Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot Review

I just finished watching this treasure for the eighth or ninth time.

This time I focused on Billy's Dad who has to give up SO MUCH for his son's dream. It isn't just the pawning of his deceased wife's jewelry, the last possession of any value left in the house or how beholding he has to become to friend's and neighbors for their support, but it is how he has to put aside the beliefs that those in his class associate with manhood.

His younger son, his Billy, is choosing the arts in a time when the Dad knows that there is no future in the mines for anyone. Even so, his son's choice runs so contrary to everything he believes makes a boy a man.

There are so many powerful father/son moments that it is hard to even recall them all.

I weep four or five times in this film every time. The moment of shock in a gymnasium where Billy was supposed to learn to box when he realizes that his boy not only can dance but desires to do so with his whole heart changes the direction of his life and he knows it.

The wonderful moment when Billy cries because he was accepted and his Dad's moment of triumph is dimmed by the news that the union was forced to cave in reminds us that this is not a silly story told outside of time, but in the midst of very hard times.

And the Dad and son wrestle in the grass and his Dad holds him close (much as he must have done when he was a baby) and they laugh shows how complex their relationship really is.

I could go on. I could talk about his grandma, his brother, his dancing teacher, the boxing coach. Each and every one has his own story with Billy. And then there is Billy himself. If the young actor who plays him is remembered for only one film, then this will be enough.

Maybe I will at some other time. For now. I am going for a walk. What a wonderful film.

I cannot wait until someone realizes there is a market for an enhanced DVD with commentary and background and discussion and a feature on the Ballet.

Wonderful, wonderful.

Billy Elliot Feature

• WALTERS/BELL/DRAVEN/LEWIS III/

Billy Elliot Overview

A boy from a working class miner's family secretly begins taking ballet classes.

Billy Elliot Specifications

Foursquare in the gritty-but-heartwarming tradition of Brassed Off and The Full Monty comes Billy Elliot, the first film from noted British theatrical director Stephen Daldry. The setting is County Durham in 1984, and things "up north" are even grimmer than usual: the miners' strike is in full rancorous swing, and 11-year-old Billy's dad and older brother, miners both, are on the picket lines. Billy's got problems of his own. His dad has scraped together the fees to send him to boxing lessons, but Billy has discovered a different aptitude: a genius for ballet dancing. Since admitting to such an activity is tantamount, in this fiercely macho culture, to holding up a sign reading "I Am Gay," Billy keeps it quiet. But his teacher, Mrs. Wilkinson (Julie Walters, wearily undaunted), thinks he should audition for ballet school in London. Family ructions are inevitable.

Daldry's film sidesteps some of the politics, both sexual and otherwise, but scores with its laconic dialogue (credit to screenwriter Lee Hall) and a cracking performance from newcomer Jamie Bell as Billy. His powerhouse dance routines, more Gene Kelly than Nureyev, carry an irresistible sense of exhilaration and self-discovery. Among a flawless supporting cast, Stuart Wells stands out as Billy's sweet gay friend Michael. And if the miners' strike serves largely as background color, the brief episode when visored and truncheon-wielding cops rampage through neat little terraced houses captures one of the most spiteful episodes in recent British history. --Philip Kemp

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