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Film Description
A wonderful drama set in County Durham during the 1984 miners' strike. Young Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) becomes fascinated with the ballet lessons which are being held in the same hall as his boxing class. The ballet teacher, Mrs Wilkinson (Julie Walters), recognises his potential and encourages him to join her class. As his talent gradually reveals itself, it becomes clear that Billy should be attending the Royal Ballet School in London, but with his father's opposition and the extreme poverty which descends on the area during the strike, Billy's future is far from certain. BAFTA awards were won by both Bell (Best Actor) and Walters (Best Supporting Actress).
This tale of a Northerner's struggle to overcome prejudice and realize his ambition to be a ballet dancer shows up traditional machismo as a sham. Ugly duckling stories have come and gone, but few captured the imagination of the Men Behaving Badly generation in the way Billy did.
A wonderful feel good movie that avoids overdosing on sentimentality to give an uplifting yet gritty portrait of a young boy's aspiration to dance. Set against the bac... more >
A wonderful feel good movie that avoids overdosing on sentimentality to give an uplifting yet gritty portrait of a young boy's aspiration to dance. Set against the backdrop of the miners strike, this tells an intimate story of Billy's tentative steps towards realising his dream to be a ballet dancer, a move that causes intense emotional conflict with his working-class family, the socio-economic upheaval of the time, and his own naive pre-conceptions of sexuality and gender roles within society.
First-time director Stephen Daldry combines drama and humour to great effect, creating a thoughtful 'underdog' picture that avoids pandering to both mainstream sensibilities and pretentious arthouse musings. Daldry uses simple yet effective and unintrusive visual flourishes to enhance a simple yet honest narrative - e.g. the sudden, momentary change of season from summer to winter is magical. The choice of music whilst crowd-pleasing to a certain extent, lends itself well to both the mood of the times ('London Calling' by the Clash accompanies riot police chasing protesting miners through the town streets) and to Billy's growing love of dance ('I Love to Boogie' by T-Rex highlights the sheer simple pleasure derived from moving to music). The choreography of Billy's dancing also takes on a character of its own. It expertly conveys Billy's emotional changes throughout the film, becoming an externalised form of expressing his inner thoughts and emotions - his angry dance down the street to The Jam's 'A Town called Malice' captures not only his intense adolescent anger at his fathers insistence that he give up his dream of ballet, it also choreographically combines a psuedo-boxing attitude in conflict with his need for pure dance - boxing represents the stereotypical male activity that Billy leaves behind in favour of the usual female pre-occupation for ballet.
The film would be nothing without its performers, and 'Billy Elliot' does not disappoint. Both Gary Lewis and Julie Walters excel at their roles, as Billy's father and dance teacher respectively. Their performances provide the emotional grit that anchors both the film, and our opinions of how dancing as an art form can defy gender specification if we remain open-minded to the individual rather than the gender expectation. To cap it all, there is Jamie Bell, centre stage as our eponymous hero. Bell completely avoids the trap that most American child actors fall into of being presented as nauseating and cutified. Bell portrays Billy as a recognisable child, oscillating between brattish, determined, vulnerable and confused. Billy's eventual triumph is made all the more satisfying because he has to surmount multiple obstacles - his father, his upbringing, the political landscape, the financial hardship and the prejudiced attitudes towards male ballet dancers. Most importantly though, Billy has to surmount his own sense of worth and his own capacity to give in. This is the pinnacle of Bell's extraordinary performance -he grows before your eyes as a boy, as a dancer, and as a young human being preparing for life in a harsh world.
This is the best British film for years, and balances entertainment with food for thought. An absolute must-see.
