who have claimed this latest video, a prelude leading to the upcoming confrontation between LSU and Alabama, should not have included footage from the past. It is a point well-taken, but one must understand the real cinematic sophistication behind the video's organic structure, which actually overrides this common misconception.
If one closely dissects this short feature, one will discover a pause, a moment of anticipation, a lag of silence, if you may, that bridges the past with the present. Before the inclusion of that eternal dead period known as probation, Alabama was deeply entrenched in history, tradition, and lore of mythical proportions. In fact, this featurette provides a not-so-subtle portrayal of the very essence of this idea. After careful consideration, one discovers that it is an intentional symbolic device upon the director's part to represent how much this fabled crimson tradition and glory still means to the Alabama faithful.
As the astute viewer will notice, all footage after the "probational" silence represents the present state of Alabama football and what the rest of the SEC has to look forward to under the new Nick Saban regime, thus, the reason for the blatant imbalanced depiction of past vs future. The director did not mean to create the effect that Bama has nothing but the past to live on, but rather that the post-probational Crimson Tide, with Coach Saban at the helm, is now ready to write its own chapter in the sacred annals of
Alabama Football Lore .
Personally, my advice on how to fully appreciate this film is this: Instead of getting wrapped up in all the implicit and explicit intricacies that lie behind this uplifting vignette, one should simply view this video for what it really suggests--that LSU better beware because a "changing of the guard" is about to take place in the SEC West, and Alabama is ready to reclaim its rightful and expected position as SEC Football Champion.
