Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot (I will Dance) is a 2000 British drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and is based on the screenplay by Lee Hall. Set in Northern England during the [miners’ strike of 1984][1], it deals with young Billy Elliot who aspires to be a professional ballet dancer in spite of his father’s and brother’s objections. The story was also adapted for a same-titled musical staged for the first time in London at the West End theatre in 2005 and still performed until today.

Plot

The protagonist of the film is eleven-year-old Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) who lives with his widowed father, Jackie (Gary Lewis), his older brother, Tony (Jamie Draven), and his grandmother (Jean Heywood) in a typical working-class district in Durham, in the North of England.

While father and brother, both coal miners, are on strike, Billy is sent to take boxing lessons, which he does not enjoy, though. He happens to run into a ballet class that takes place at the same time in the gym, and this is when he discovers his passion about dancing. From then on, he regularly joins the ballet classes, led by Mrs. Wilkinson (Julie Walters), but pretends to be going boxing. When his father finds out that his son is taking dancing lessons, he gets angry and forbids him to do so; nevertheless, Billy secretly continues.

Mrs. Wilkinson is convinced of Billy’s talent and enrols him for an audition at the Royal Ballet School in London, which he misses because his brother is being arrested by the police in the course of the strike. She tries to talk to Billy’s father about this missed opportunity and the boy’s talent but both father and brother are outraged by the thought of Billy becoming a professional ballet dancer, as they fear that Billy will be considered gay and hence damage their reputation.

During Christmas time, Billy discovers that his friend Michael is gay but he shows understanding and supports his friend. One evening Billy takes Michael to the gym, where he lets Michael put on a girl’s tutu and starts to dance. He gets so lost in his dancing that he does not even realise that his father has entered the gym and is watching him. Truly impressed by his son’s talent, Jackie changes his attitude and tries to support Billy in attaining his goal. In order to earn the money for a ticket to London so that Billy can audition at the Royal Ballet School, Jackie decides to end the strike but his son Tony blocks him. Instead, friends and neighbours help raising the money and eventually, Jackie is able to take Billy to London. At the audition, Billy performs well, though nervous, but there is an incident in the changing room where Billy punches another boy without a reason. This aggressive behaviour is strongly reproved by the review board so that Billy and his father return home with the feeling of having failed. But eventually, Billy learns from a letter that he is accepted at the Royal Ballet School and he leaves home to attend.

The last scene of the film shows Billy fourteen years later performing the lead in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, with Jackie, Tony and Michael in the audience.

Analysis

The story addresses different themes and issues; “Live your Dream” is the underlying motto and message of the film but it also focuses on an important political and social topic like the miners’ strike of 1984. Furthermore, it raises topics like sexuality and gender as in the contrast of Billy’s “manly” father and brother and the rather feminine Michael or the objections to boy dancing ballet, and can hence be seen as a call for more tolerance and respect.

Reviews

The movie gazette rates Billy Elliot as a “touching film – a simple tale given power by strong performances from its cast. […] There are no real surprises in the plot – this is unashamedly a happy-ending, coming-of-age, pursue-your-dreams drama, but the handling of it is remarkable and the characters sympathetic.”

A.O. Scott for the New York Times also criticises the film for „its patches of thinness and predictability. The first half seems almost to acknowledge its own triteness; the scenes move quickly, as though being checked off a list, and the actors inhabit their roles like second-hand suits.“

But despite its predictability or possible superficial character, most critics share Peter Bradshaw’s (Guardian) overall conclusion of the film: „Billy Elliot has a freshness that makes it a pleasure to watch; it's a very emphatic success.“ And Scott adds to his criticism (above) that after a while, „the fates of the characters, though still unsurprising, begin to feel real and consequential“, which in the end make the film worthwhile seeing.

The film was quite successful and received different awards, among them the British Independent Film Awards (2000) for the best British Independent film as well as best director (Daldry) and best newcomer (Bell). Furthermore, it was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award (2001) for best motion picture. <nowiki>Insert non-formatted text here</nowiki>