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ninety6tearsI recently rewatched Billy Elliot after seeing it for the first time last summer, and am still blown away by it.
This is one of those films that's, you know, about something, but not really about that one thing. What can be better than a hilarious and heart-warming family flick that's also brilliantly allegorical? We've all seen those movies about people finding themselves and their talents and passions, but I think this movie speaks more truthfully by doing so with a more unsentimental and simple angle.
Billy Elliot is a young boy who likes to dance. When asked why he likes to dance, he says, "I dunno." The movie opens quite artfully with the slow-motion image of him jumping in the air off his bed to the backdrop of an outdated wallpaper to the tune of T-Rex's "Cosmic Dancer"; the lyrics, "I danced myself out of the womb" announce quite bluntly what the next two hours of this story are going to be about. Billy stumbles fatefully into a ballet class and it's not some wistful look in his eyes that tells us he's having the time of his life, but the fact that he practices his dancing in the cramped bathroom at home where his brother and father can't see him.
It's not a fluffy, easy climb. Unlike the usual films of this formula in which the antagonists seem unreasonably opposed to the goals of the hero, Billy is the son of a family plagued by grief over his deceased mother as well as poverty in the complications of a miner's strike. The emotional undercurrent of the film is with Billy's struggle between loyalty to his heartbreakingly calloused family and pursuing his own blossoming dream of dancing professionally.
The young and brilliant Jamie Bell gives off the character's torment extremely well, even while he's dancing. In fact, some of the most memorable scenes are of Billy walking down the street of England seeming unable to control himself from breaking out into dance. The film does a smashing job of asserting the idea that whether Billy pursues his love of dancing or not, he simply is and has always been a dancer. This is why I think it's interesting that they bring in the issue of homosexuality with Billy's androgynous friend Michael. These two young boys seem to be drawn to each other because they are both deviants of some kind, but form a close friendship, we assume, before they even know what's unusual about each other. Michael accepts nonchalantly that Billy is starting to learn ballet and even suggests that he'd look "wicked" in a tutu; shortly after, Billy is a bit horrified when Michael casually answers the door at his house wearing his sister's dress. Billy almost seems asexual, and in any case he eventually tells Michael, "Just because I like the ballet doesn't mean I'm a puff." Clearly, though, Billy is going to be faced with the same judgment as any homosexual because of his gift, and will also have to defend himself for the rest of his life. This is wonderfully represented when he is angrily confronted by his father for sneaking out with Michael to show him some ballet moves, and can only respond by dancing the hell out of himself right in front of him, as if to say, "This is what I am. I have no choice." Thankfully, this display somehow speaks to his father, and he immediately goes about helping Billy come up with the money to audition for dance school.
Bring on a couple truly heart-wrenching scenes focusing on his family's struggle to give Billy what he wants and eventually to let him go, and we're still not watching a movie that suggests that it's in any way easy to go after what you want most. But in the end, this movie will leave you with a big smile, and make you want to frolick around to glam rock as well.
This is one of those films that's, you know, about something, but not really about that one thing. What can be better than a hilarious and heart-warming family flick that's also brilliantly allegorical? We've all seen those movies about people finding themselves and their talents and passions, but I think this movie speaks more truthfully by doing so with a more unsentimental and simple angle.
Billy Elliot is a young boy who likes to dance. When asked why he likes to dance, he says, "I dunno." The movie opens quite artfully with the slow-motion image of him jumping in the air off his bed to the backdrop of an outdated wallpaper to the tune of T-Rex's "Cosmic Dancer"; the lyrics, "I danced myself out of the womb" announce quite bluntly what the next two hours of this story are going to be about. Billy stumbles fatefully into a ballet class and it's not some wistful look in his eyes that tells us he's having the time of his life, but the fact that he practices his dancing in the cramped bathroom at home where his brother and father can't see him.
It's not a fluffy, easy climb. Unlike the usual films of this formula in which the antagonists seem unreasonably opposed to the goals of the hero, Billy is the son of a family plagued by grief over his deceased mother as well as poverty in the complications of a miner's strike. The emotional undercurrent of the film is with Billy's struggle between loyalty to his heartbreakingly calloused family and pursuing his own blossoming dream of dancing professionally.
The young and brilliant Jamie Bell gives off the character's torment extremely well, even while he's dancing. In fact, some of the most memorable scenes are of Billy walking down the street of England seeming unable to control himself from breaking out into dance. The film does a smashing job of asserting the idea that whether Billy pursues his love of dancing or not, he simply is and has always been a dancer. This is why I think it's interesting that they bring in the issue of homosexuality with Billy's androgynous friend Michael. These two young boys seem to be drawn to each other because they are both deviants of some kind, but form a close friendship, we assume, before they even know what's unusual about each other. Michael accepts nonchalantly that Billy is starting to learn ballet and even suggests that he'd look "wicked" in a tutu; shortly after, Billy is a bit horrified when Michael casually answers the door at his house wearing his sister's dress. Billy almost seems asexual, and in any case he eventually tells Michael, "Just because I like the ballet doesn't mean I'm a puff." Clearly, though, Billy is going to be faced with the same judgment as any homosexual because of his gift, and will also have to defend himself for the rest of his life. This is wonderfully represented when he is angrily confronted by his father for sneaking out with Michael to show him some ballet moves, and can only respond by dancing the hell out of himself right in front of him, as if to say, "This is what I am. I have no choice." Thankfully, this display somehow speaks to his father, and he immediately goes about helping Billy come up with the money to audition for dance school.
Bring on a couple truly heart-wrenching scenes focusing on his family's struggle to give Billy what he wants and eventually to let him go, and we're still not watching a movie that suggests that it's in any way easy to go after what you want most. But in the end, this movie will leave you with a big smile, and make you want to frolick around to glam rock as well.
