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www.freecampus.co.uk (kes)
Kes (1969)
Starring: David Bradley, Lynne Perry, Freddie Fletcher, Colin
Welland, Brian Glover
Director: Ken Loach
Length: 107 minutes
In the book...
Barry Hines' novel A Kestrel
for a Knave has been a popular set text since it was
published in 1969, and is still there today as a NEAB
KS4 set text for English Literature. Originally taught
as a contemporary, realistic portrayal of life on a Yorkshire
council estate, the emphasis now is on the text in its
historical and social setting, which seems to have given
it a new lease of life.
The story gives us a day in
the life of Billy Casper, a fifteen-year-old who is about
to leave school and a life working down the pit ahead
of him. His day begins in the bed he shares with his
brother Jud, and we follow him on his paper round, through
a school day which contains a caning from the headmaster,
a fight with another pupil, cruelty at the hands of a
PE teacher, and a dismal careers interview. At the same
time we learn about his obsession in life - his hawk
called Kes. By way of a flashback we learn how he acquired
and trained Kes, and through the kindly interest of his
English teacher, Mr. Farthing, we come to understand
what the hawk means to Billy - not only a thing of beauty
in his life, but the free and independent spirit to which
he aspires.
Cover of the video 'Kes',
distributed by MGM/UA Home Video.
Billy is no angel - he steals, he's dirty, he's awkward and
uncommunicative. But at the end of the novel you ask the
question, how many Billy Caspers are there out there, who
have gifts and potential, but just lack the right education
and environment?
Hines' novel comes at the
tail end of a stream of social realism texts that began
in the 1950s with such novels as Saturday Night and Sunday
Morning (Alan Sillitoe). As a teacher, Hines' school
detail is telling, and while some of the long descriptive
passages can be flat, the story is well shaped around
the unplaced bet that results in the death of Kes.
What's good about it?
One of the major strengths
is in the casting. There's not one below par performance
in the film, from either the children or adults. All
of them are comfortable with the Yorkshire vernacular
- rumour has it that when the film was shown in America
the distributors subtitled certain scenes. As Billy,
David Bradley portrays the physical and emotional vulnerability
of the young boy as well as his determination and natural
intelligence. The shots of his face give a great sense
of what he's feeling inside. His brother Jud, played
by Freddie Fletcher, is the epitome of muscular, mean
malevolence, while long-standing Coronation Street fans
will enjoy Lynne Perrie's performance as Mrs Casper.
Colin Welland is the sympathetic
English teacher Mr Farthing, for which he won a British
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. But the performance
to enjoy is Brian Glover's Mr. Sugden, where he not only
exploits the comic potential of the role but also ably
switches to calculated sadism. Everyone who was at state
school in the 1960s claims to have had a PE teacher like
Sugden. The match between Manchester United and Spurs
with its ironic scoreline, captions, Sugden's relentless
bullying. His victory celebration which makes him resemble
a bloated Helmut Haller, is one of the great comic scenes
in British film.
The sequences where Billy
is training Kes are superbly photographed by Chris Menges,
bringing to life these scenes and giving you the green
fields contrasting with the lowering slag heaps in the
background, emphasising what awaits Billy. The poetry
of these scenes is emphasised by the gritty realism of
the rest of the film, where the camera casts an unforgiving
eye on individuals and the interior of the school. It's
not quite documentary, but you feel it gets close.
What's wrong with it?
Nothing. It's one of those
cases where the film is superior to the novel, which
at best is a stretched out short story. Released close
to each other, the film is probably responsible for the
novel's success. There's some re-ordering of material
but nothing significant, and there's also an extra sequence
added. This takes place in the working mens' club where
Judd and Mrs Casper spend an evening out, and both of
them give monologues to the camera, emphasising the documentary
style. This sequence mixes in cabaret performer Dougie
Brown, a not too bad cover band, violent words from Judd,
and a funny, affectionate portrait of an old lady dancing.
It's Ken Loach's ability to
mix humour, social comment and an authentic feel for
working class culture that makes him such a good director,
and Kes such an excellent film.
"This was only Ken Loach's
second cinema feature but it still ranks as one of his
finest and most moving films. Billy, a disaffected young
lad living on a soulless Barnsley estate, finds a fledgling
kestrel and, for the first time in his life, feels his
imagination gripped. With infinite patience - and a book
on falconry nicked from a local bookstore - he starts
to train the bird.
" There's no boy-and-his-pet
sentimentality here: the relationship between Kes the
bird and the puny, taciturn Billy is the kinship, full
of wary respect, between two wild creatures, and when
Kes for the first time flies free and returns to Billy's
wrist, the sense of exhilaration is overwhelming. "
Philip Kemp
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