Kes (1970)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Ken Loach

Writers:

Barry Hines (book)
Barry Hines (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

19 June 1970 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

They beat him. They deprived him. They ridiculed him. They broke his heart. But they couldn't break his spirit.

Plot:

A young, English working-class boy spends his free time caring for and training his pet falcon.

Plot Keywords:

Falcon | Teacher | School | Child Nudity | Public Humiliation

Awards:

Won 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 2 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

David Bradley	...	Billy
Freddie Fletcher	...	Jud
Lynne Perrie	...	Mrs. Casper
Colin Welland	...	Mr. Farthing
Brian Glover	...	Mr. Sugden
Bob Bowes	...	Mr. Gryce
Bernard Atha	...	Youth Employment Officer
Laurence Bould
Joey Kaye	...	Comedian at Pub
Ted Carroll
Robert Naylor	...	MacDowell
Agnes Drumgoon
George Speed	...	Billy's Friend
Desmond Guthrie
Zoe Sutherland	...	Librarian

Also Known As:

A Kestrel for a Knave (UK) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language, nudity and some teen smoking.

Runtime:

110 min | Netherlands:90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Australia:PG | Germany:12 | Sweden:11 | UK:PG (video rating) (1987) | UK:U (original rating) | USA:GP | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Athersley South, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, UK

Company:

Kestrel Films Ltd.

Trivia:

Krzysztof Kieslowski's favourite film.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the football match, Jim is selected to play for Sugden's team but ends up protesting about the allowed goal his captain, Mr Sugden, scores.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Amator (1979)

At times clunky, but an outstandingly powerful social commentary.

Kes is the story of a few weeks in the life of a schoolboy, Billy Casper, against the backdrop of social disintegration that was the north of England in the late 1960s. Billy finds and trains a kestrel, investing in it all the latent energy that his school and rough home life have suppressed, and finding in it a release from the all too present reality of the rest of his existence.

An outstanding performance from David Bradley as Billy glues together the sometimes shaky portrayals of the other characters. As a contemporary social commentary this is a film that has many of the elements you might expect. Billy has an impoverished family with an elder brother working down the pit and a single mother struggling to cope with the situation in which she finds herself. His school is staffed by teachers who react to their part in a failing system with aggression towards the pupils. And he's quite at home with petty crime, stealing a pint from the milkman and a volume to help him train the kestrel from the second hand bookshop. But the film is saved from cliché by the honesty of the acting and the quality of the direction; it seems at times as if we're watching a fly on the wall documentary. The reactions of the boys to the rant and the caning they receive for being caught smoking is entirely natural. Brian Glover as the sadistic games master is all too credible. And the employment interview is too close to my own experience to be fiction.

The film moves to its inevitable and unforgettable conclusion and we're left wondering what happened to Billy Casper after the filming finished.