Australian Visions

Strictly ballroom by Baz Luhrman is a specular film that conveys many Australian Visions from beginning to end. It is a story of an individual, who wants to do his own steps, failing his partner. Fran an ugly duckling of a beginner class offers Scott partnership. Fran persistence and ideas convince Scott to dance their own steps on the Pan-Pacific championship displaying multiculturalism and breaking competitions under conformity. The composer has used many techniques like camera movements, costume, dialogues, symbolism etc. to create distinct Australian visions. Strictly Ballroom starts with the Australian vision of competitiveness. The first world we enter is the competitive world of ballroom dancing, which is represented by the fiercely conservative, with rigid rules that must be obeyed. It is shown by the Anglo Australian comic stereotypes characters wearing garish and glitzy costume with excessive make-up and funny cartoon looking hairstyles. They are only concerned with winning as they have nothing else to talk about. Even Scott who is passionate about doing his own steps also wants to win, so do Fran.

As he says “ I have been working towards winning the competition since I was 6 years old”. All the ballroom dancers wants to win as well, it can be seen by their fake smiles, funny haircuts and excessive make-up. Such as Liz, she keeps changing her partner with whoever has more chance to win the competition. Similarly Scott’s mother really wants Scott to win and be the champion. It is reinforced by her dialogue while he was dancing at the start, she said loudly “come on 100”. But Barry Fife thinks that Scott cannot win without conforming to federations rules, showing that ballroom dancing winning is dependent on conformity. Barry Fife symbolises the establishment highlighting Australian vision of conformity. He value authority as he think it is his duty to control federation power, it can be seen by his costume as he wears a blue suit and low angle shots, showing him as corrupt and a tall-puppy to audience. His encouragement of conformity shows his fear of changing the rules as he says in another scene “no new steps”, the Extreme close-up his mouth when saying steps shows audience his authority and power that is overpowering the individuality at the moment. His conformity is based on corruption and he is an evil and foolish person, which is shown by the extreme close-up of his ugly, red face and his quote to ken railings “This years is your”.

Liz, Shirley and all the ballroom dancers are conformed to his rules without understanding his personality as being corrupt and villain. Such as Liz who is mostly shown in yellow colours show her inability to face the truth about corruption and power dominated world of ballroom dancing. The ballroom dancing conformity to federation rules represents a fear of change in part of Australian society that discourages creativity and spontaneity challenging Scott and Fran’s individuality. Scott does not want to follow the federation’s rules and wants to express his creativity by doing his own steps reinforcing the Australian vision of individuality. Scott also wants to win the championship, but not lose his identity by compromising his creativity and individuality. It can be seen by his shirt number 100, representing his perfection but while doing his own steps the pause image of number 100 shows us that he is no longer perfect in the eyes of ballroom dancing and so therefore he will have to pay cost for his individuality and creativity. This shows that in order to succeed in his vision he will not go unchallenging and will have to challenge ballroom federation rules.

Dough, Fran and Fran’s family also convey individuality by supporting him for challenging the dance federation. Doug believes that individual has a right to be free to show their own ideas and steps. As he says, I don’t like competition”. He mainly supported Scott at the last scene by clapping to encourage Scott to show his creativity and succeed by ruining establishment. Fran is also an individual who wants to dance with Scott at the pan-pacific; it can be seen by her dialogue “I want to dance with you, your way at the pan-pacific”. Fran and Scott succeed in their dreams in final scene with the help of Doug and Fran’s family support, expressing a great expect of multiculturalism in the film. Multiculturalism is the world behind the milk bar, where Scott explores a different world of Spanish culture, where people value Scott’s freedom and innovation (creativity). It is sown by the Spanish language and different clothes. It shows Scott passion and value to dance a true paso doble.

This is shown by close-ups of Rico’s feet’s and fast turns the music and happy and joyful environment within them. Fran’s grandmother teaches Scott to follow rhythm and awakes his inner passion. Juxtaposition is created between these two worlds Toledo Milk Bar and Kendall studio. As Toledo milk bar is shown more real with natural lighting and exterior location, which represents freedom and realism. Its characters are creative and passionate in contrast to the Kendall’s studio artificial and fake characters, who are conformed to federation strict rules for dancing as they have desire to win competition. It shows that multiculturalism is great as it allow different talents to be gained and enjoyed. Overall strictly ballroom by baz luhrman displays a great variety of Australian visions, by the use of different techniques, such as camera shots, costume, language etc.