SWIMMING UPSTREAM
Australia, 2002, 117 minutes, Colour.
Geoffrey Rush, Judy Davis, Jesse Spencer.
Directed by Russell Mulcahy.
Swimming Upstream is the family autobiography of Tony Fingleton, a Queensland swimmer and backstroke champion, silver medal winner at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth. However, he did not go on to an Olympic swimming career, preferring rather to accept a scholarship to Harvard. While the film is a sketch of his own early life and character, it is more a portrait of his parents.
On paper, Harry and Dora Fingleton sound like stereotypes. On screen, they come powerfully to life because of the intense screen presence of Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis. Harry Fingleton is what we could call an ‘ordinary bloke’. We first see him labouring on the Brisbane waterfront in the late 1950s, sometimes only casual work, sometimes laid off. He and Dora have five children, four boys and a girl. Home life seems to be ordinary. Dora is what people in the past called an ‘ordinary housewife’. She cooks, she washes, she cleans. She has little time for anything else. She is a dowdy dresser, too busy to worry about her clothes or her appearance.
Harry seems your average quieter than louder Australian. He lives in the present although one of the destructive aspects of his character is the demanding dream he has of swimming success for his son, John.
One of the difficulties in understanding Harry is the story of his childhood. His mother drank, entertained a range of men at home with Harry there – one of her customers, a company executive, taunts Harry with this during a picket protest at the wharves. He was also a talented footballer but the Depression prevented him from playing for his country. These embarrassments and frustrations have eaten into him. He is a wife-basher and imposes his dreams on his sons. Harry junior (who has absorbed the bullying aspects of his father’s character) is pushed as a football talent only to be dropped when Harry sees John’s ability in the pool. He has an inbuilt contempt for Tony who is tormented by Harry junior, is inept at boxing and football and likes to play the piano. The word ‘poofter’ is aggressively bandied about. Harry can see Tony’s swimming skills but bypasses them to focus on John, John’s failure to dedicate himself to swimming means that he destroys his father’s dream. This also means that we often seen Harry angry, drunk, pushing his sons, attacking Dora, becoming caught up in his dream and acting over-emotionally.
Dora Fingleton is a good woman. She has loved Harry despite himself and herself. She knows that he is ‘difficult’ and makes allowances for his mood swings and brutal behaviour. She has been able, over the years, to keep him on an even keel for much of the time. But, as his sons grow up and he imposes his expectations on them, she is able to calm him less (though there is a fine sequence illustrating this when Harry is out of work, throws a tantrum and won’t get out of bed for breakfast, and Dora throws the eggs all over him; he pursues her into the yard but the humour of the situation and his appearance get the better of them and the family all burst into laughter).
Dora has not been able to lead an outgoing life – though when her sons begin to swim competitively, she enjoys going to the races and cheering them on. Her life is the proverbial humdrum of housekeeping. She does not really rebel against it. In fact, though it is arduous, she does it well. She has managed the house well and brought up the children very well. She appreciates each of her children and is able to be a refuge for Tony whenever his father attacked him and, later, when he grudgingly acknowledges Tony’s swimming talents. Harry is at his worst when he cannot bring himself to watch Tony’s race at the Commonwealth Games. Her confrontation of the drinkers in the pub is a reminder of her strength of character; her taking the cakes home from the fine restaurant for the kids is a reminder of her maternal love and care.
And this is how things were in those days. Not everywhere, of course. But, this was an expectation of life in the suburbs. The men were expected to dominate, be a man; the women were expected to be subservient, be a woman. Life in those days – when so much was about to change in the 1960s – was swimming upstream.
1. An Australian perspective on family, sport, the Australian ethos – especially of the 1950s?
2. The visualising of Australia in the 1950s, Queensland, Brisbane and its suburbs, the city, the homes in the working-class area, the wharves, the pools? The state venues for the swimming competition?
3. The feel of the 1950s, costumes, décor, music?
4. The title, its relationship to Tony Fingleton and his swimming, John Fingleton? The competition? Tony’s final decision not to compete?
5. The film as autobiography, Tony Fingleton in collaboration with his sister, the voice-over and its tone, his perceptions on himself, his father and the struggles with his father, his relationship with John, his mother, his brothers and sisters? His achievement?
6. The portrait of the Australian family, poor, working-class, life at home, the details of meals, the family being together, clashes? The religious background of Catholic and Protestant? Dora, her hard work, her love for her children, life at home, the washing, the meals, her enjoyment of the sports events, the trophies – and the shrine to John? Harry, his erratic moods, the memories of his mother, the children, their love for each other? The humdrum life?
7. Geoffrey Rush and the portrait of Harry, seeing him at work on the wharves, his being laid off, the various strikes (and Harry demonstrating and the man taunting him with the coins about his mother)? Dora, her friendship with the neighbours, enduring Harry’s moods? The change of mood? His brutality, the breakfast in bed and Dora throwing it at him? His drinking? His memories of the Depression, not being able to play football? Wanting his children to live his life? His antagonism towards Tony, the ‘poofter’ taunts about his playing the piano? Seeing him in the pool and changing his mind? The tough attitude with Harry Jnr, getting him to box with Tony, bashing him? Seeing John and his swimming? Pushing him, deciding to favour him over Tony? His dealing with John, going back to the wharves, the drinking? His dream, the training, harsh, getting them up early in the morning, making him swim laps again? The brutality at home and the children’s reactions? Dora’s finally leaving him, his collapse? His moving out, giving up the drink, the final discussions with Tony – and going back to the wharf to talk to his mates?
8. Dora, as wife and mother, cooking and washing, her love for the children, Harry’s brutality and yet her loving him, being able to laugh off the violence, realising that he was a difficult man? Talking to a neighbour? Her joy in her children’s achievements, her holding back Harry Jnr in his fighting Tony? Encouraging Tony? Watching the swimming events, at the edge of the seat? The final confrontation, her attempted suicide, the children walking her to keep her going, her leaving?
9. Harry Jnr, his bullying attitudes, especially towards Tony, the fights? His father neglecting him after discovering Tony and John as swimmers? His drinking? At home, moving away, Tony asking him if he was rivalling his father in the drinking? Meeting Tony in the pub, their discussion together, a reconciliation? John, his being a good friend to Tony, sharing the room, talking, swimming together? John and his dreams, his achievement, his father pushing him? The rivalry, his father giving him secret training, the clash, Tony’s being hurt by John’s behaviour? John and his losing, his father’s writing him off? The reconciliation between the two? The other brother, in the background, Diane, her perspective (and her collaboration on the screenplay)? The pressure on the children, their joy when their father sang “When Irish Eyes are Smiling”, their dismay when the mood didn't last long? Their all going to the pool, its being empty, their all jumping in and being united underwater?
10. The portrait of Tony, his being different, his brother bullying him, his playing the piano, the pool, his skill at backstroke? The difficult relationship with his father and trying to please him? Love for his mother – and talking to her looking out to sea? The swimming, the training? The achievement, the shrine to John, his winning races – and his father and his grudging respect, Harry not even watching him in his winning championships – but looking slyly at the television when he was at the Commonwealth Games? The friendship with John, the falling out over the competition, his going to the Games, the interviews, on television, being second, the success of the silver medal? Murray Rose and his admiration, Dawn Fraser? His decision to go to Harvard, the scholarship, the final visit to his father, watching him at the wharf?
11. The neighbour, her help for Dora, the cakes?
12. The swimming world, the races, the split screen to show the race and the audience watching?
13. The picture of Australian society, the harshness of the era? The heritage of the Fingletons and other Australians and the change at the end of the 20th century?
