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Billy ElliottBilly Elliott It's Kes meets Brassed Off. Film-goers who have never ventured north of the Humber must think that the North of England a place of unrivalled misery and hopelessness. We meet Billy as an 11 year-old boy whose mother has recently died. It is 1984 and his father and elder brother, miners, are manning the picket lines and involved in some infamous confrontations. A sense of doom and despair pervades the whole community. While attending a boxing club whose premises are shared by a ballet school, Billy unintentionally gets mixed up with a class. A remarkable talent is discovered and later developed by a tired and jaded dancing teaching, excellently played by Julie Walters. It is a Cinderella story in a gritty urban setting, with the foul language that realism sadly demands. Miners don't take kindly to their sons taking up ballet. Billy himself wrestles with his own self-perception. Is it OK to enter what is traditionally and culturally seen as a girl's domain? (There is a subplot here concerning homosexuality which Billy himself rejects.) Both Billy's and his family's struggles are movingly portrayed. Will he make a break for freedom? Should he? What sacrifices are required on the part of himself and others? By his exceptional talent Bill has the opportunity to find release from his miserable and doomed prospects. It is a kind of redemption. The viewer is left wondering what chance there is for those who are not so fortunate or talented, as the picture tellingly shows the defeated miners descending in their cage. Thank God for the Saviour who redeems those who aren't so special. Esme Shirt© Evangelicals Now - November 2000 |