Film Review
One of the most popular British films of 2000,
Billy Elliot marked three
auspicious screen debuts, that of director Stephen Daldry, screenwriter
Lee Hall and child actor Jamie Bell. The combined efforts of
these three resulted in a film that not only proved to be a worldwide
hit but also inspired a phenomenally successful stage musical of the same
title. Against a truly grim backdrop of Thatcher's Britain
(focussing on the bitter war of attrition between the government and
the miners in the mid-1980s),
Billy
Elliot offers a profoundly moving and insightful study
in personal ambition and gender identity, written, directed and
performed with sensitivity and panache by an extremely talented
team. 'Be true to yourself and all will be well' is the
moral that this delightfully unpretentious film drives home with vigour
and tenderness.
Whilst the film lacks the raw visceral edge of earlier British social
realist dramas (such as those made by Ken Loach in previous decades,
notably
Kes), its account of a pre-teen boy
battling against male stereotypes and domestic strife to fulfil
his innate talent as a dancer is so authentically presented that it is hard not to be swept
away on a tidal wave of emotion as you watch the film.
Billy Elliot may not be perfect
(one or two key scenes are weakened by a slight excess of mawkish
sentiment), but it is intensely involving throughout and is assuredly
one of the most life-affirming and inspiring films to come out of
Britain in at least a decade.
Thirteen year-old Jamie Bell was chosen from around 2000 candidates for
the lead role of 11-year-old Billy Elliot. Bell's own story
closely mirrors that of the character he plays; like Billy, he hails
from a typical family in the north of England (in a region still
bearing the scars of the Thatcher government's ruthless
socio-economic policies of the 1980s) and took an interest in ballet
at an early age. Ten years on, Bell is one of Britain's most
promising young screen talents, winning widespread acclaim for his
leading role in David Mackenzie's
Hallam
Foe (2007) and lending his voice to Hergé's famous
quiffed sleuth in Steven Spielberg's
The
Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011).
Bell won the BAFTA award for Best Actor in 2001 for his captivating
portrayal of Billy Elliot, along with a brace of other awards.
The film's two other stand-out performances are supplied by Gary Lewis
and Julie Walters, who both bring depth and poignancy to their
harrowingly truthful portrayals of Billy's dad and dance teacher
respectively. A virtual unknown at the time, Lewis has enjoyed
far greater prominence since he made this film, and Walters' own career
has enjoyed a substantial boost as result of her most impressive screen
performance since
Educating Rita (1983).
Widely acclaimed by the critics,
Billy
Elliot was showered with awards on its first
release. It was nominated for three Oscars - in the categories of
Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Walters) and Best Screenplay -
but failed to win any of the awards. It fared much better at the
2001 BAFTAs, winning trophies for two of its leading actors (Bell and
Walters) and the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film. The
film was also nominated for a César and scooped several other
prizes, including four wins at the British Independent Film
Awards.
Billy Elliot
was one of the most financially successful British films of the decade,
earning just over a hundred million dollars at the box office
worldwide, on a budget of just over five million dollars - an
encouraging sign that British cinema is still very much a force to be
reckoned with.
© James Travers 2012
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
In the mid-1980s, coal mining is no longer a profitable industry in the
UK and the Conservative government is at war with the miners' union
over pit closures. Jackie Elliot and his oldest son Tony join the
ranks of the striking miners in a northern English town but are
pessimistic about their future. In their part of the world,
mining is the lifeblood of the community. Jackie, a widower, is
determined to make a man of his 11-year-old son Billy, and somehow he
finds the money to pay for him to attend boxing lessons. Billy
has no aptitude for boxing and, one day, he is distracted by a girls'
ballet lesson which is being held on the other side of the public
gym. Before he knows what he is doing, Billy has joined the dance
class, encouraged by the dancing instructor Mrs Wilkinson. When
Jackie finds out about this, he is incensed and forbids his son from
taking any more ballet lessons. Unable to give up his passion for
dancing, Billy takes Mrs Wilkinson up on her offer of private lessons
and the teacher soon becomes convinced that her star pupil has what it
takes to make a name for himself as a professional dancer. She
persuades Billy to attend an audition for a place at the Royal Ballet
in London, but on the day of the audition a fierce skirmish breaks out
between the striking miners and the riot police...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.