Strictly Ballroom: Special Edition

With the surprising and somewhat baffling popularity of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, it’s perhaps fitting that Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom has been reissued in a Special Edition (but only on DVD, not, for some unknown reason, on Blu-ray). This was the director’s first feature film, but watching it, one can certainly see the seeds of ideas that would be incorporated in his subsequent movies, particularly Moulin Rouge! His interests in combining melodramatic excess with sentimental, simplistic romance are rougher and cruder in Strictly Ballroom, and he’s working with a much lower budget while developing his own unique technique which here is less refined but curiously appealing in its starkness and artful posturing. While his later films have shown his tendency toward excess and dramatic license taken to the nth degree, Strictly Ballroom shows us those were facets of his directorial style from the beginning and are among the things that make a film which he’s directed uniquely Luhrmann and something out of the ordinary.

Talented ballroom dancer Scott Hastings (Paul Mercurio) has all the gifts to make a champion dancer, but he struggles and fails to abide by the strict, unyielding regulations set forth by the Australian Dance Federation. He continually improvises his own steps during major competitions and is always disappointed when his extemporaneous movements lead him and his partner to lose competition after competition. Fed up with always losing, Scott’s partner Liz Holt (Gia Carides) ditches him for another dancer who abides by the rules, and though his hard-driving, overly competitive mother (Pat Thompson) tries to push him toward the best female dancer on the floor (Sonia Kruger), Scott has other ideas taking on as his partner inexperienced Latin dancer Fran (Tara Morice) whose flamenco dancing father also can show Scott a step or two that might lead them to the victor’s trophy.

Baz Luhrmann’s fondness for extreme close-ups makes itself known in his very first movie, sometimes not for the better as we tend to concentrate on crooked teeth and facial scars instead of the characteristics of the person being focused on. The ballroom scenes can be thrilling with the camera swirling among and over the couples, but again, Luhrmann keeps his camera often too busy sometimes making quick cuts to close-ups or medium shots and lessening the effect of seeing the exquisite dancing with the entire bodies in the frame for an extended period of time. The script by the director and Craig Pearce is a mass of clichés: an undisguised and unapologetic Cinderella story right down to the ugly duckling new dance partner taking off her glasses (which she never dons again for the entire film) and becoming a ravishing creature with a gorgeous body and shapely legs who picks up intricate dance moves in the blink of an eye. The romantic subplot is by-the-numbers, too: what starts out as a strictly business relationship turns into love quicker than one can bat an eye, and when the lovers dance on a terrace several floors above street level, you’ll immediately think of scenes from Moulin Rouge with the dancing duo high above Paris. Little wonder that Luhrmann dubbed these two films part of his “Red Curtain Trilogy.” In many ways, they are eerily similar.

The real find of the movie is Paul Mercurio who combines an astonishing grace and fluidity in his dancing with a real screen presence and the ability to handle the sometimes corny situations and dialogue as though it were all fresh and new. Tara Morice’s Fran is an acceptable dance partner and romantic interest for Mercurio though the speed in which she transforms into a great beauty and an expert dancer requires some degree of belief suspension. Pat Thompson’s shrewish take on Mrs. Hastings grates continually during the movie, but Barry Otto playing her put-upon husband has some touching moments both solo and with his screen son. Bill Hunter makes the blustering dance judge an amusing if predictable caricature while Peter Whitford as the owner of the dance studio is fine dramatically even though he doesn’t really convince as much of a dancer.

Video Quality

The film is framed at its theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions. This appears to be a new transfer compared the previous DVD release. The image is a bit brighter and a tad sharper with better color delineation. Color can be very bold but is sometimes noisy in its brightest moments, and flesh tones are sometimes on the brown side but inconsistently so. Sharpness is never what it could be giving the image a sometimes dated appearance especially in the dimly lit ballroom sequences. The white subtitles used during the Spanish language sequences are easy to read. The film has been divided into 14 chapters.

Audio Quality

The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track makes fine use of the surround channels for all of the musical interludes, but the rest of the film makes scant use of the available channels, and there is a lack of deep bass in the sound design. The dialogue has been well recorded and resides snugly in the center channel.

Special Features

The audio commentary is by Baz Luhrmann, production designer Catherine Martin, and choreographer John O’Connell. The trio talks quite continuously about the production, all good natured and proud of their accomplishments. This was recorded for the last DVD release after the success of Moulin Rouge! as it’s referenced several times.

“Strictly Ballroom: From Stage to Screen” recounts the journey of the story from a thirty-minute stage piece to the finished film which won great acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival. Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Tristam Miall, and others give information about the struggle to raise money and get the film produced against unenthusiastic participation from the Australian Film Finance Corporation. It runs 23 ¼ minutes in anamorphic widescreen.

“Samba to Slow Fox Dance” is a 30 ¼-minute featurette featuring interviews with real-life ballroom dancers varying in age from pre-teens to senior citizens and showing some of their moves on the dance floor. It’s in 4:3.

There is one deleted scene running for 2 minutes in nonanamorphic letterbox.

The Design Gallery is actually five vignettes, most featuring commentary by Baz Luhrmann about different aspects of the movie. “Behind the Red Curtain” is behind-the-scenes shots which run 2 ¼ minutes. “That’s Looking Good” is a quick montage of costumes in the film that runs ¼ minute. “Dance to Win” shows the choreographer at work for 1 ½ minutes while “Yesterday’s Hero” shows some snapshots of Luhrmann during his youthful days as a ballroom dancer (¾ minute). “Love Is in the Air” recounts how the two stars of the film landed their roles in a 1 ¼ minute snippet.

There are trailers for Tron Legacy, The Switch, Step Up 3, You Again, and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

In Conclusion

Strictly Ballroom shows the glimmers of creativity from director Baz Luhrmann in embryonic form. The film is, despite its predictable script, an entertaining show biz success story. Unfortunately, the DVD transfer here is only slightly better than the last release, and an extra bonus feature hardly justifies springing for a new standard definition edition of the movie.

Matt Hough

Charlotte, NC