Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Strictly Ballroom Blu-ray Movie Review

Be his (Christopher) Guest.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 25, 2013

There’s an old adage that states “nothing succeeds like success”, but in the case of Baz Luhrmann the saying might be slightly tweaked to state “nothing exceeds like excess”. Luhrmann attracted quite a bit of attention with both Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet before really catapulting into the stratosphere with Moulin Rouge!. Luhrmann seemed to take at least a partial step backward with his interesting if overwrought epic Australia and as this review is being written many are waiting with bated breath to see what Luhrmann is going to make out of the immortal F. Scott Fitzgerald property The Great Gatsby, due to open in just a couple of weeks. No doubt the hoopla surrounding that film helped convince Lionsgate to bring Luhrmann’s first feature out on Blu-ray, and while it’s nowhere near as polished as his later efforts, it has several Luhrmann hallmarks already in evidence, including a love of musical theater, outrageous stagings with equally outrageous characters and an often pretty cheeky sense of humor. What’s really interesting in revisiting Strictly Ballroom after so many years is how it almost seems fashioned in the mold of Christopher Guest’s rightly lauded mockumentaries (Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind, Best in Show). Strictly Ballroom is being marketed now as the “film that inspired Dancing With the Stars", certainly at best a backhanded compliment (at least in my not so humble opinion), and something that is all the more peculiar given the— well, eccentricities of several of the characters on display in Luhrmann’s first magnum opus. Strictly Ballroom toes a rather fine line between mockumentary and gentle romantic comedy, with purely narrative elements interspersed with “first person confessionals” delivered straight to the camera. It’s a bit of a hodgepodge, therefore, but it’s unusually charming and often quite ebullient in its own small scale way.

Dance contests are a perhaps waning rage on the broadcast networks, though Dancing With the Stars does seem to have the (forgive me my puns) longest legs of all of the still surviving shows. And dance competitions are at the center of Strictly Ballroom. The lead character is Scott Hastings (Paul Mercurio), a young man who has grown up around dance courtesy of the studio run by his slightly off center parents, Shirley (Pat Thomsen) and Doug (Barry Otto). Scott’s desire to forge his own individual mode of dancing has not always met with approval in the staid and stolid world of ballroom dancing competitions, and we get an early display of his anarchic spirit as the film opens. Scott’s rash decision to introduce non-standard steps (albeit only after provoked by an arrogant competitor) sets up the main focus of the film, when Scott’s longtime partner Liz Holt (Gia Carides) decides she can’t stand the unpredictability of their professional relationship anymore and moves on to working with a more reserved partner. Of course the really big dance competition is coming up very quickly, and so Scott must find and train a suitable replacement.

While Scott’s mother has a new, experienced partner at the ready for her son, Scott instead gravitates toward a nerdy young woman named Fran (Tara Morice), a novice who nonetheless has a family tradition of her own, the Spanish tinged dance called the pasodoble. Luhrmann and his co-scenarists Andrew Bovell and Craig Pearce leave no cliché unturned as they develop a quickly burgeoning romance between the two, as well as an unabashed Cinderella aspect which may not see Fran donning a glass slipper, but instead divesting herself of her glasses, only to seemingly instantaneously become a bombshell. It’s patently silly and has to be accepted on its own terms, much as with the hyperbolic excesses of Luhrmann’s other, later, films. One thing the film does very smartly is not give us a traditional ending, in fact leaving some salient questions completely unanswered.

Strictly Ballroom is an obvious case of a young master still learning his craft, and Luhrmann too frequently indulges in grotesqueries (the film is rife with close-ups that almost defy description) rather than any true insight, but at the same time, Luhrmann’s pretty inerrant intuition for how to stage musical numbers is seemingly fully formed, giving the dance sequences of the film a real visceral intensity and often surprising amount of grace. There’s a lot of Strictly Ballroom which is, well, strictly by the numbers (rather ironic given Scott’s penchant for the unexpected), but there’s still a breathtaking amount of spunky energy running rampant through large swaths of the film. While Luhrmann lumped Strictly Ballroom in with his so-called other two “Red Curtain Trilogy” outings, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!, it’s perhaps better to view this first outing as a kind of visual Overture for the more artful (if just as indulgent) movements which were to follow.

Strictly Ballroom Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Strictly Ballroom is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a strangely schizophrenic looking high definition presentation that can be at least relatively sharp at one moment and then seem rather fuzzily soft the next. Colors and saturation are similarly variable, at time quite robust and at other looking really pallid. Contrast follows in this weirdly inconsistent tradition, with some scenes (ironically a lot of the dimly lit interior moments) offering great shadow detail while others have an overblown look that robs the image of fine detail. My hunch is some at least moderate noise reduction has been applied to this release. While grain is still more than evident, some of the extreme close-ups have a just slight waxy look about them which may belie such digital tweaking. On the whole, while this isn't a stellar release by any stretch, it's certainly passable and at least in sporadic moments quite good.

Strictly Ballroom Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Strictly Ballroom's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix reserves its surround activity almost exclusively to the music and crowd sounds in the dance competitions, leaving the rest of the mix rather securely anchored in the front channels. Fidelity is excellent, with dialogue and score presented very cleanly and clearly. Dynamic range is somewhat limited but has a few spikes in the dance competition sequences.

Strictly Ballroom Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director and Co-Writer Baz Luhrmann, Production Designer and Co-Costume Designer Catherine Martin and Choreographer John "Cha Cha" O'Connell. O'Connell and Martin have continued to work for Luhrmann on his subsequent films and the three obviously have a very easy rapport with each other and also have quite strong memories of the shoot. This is a very conversational, even joke laden, commentary, but it's unusually enjoyable and a lot of fun to listen to.


• Strictly Ballroom: From Stage to Screen (480i; 23:22) documents the challenges faced by Luhrmann when he sought to adapt an original (short) theatrical piece into a full fledged feature film.


• Deleted Scene (480i; 1:57)


• Design Gallery with Narration by Baz Luhrmann includes:

  Behind the Red Curtain (Backstage Snapshots) (480i; 2:20) contains a nice homage to Pat Thomsen, who died before the film opened.

  
  

  That's Looking Good (Production Design) (480i; 00:18) takes a veritable glimpse at the film's costumes.

  
  

  Dance to Win (Promotional and Various) (480i; 1:36) looks at poster designs and other publicity materials.

  
  

  Yesterday's Here (Baz's Family Album) (480i; 00:46) takes a quick look back at Luhrmann's own history as a ballroom dancer along with some sweet shots of his own mother dancing.

  
  

  Love is in the Air (Scott and Fran) (480i; 1:11) details the casting of the principal roles.

• Samba to Slow Fox Dance Dance Featurette (480i; 30:17) is a rather sweet little profile of several real life ballroom dancing enthusiasts.

Strictly Ballroom Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Strictly Ballroom has none of the revisionist grandeur of Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, nor little of the visual splendor that made his Moulin Rouge! so unforgettable, and yet it's really a charming and often funny and sweet little romp, at least if accepted on its own modest terms. There's a certain "not quite ready for prime time" ambience hovering over this film which in a way only increases its allure. Luhrmann fans who haven't yet seen this and are jonesin' for something before The Great Gatsby opens may well want to check this out. This Blu-ray offers decent if a bit underwhelming video, good audio and the very good (if sometimes awfully brief) supplements from the DVD release. Recommended.