(Some spoilers) I first saw Ken Loach's admirable and indeed unforgettable film in London in 1970 at the esteemed Academy Cinema, now long-gone. I had been wanting to see it again for decades, but its general unavailability in the U.S. made that difficult. I was fortunate enough to see it again recently on video, and the movie hasn't diminished one iota in my estimation.
Based on a novel by Barry Hines, it is set and shot entirely in gritty working-class Barnsley in Northern England and spoken with a local accent that would benefit from the use of subtitles, especially for Americans. The young subject of the movie is a boy named Billy Casper, dour, picked on, quasi-delinquent, whose future employment prospects are grim, whose great adventure and escape comes with his finding and taming a beautiful kestrel hawk whom he names Kes.
There are great moments in the movie in which Billy trains the bird and establishes a relationship with it that seems to be more fulfilling than any human relations he, as a perennial outsider, is able to sustain.
The best scene for me is the one in a class at school when he talks about the kestrel to his classmates who are rapt enough to reward him with applause at the end. The scene possesses a sterling beauty capable of producing tears. The teacher, played by Colin Welland, is a sympathetic adult friend and unlike all the tormenting Dickensian characters we see among the adults. Billy's brutishly insensitive older brother becomes responsible for the kestrel's death at the end and seemingly destroys the boy's world.
Young David Bradley as the 15 year old Billy is stupendous. The direction of Ken Loach is masterful. I believe his "Kes" is one of the defining landmarks of modern British cinema.
Based on a novel by Barry Hines, it is set and shot entirely in gritty working-class Barnsley in Northern England and spoken with a local accent that would benefit from the use of subtitles, especially for Americans. The young subject of the movie is a boy named Billy Casper, dour, picked on, quasi-delinquent, whose future employment prospects are grim, whose great adventure and escape comes with his finding and taming a beautiful kestrel hawk whom he names Kes.
There are great moments in the movie in which Billy trains the bird and establishes a relationship with it that seems to be more fulfilling than any human relations he, as a perennial outsider, is able to sustain.
The best scene for me is the one in a class at school when he talks about the kestrel to his classmates who are rapt enough to reward him with applause at the end. The scene possesses a sterling beauty capable of producing tears. The teacher, played by Colin Welland, is a sympathetic adult friend and unlike all the tormenting Dickensian characters we see among the adults. Billy's brutishly insensitive older brother becomes responsible for the kestrel's death at the end and seemingly destroys the boy's world.
Young David Bradley as the 15 year old Billy is stupendous. The direction of Ken Loach is masterful. I believe his "Kes" is one of the defining landmarks of modern British cinema.