Film Review – Strictly Ballroom (1992)

One of the three films in Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Red Curtain Trilogy’ is Strictly Ballroom. This beautifully constructed film is full of rich visual stimuli of the 1990s glamorous fashion of ballroom dancing, emotional drama revolving around competition for glory and fame in dancing, and love drama about the two protagonists whose love for dancing eventually embrace them together.

The story unfolds in the suburbia of Sydney most likely around Waratah, where the national pan pacific dancing competition is held. The two protagonists, Scott Hastings and Fran meet in the dancing studio owned by Scott’s parents. Scott makes an attempt to win a dance competition with his partner Liz but fails by dancing his own original steps, ignoring the standards and rules set by the federation. As he looks for a new partner to dance his own steps with, he becomes close to Fran and her family of Spanish background. As a consequence of incorporating Latin dance routines into his original steps at the Pan Pacific Grand Prix, the couple gets disqualified but ‘wins’ the competition first by impressing his close family and friends and in the end pleasing the whole crowd.

The film seems to follow the classic narrative structure of Hollywood, in which the protagonists encounter and are defeated by an obstacle but reach their ultimate goal in the climax of the film. Despite all this, there is a number of interesting factors that can be interpreted to be directed at what Australia was going through at the time. In short, the film speaks of the integration of different cultures to achieve multiculturalism within the country. Scott, who is of Anglo-Australian background, is nurtured with Fran and her family’s Spanish dance routines. At first both entities oppose each other, yet through dancing they accomplish a thorough understanding of both cultures.

Fran encounters Scott’s mother, ex-dance partner (Liz) and Liz’s friend who convinces that Fran does not deserve to be dancing with Scott. Surprising enough, they are all of Anglo-Saxon background and two of them are completely blond with insane amount of make-ups. Perhaps we can see a slight form of racism in this sequence. In the end, however, not only Scott, who had already established his authority as a long-time dancer, but also Fran is thoroughly appreciated as both a dancer and Scott’s partner. It is this integration of cultures that brings the couple the praise and whistling of the crowd at the competition.

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