Kes 1969

An extraordinary early film from Ken Loach that might just break your heart, it did mine.  The film is placed in a poor industrial town in Great Britain and placed in the center of it all is a poor frail and fragile 15 year old who lives with his neglectful Mom and his loutish mine working brother in a hovel.  The situations that Billy Casper must put up with are like something out of a Dickens novel in scale and treatment. He is bullied at school and at home, and treated with scorn and contempt by almost everyone he comes into contact with. The performance given by David Bradley a non-professional is superb, simply superb and I might add heartbreaking. It stays with you. There is some kindness shown to him by some, not many but some and he sometimes steals,  a bottle of milk and a book on hawks from a bookstore hardly high crimes. One day he takes a Kestrel from its nest (another crime) which is a hawk and brings him home to train, and names him Kes. This is Billy’s saving. It gives him hope and allows him to show his strength and kindness to another living creature. Kindness is pretty much denied him, except by a good teacher who is fascinated by Billy after he gives a talk on his hawk to his class. The teacher is played by Colin Welland who would win an Oscar down the road for  writing the screenplay of “Chariots of Fire.” There are many wonderful scenes, and even though the dialogue is hard to understand at times because of the thick accents enough comes through.  The beautiful cinematography is by Oscar winner Chris Menges. In the same league as “The 400 Blows.”