Similarities And Differences Between 'Billy Elliot' And 'Kes'

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Joe Leach                19/4/04

Similarities And Differences Between ‘Billy Elliot’ And ‘Kes’

In this essay I am comparing the two films Kes, made in 1969 and set in the 1960’s and Billy Elliot, made in 2000 and set in the 1970’s. Both of which have the same location, Northern England and both have a strong relation to a working class environment where coal mining was the main source of employment. The films are similar in terms of community, family, and the characterisation of Billy, the central character in both films. The films are different however in terms of setting, action, style and ending, I shall be focusing on all those listed points later in my essay.

The main character in both films is called Billy; this is not all they have in common. Firstly both the characters undernourished and come from poor backgrounds. In Kes Billy’s father is never around and in Billy Elliot the boy’s mother has passed away. They are both the youngest in the family and both have much older brothers that bully, patronise and intimidate them to a great extent. In both films the main characters find their own separate ways in which to escape from their hopeless and challenging life. In Kes this is done through Billy looking after and training a hawk and in Billy Elliot through Billy learning to ballet dance. Examples in the films to support this theory would be in Kes when you see how happy Billy is when training the hawk and the same with Billy when he starts dancing down the street. Through this the main characters find compassion and comfort as their hobby begins to allow them to learn things that it is impossible to teach at school etc. Both these characters also have deep personalities and prove to their audiences that there are things in life that they do care about and matter to them so much it is as if it is all they have in the world. I think that the director wanted the audience in each case to feel sympathy towards the characters and hope their new hobby would bring them support and allow them to do well in life.

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  Both Billy’s are very thin and appear to be energetic. It also comes across that both Billy’s are very proud of themselves. For example in Billy Elliot, Billy stands up for himself against his father when he tries to stop him going to ballet by belittling him. In Kes there is an incident where McDowell a bigger boy than Billy, picks a fight with him. Billy stands up for himself and fights McDowell.

  Both Billy’s also dislike school. This is evident in Kes from when Billy gets in trouble for falling asleep in assembly and from Billy Eliot ...

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