Australian Visions
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
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