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Bootmen

Director(s): Dein Perry
Writer(s): Steve Worland - from a story by Steve Worland, Hilary Linstead and Dein Perry
Producer(s): Hilary Linstead
Executive Producer(s): Dein Perry
Co-Producer(s): Antonia Barnard
Cinematography: Steve Mason
Editing: Jane Moran
Music Composer: Cezary Skubiszewski
Production Design: Murray Picknett
Art Direction: John Rohde
Set Direction: Lea Worth
Costume Design: Tess Schofield
Casting: Christine King
Special Effects: David Trethewey
Genres: Dance, Drama, Musical, Romance
Rating: M 15+
Runtime: 92mins
Distributors: Fox Searchlight Pictures, UFD, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release: 6th October 2000


Starring:
Adam Garcia - Sean
Sophie Lee - Linda
Sam Worthington - Mitchell
William Zappa - Walter
Richard Carter - Gary
Susie Porter - Sara
Anthony Hayes - Huey
Christopher Horsey - Angus
Andrew Kaluski - Colin
Matt Lee - Johnno
Lee McDonald - Derrick
Bruce Venables - Williams
Vaughan Sheffield - Young Sean
Christian Patterson - Young Mitchell Lisa Perry - Sean and Mitchell's Mother
Justine Clarke - Kim
Andrew Doyle - Gerard Ball
Craig Anderson - Huey's Mate
Jonno Zissler - Huey's Mate
Harry Dakanalis - Footy Player
Dein Perry - Anthony Ford
Kelly Aykers - Anthony Ford's Girlfriend
Ian Sandercoe, Paul Elliot, David Carter & Craig Lancaster - Members of Sandercoe, Pub Band
Reid Perry - Mitch Jr.
Gateshead Rugby Club - Football Team

The Australian Box office made approximately 54.2million on sales of Australian Films in 2000. From the huge distribution came the sales of the box-office hit Bootmen, earning up to 2,718,967 million on sales.

Andy Garcia, being the main actor, was a recognised celebrity in America after starring in films such as Coyote Ugly. His popularity through acting and good looks enhanced his stardom in the film Bootmen. There tends to be a lot of reviews that have indicated the success of Bootmen from various parts of the globe. Since Garcia has his own website, there are a lot of publications of interview articles and reviews about the film. However there is a lack of presence in reviews indicating bibliographical details of the other members involved within the film.

Bootmen has received extensive amounts of publication to have made a significant online presence felt. It has many reviews and fans, but it does not make the audience online aware of the importance of Australian cinema and its impact in the international market. There is a lot of synopsis regarding the story, unfortunately lacking to link itself to Australia. Most of the information about the film was found by searching about particular actors/actresses, such as Garcia, and by typing "Bootmen, reviews, Australian film" into various search engines, such as goggle.

Bibliography
http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/film_reviews/article_690.asp -review of Bootmen
http://www.actuallyuptodate.com/ozharpers1000.html -articles about Garcia and his film roles
http://www.afc.gov.au/news/media/pdfs/boxoffice.pdf -Box-office figures in 2000
http://movies.go.com/movies/B/bootmen_2000/index.html -Film information

Part 2: Critical Review of Film and its Literature

Dein Perry marks his first feature-film debut with the release of Bootmen (2000), as one of the well known, great Australian writers, and a director of originality too. The creator of the internationally famous Tap Dogs and Steel City, made it well aware to the press that the once Newcastle industrial mechanic, based his film Bootmen, about his very own previous experiences as a mechanic and a tap dancer. Therefore, his background was used as a stepping stone in the creation of the story Bootmen.


This film revolves around the lives of two brothers, Sean (Adam Garcia) and Mitch (Sam Worthington), who lived their whole lives around the streets of Newcastle. Both brothers, who spend countless hours working in the industrial mechanical steel factory, daily dreaming of leaving the dead end job or risk becoming just like their father. However both brothers do not seem to have the same dream, Mitch spends his time and money into building an illegal business, while Sean, the handsome young man, decides to take the job in the city of preforming as a tap dancer. As the story carries on audiences become aware of the typical plot when Mitch starts to fall for the same girl, Linda (Sophie Lee) that Sean leaves behind. Sean then returns home, after being fired from the show, to an unexpected sight of his brother and his girlfriend together. Sean then decides that his career is not going to look for him, so he chooses to start his own tap dancing company. As the film progresses the familiarity of the plot becomes more aware to the audience, though it still has bursts of excitement and twists, which do tend to reel its audience along. There is an abrupt ending, where the audience is left wondering for themselves, what really is the conclusion, it therefore, situates the audience to imagine their own conclusion to the film, so that the observed and observer are still linked.

Bootmen displays a very different vibrant style of tap dancing, which is very unique, and not apart of most films of American decent. It therefore allows the style of Australian cinema to be born, resulting in it becoming a classification of cinema which has unique characteristics. This allows the Australian national cinema to stand on its own feet, rather then being a part of American or British style of cinema. Bootmen's main themes and storyline is based around tap dancing, a form of dance which is very rarely seen in film. Most films today leave out the old fashioned dancing and music, and focus mainly on just the storylines. Nevertheless, the storyline of Bootmen, together with all the dance and music blend together quiet harmoniously, as all three aspects tend to strengthen each other throughout the course of the film. This light-hearted film portrays the combination of various themes such as, romance, music, drama and not forgetting comedy, as this all adds to the simplicity of the film's storyline.

As well as being the director of Bootmen, Dein Perry also choreographed the dance routines used in the film. Most of the actors/actresses in the film, are actually apart of dance troops, some even belonging to Dein Perry himself. In a way Bootmen is symbolic to the Australian cinema as it characteristics the depth of Australian acting talent in the film. In an interview with reporter, Peter Thompson (2000) for film review Dein Perry was left saying how he leaves an imprint within the story of Bootmen, signifying his own signature of a young boy in the streets of Newcastle, who found his own language from the sounds and the rhythms from the steel city. This film has a predisposition to be classified as a contemporary Australian film and its success on the international market is not something which is not short lived, but rather a film which is enduring over time. Bootmen has remained on in being classified as a famous Australian production, known worldwide because of its unique flavour and energy, permitting the film to contain a bit of everything within it. (http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/film_reviews/article_690.asp)

Films are created solely in purpose for its fans, films then are unaware of the fact that with every movie created there comes values, perceptions and points of views which are placed on to each film, be it of Australian decent or American. Bootmen was characterised by much of the critics as a 'macho movie', as the film revolves around dancing men, in other words. What is inclined to make it different from other such dancing movies is the tap sequence, which is worked in together with the plot. If the critics were stronger then the fans, Bootmen would not have gone ahead and received eight nominations in the Australian Film Institute 2000 Awards. These nominations according to Australian edition of Harpers Bazaar (http://www.actuallyuptodate.com/ozharpers1000.html) ranged from best film, best actor for newcomer Sam Worthington, original music, cinematography, costume design, editing, production design and sound.

An article which appeared in November 2000 in the Advocate Magazine (US) (http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/film_reviews/article_690.asp), commented on Adam Garcia, because of his dramatic change of appearance from a determined young man in the film Coyote Ugly, to now, a down under male dancer, with a gay twist. It goes to show how quickly the change in attitudes audiences place upon its famous actors/actresses. Garcia, a ballet trained actor, fights back within the article pointing out how dancing is a part of expressing the body, and it is symbolic of a person's life and should be something worth respected. Since Garcia is now apart of the international list of stars to shine in Hollywood, he then has to portray an image that is respected by the vast number of fans. It makes the actor such as Garcia aware of the fact that the image of his Australian fans is somewhat different to what his American fans have created. In the article it showed that Garcia is somewhat a person who stands up for his beliefs, not being an actor who changes his own views to fit that of their fans, unlike some American based actors tend to do. In a way this might be what makes the Australian market of actors/actress rather different to other stars in English language film.

In the film Bootmen, Garcia's plays the character of Sean, the young boy who seeks out his own destiny, unaware of the struggles and challenges that life has in store. As Sean is the main character, the storyline focuses directly around him, his strengths and weaknesses. It consequently, makes the story biases as audiences view it from his point of view alone. The role in which Garcia plays, is suited for him as it allows his abilities to shine out, it allows the wide range of spectators, within and beyond appreciate the true Garcia. The story of Bootmen is symbolic of everyday lives, within the city of Newcastle, as it is a representation of Dein Perry's. Audiences are allowed to get into the story and believe and feel the pain and joy that is felt by its characters.

There are limited female roles in Bootmen, as critics have already said it is a 'macho-man' type of film, ever since the opening shot of a motorcycle zooming along a rough shoreline heading for the steel factory. The main female character plays Linda, who is Sean's girlfriend. She is characterised as a typical female, in the course of her career as a hairdresser and her living arrangements, as they both symbolize her petiteness and how she is not taken seriously by either Sean or his brother. Critics for that reason obtain the image of Bootmen being a film surrounding the area of dancing men, just sleeping around to maintain their masculine identities.

With everything in mind, Bootmen does create a misconception of a 'sissy' movie with dancing men putting on a performance of tap or even shedding manly tears. They tend to leave out that even though the movie does position itself around tap dancing it does therefore add masculinity within its tap routines. There are metal plates which are placed onto the workmen's big boots, and these workmen are mighty masculine men, who casually dress in jeans, flannel shirts, overalls, or even singlets presenting their broad shoulders and not forgetting their gigantic boots. Even though tapping is a vital part of the story there are elements such as emotion and drama that make what is known as Bootmen so popular. It is the steel sheets and the machinery that bring the tapping alive and this is what is forgotten. Without the machinery and steel, there would just be men tapping. Thus the film does not convey any such gay twists of men dancing around, there are many elements combined within the film that makes it much more then just about tapping. There is a lot of value that has gone into the production of Bootmen; however much of its value is lot by the lack in appreciation for such Australian films. These films that take on the Australian image are usually heavily compared against by much of the other industries and are not able to develop as icons of Australian national cinema.

Audiences from America or abroad may position the Australian characters to be to demeaning and spend half their leisure time at the local pub or in shopping malls, or even see how our environment may not offer possibilities for social activities (Enker, 1994). What then is likely to be forgotten is that these views are just that, views. Australians too have such views about other nations cinematic work, we too position and contradict other cinematic works, and it is to some extent apart of human nature to remark. However, the main purpose is that Australian cinema should always respect its own. Everyone else may have discriminated the film genre of Bootmen, but there are so many within us who appreciate and respect the work of our own Australians. In the film, the Australian identity and culture is exceptionally shown through the landscape and environment of Newcastle. The scene of the sunrise and sunsets capture the beauty of Australia together with the calmness of the beach where the tides roll slowly into the shore, symbolizing the fragility of Australian cinema, just establishing its' identity. It's not only the setting that might capture Australia, but also its elements of stereotyping, through characterisation, such as Sean's father. He symbolizes the older Australian bloke, in front of the television, with a beer and 'pot belly'. There is also stereotyping in areas of language, where swearing and typical Australian proverbs are used as a part of everyday dialogue, signifying our own identity through language.

Bootmen has created a lot of attention at it's time of release. It happened to be one of the first films which introduced many of its performers into the spotlight, including Adam Garcia. It also was the beginning of Dein Perry's directorial debut which is still a highlight of his life. Even though this film has been released awhile ago, it does not suggest that it disappears from the spotlight; it is always going to be there, still in competition with every other film released. Many of the actors/actresses and directors/producers have used this film as a stepping stone in developing their careers, and from the experience of Bootmen, they have all learnt to thrive from its' success. As they say, every artist has to begin somewhere. The development of Australian cinema both at home and internationally has been a progressing effort, since the development is new it still has a lot of features to learn. The Australian national cinema demonstrates efforts to become internationally successful, not only being apart of the English language cinema but accepted worldwide.

Bibliography

Enker, D (1994) 'Australia and the Australians'. In S. Murray (Ed.) Australian Cinema (pp. 211-225), St Leonands, Allen and Unwin

http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/film_reviews/article_690.asp (Accessed 25/4/03)

http://movies.go.com/movies/B/bootmen_2000/index.html (Accessed 23/4/03)

http://www.planetout.com/pno/popcornq/movienews/interviews/2000/adam_garcia.html (Accessed on 25/4/03)

http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/scripts/cinefile/Reviews.idc?Article_ID=4079 (Accessed 25/4/03)

http://www.popmatters.com/film/reviews/b/bootmen.html (Accessed 23/4/03)

http://www.actuallyuptodate.com/ozharpers1000.html (Accessed 23/4/03)

http://www.hollywood.com/movies/detail/movie/161467 (Accessed 25/4/03)