Strictly Ballroom (1992)

‘Strictly Ballroom’ is 1992 Australian film directed by Baz Luhrmann. The film had won Australian Film Institute Award in several categories such as Costume Design, Editing, Production Design, Best Director, Best Film and Best Screenplay. The plot centered around Scott Hastings played by actor Paul Mercurio, who wanted to establish his own steps of dancing in winning Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship. Scott came from a family with history of ballroom dancers and he had been given training since he was six-years-old by his mother. However his non-ballroom steps make his mother to feel worries and anxiety of him losing the competition and his regular dancing partner leaves him for losing in one of earlier competition in film for dancing his own steps. Being stuck between passion and rules, did he complies with dancing in traditional steps or with his own favorite steps in Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship is form rest of the story.

            Under social influence, Asch's theory of conformity (1951) can be seen in the film which is about matching our attitudes and behaviors correspond with others behavior. The Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship itself is conformity since all dancers must follow same steps approved of the Australian Dance Federation. I have one doubt, how the judges are giving the marks for the contestants if all of them dance with same steps? Maybe perhaps they see the cooperation with partner and the efficiency of the steps. In the scene after Scott loses one of the competitions earlier in the film, when he asked around in his mother's dance studio whether they liked his new steps or not, everybody’s concerns were he didn’t win the competition. Those people might love Scott’s new movements, with the absence of strong personal opinions, they tend to follow conformity of other by rejecting his steps. This can be seen clearly when his best friend Wayne replied simply with “I don’t know”. In the film, Fran and Doug (Scott’s father) are the first people to break the conformity. Fran is the first one to tell Scott that she likes his new steps and become his new dancing partner. For them it’s not about winning the competition, but to have accomplishment by dancing their favorite steps in front of people. When Scott and Fran were asked to leave the stage, the whole auditorium was quit and Doug is the first one to clap for their dance followed by Fran’s old folks and thus this action break the conformity and everyone else joins them by clapping. Similar with Asch’s experiment, it took one person to start breaking the conformity and everyone else starts following. This encourages Scott and Fran to dance even without the music at the end of film.

The film also did portray the power of compliance, which is a response made in reaction to a request by others (Franzoi, 2008). In the film, Scott wanted to dance with Fran for Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship but people surrounding him especially his mother pressured him to abandon Fran and dance with Liz. He refuses her order at first, but when Barry Fife came and make up a story stating his father, Doug was once a ballroom dancer too and lose the Pan-Pacific competition for dancing his own steps. And Doug wanted Scott to not repeat his mistake and win the competition on behalf of him. Assuming this as truth, Scott eventually complies with Barry’s lie and decides to dance with Liz in Pan-Pacific competition while abandoning Fran for the sake of his father.

Yet another psychological aspect I notice in the film is obedience which is changes in one’s behavior at the order of an authority (Ciccarelli & White, 2014). This can be seen by Scott’s mother being push her son since he was six-years-old to win the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship. The reason could be most probably she had been threaten by Barry that her dance studio would be lose credit and closed if Scott didn’t win the competition. And in the year 1967, she abandons her own husband and dance with Les Kendall for Pan-Pacific competition by obeying Barry’s threatening. But eventually she loses in the competition in the end. The main reason for the characters portrait in the film to obey the command or instructions from their authorities is because of fear. As there is a Spanish quote mentioned in the film, “Vivir con miedo, es como vivir a medias” which translate as “A life lived in fear is a life half lived”. This quote really inspired me and reminds me not to feel fear all for the problems I’m facing at my current stage of life. I personally liked this movie, the fact that it was the first and only kind of movie I’ve ever watched in my life. I’ll give rating 7 out of 10 for this film.

References

Asch, S. E. (1951). Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgement. In H. Guetzkow (ed.) Groups, leadership and men. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press.

Ciccarelli, S. K., & White, J. N. (2014). Psychology. United States of America: Pearson Education Limited.

Franzoi, S. L, (2008). Social Psychology (5th Edition).