the abba phenomenon
bloody abba
by Douglas MesserliStephan Elliot (writer and director) The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert / 1994
If the Australian film industry is to be believed, the 1977 tour of ABBA, in front of more than 160,000 fans, totally changed the country's personality. Certainly that is one of the unusual premises behind Stephan Elliot's Dadist-like road trip adventure, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
The least able, and youngest of them, Felicia (whom the handsome Pearce plays with a crazed abandonment), simply needs to expand his/her experiences, and gradually does that as they move forward into space. Fixated on empty-headed gay concerns, he is literally left out in the cold by the other two until he can comprehend his ridiculousness. As the eldest of the group, Bernadette responds early in the trip:
I'll join this conversation on the proviso that we stop bitching about
people, talking about wigs, dresses, bust sizes, penises, drugs, night
clubs and bloody Abba!
Earlier, at another small and not so accommodating community she out-drinks the most renowned drinker, the hostile owner of the establishment. When their bus breaks down, Bernadette bravely ventures off into the desert, ultimately bringing help. The man who finally comes to their rescue is Bob (Bill Hunter), whose mail-order wife has the most unusual talent—far more pleasing to the males of this outpost—of being able to expel ping pong balls from her vagina. Fortunately, the three cross-dressing performers find a far more receptive audience in the native aborigines, who readily join in on their dancing revelries.
When Bob's wife leaves him ("I no like you anyway. You got little ding-a-ling"), he joins up with the dancers. Having seen "Les Girls," a group with which Bernadette performed years earlier, he is, it becomes apparent, smitten with her, and the two celebrate with a night in the open air. The interchanges between to two are some of the best of the movie. Describing Bob as a "gentleman," Bernadette remarks: "[to Bob] Believe me, Bob, these days gentlemen are an endangered species. Unlike bloody drag queens who just keep breeding like rabbits."
Tic has the most revelations of the three, revealing not only where they headed—the resort town Alice Springs, where they are scheduled to perform, but sharing his secret that he has been married—has, as Felicia quips, "been playing for both teams"—with the consequences of a young son. As the manager of the hotel in which they will perform, his wife has requested that he take the son for a while so that she might find a few weeks of deserved vacation.
Received by both wife and child with open arms and utter joy for their absurd performances, their dance becomes almost a war-whoop of retribution as they go through their paces—particularly Bernadette, whom Stamp plays as a tough, war-weary figure who's been through it all before. They are truly "Dancing Queens."
Bernadette and Bob determine to stay on at the hotel, managing it while Tic's wife is traveling. Felicia—a now somewhat calmer and less flamboyant figure—falls in with Tic's son. He is after all a somewhat elderly child who can readily play the role of older brother.
In the final scenes the three are back in Melbourne, performing at the local bar, the son happily helping out with the lights. What began as an kind of extremist parody of gay life has now been assimilated into utter normalcy.
Los Angeles, February 4, 2012
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