Daldry,
Stephen. 2000. Billy Elliot. United
Kingdom: Universal Pictures
I don’t want a childhood I want to be a ballet dancer.
Billy Elliot
is one of those films which once you see it you can either love it or hate it,
but it does leave no one indifferent. It is, in general, a film of extremes: it
is a very educational movie, since it can teach children to follow their dreams
and to break away from stereotypes, but, on the other hand, it is full of swearwords.
In addition, I am sure that you will laugh, but you will cry for twice as well.
During
the 1984 Miner’s Strike, Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell), the eleven-year-old son of
a coal miner, discovers how much ballet amazes him. He decides to stop taking
boxing lessons and to start taking ballet lessons with the strict but caring
local teacher, Ms. Wilkinson. When his father (Gary Lewis) discovers such a
feminine hobby, forbids Billy to come back to ballet lessons and forces him to
stay at home taking care of his forgetful grandmother (Jean Heywood). Nevertheless,
Billy continues dancing and Ms. Wilkinson encourages him to make an audition in
the Royal Ballet School. Things change when Billy’s father discovers his son’s
talent.
First,
we should mention the difficulty to change the social position in the 80’s:
Billy is predestined to become a coal miner, since he lives in north England where
mining is the common industry, his father and his brother are coal miners and
that is what everybody expects from him. However, fathers always dream to see
their children more successful than they are, and especially to see them fulfilling
the dreams that they could not achieve in their youth. Moreover, children do
not want to disappoint their family: Billy is always thinking of what his
father would think about his passion.
Secondly,
we should talk about female and male roles. Not many years ago (and even in the
present days) society marked which hobbies were made for women and which ones
were made for men. For instance, if a woman played football or boxing, which were
only for men, she would be considered a tomboy and if a boy danced ballet he would
be a sissy. There was a kind of rule which related the activities people used
to do with their sexual orientation. Fortunately, this rule has been
disappearing gradually and this film wants to deny categorically this kind of
urban legend with two main characters: Billy and Michael. The first dances
ballet but he is not gay, whereas the former does not dance ballet and he is
gay though.
In
the third place, I would like to focus on the main message in this film that is
to follow our dreams. To find a truly passion is really difficult and there are
many people who live all their lives without achieving any special passion or
ability. Billy knows it and, for that reason, he fights to follow his dreams
and to become a successful ballet dancer. Dancing is a kind of secret force
which entered to his body and was stronger than him, it makes him forget
everything – all the troubles that he has in his life: his father and brother
disappointment, miners’ strike, how he miss his mother, his grand-mother’s
illness… It does not matter how depressing his life could be, ballet is the
light which lights it up. And all those are the things which made it worthy to
fight.
It is
important to emphasize the main role, since Jamie Bell gives an excellent
performance as Billy due to the determination and passion that he shows. Although this was his first film, his way of
acting shows that this role was quite easy for him. This may be because his
childhood was quite similar to Billy’s: both of them lost one of their parents –
Billy’s mother was dead and Jamie’s father abandoned his mother before he was
born – and both of them dance by chance – Billy discovered dancing when he was
in boxing lessons and Jamie discovered it when he accompanied his sister to
ballet lessons.
I
cannot end a review of Billy Elliot
without talking about music. It is very important in this film, the OST is
really good and it goes from pop music of the 80’s, which shows the spirit of
this period, to classical music. I recommend you to pay special attention to
the Swan’s Lake of Tchaikovsky,
because it has a very strong meaning.
