| RATING: | 100% |
| FORMAT: | Cinema |
Because the British film industry - what there is of it - produces little of outstanding or lasting value, an old British film this good deserves to be savored, enjoyed and treasured - in that order.
Kenneth LOACH presents the poor as people - not as stereotypes. Blacks are also presented positively which, for a White filmmaker, is unusual. This, indeed, is his main contribution to cinema: Visual naturalism coupled with psychological realism.
Most filmed drama is psychologically-unrealistic, because it is stereotypical rather than archetypal. Attempts are most often made to culturally-pigeonhole fictional characters so as to give vent to the absurd political positions of the writers; while little is done to elucidate human nature, as such. In Loach’s work, the tail never wags the dog: Characters conform to archetypes and none to the neurotic needs of others.
A realistic tearjerker about a childhood passion for a kestrel that makes you just as passionate regardless of whether you have an interest in the birds. The boy’s interest is an excellent means of eloquently-expressing the need of escape from the drabness of his background. Unsurprisingly, he shuns a United Kingdom education system deliberately designed to only provide him with the skills for low-paid, low-skill employment along with the corollary social class and welfare system designed to keep him poor.
It is very easy to identify with someone who needs to keep his passions secret from those who resentfully lack any meaningful commitments in their otherwise empty lives. Here, the latter are shown obsessing about little more than booze, fags & birds.
This classic outsider story results from the inherent injustice of the regular practice of collective punishment for the poor - all unequivocally-derided as shiftless, lazy & ineducable. Teachers and employers come across as burned-out representatives of a failing economic system. They see education and employment not as a benefit for pupils (& even employees) but as a means of social control without which there would be blood on the streets. The school’s headmaster, in particular, fully recognizes that caning children does not work, yet administers the cane with relish none the less; proving his complete lack of imagination in failing to institute a method of discipline that does work, since he clearly cares nothing for genuine education.
The essence of this tale is the transition from school to work; from boy to man. To the young, the miserable and frustrated and insatiable nature of most adults makes growing up seem just not worth it - apart from making it well nigh impossible. Yet this film pinpoints the exact moment when a child puts childish things behind him and becomes a hard-edged adult in a callous and indifferent world.
The boy, Billy Casper, is played by David BRADLEY in as perfectly-natural a way as could be imagined despite his not being a trained actor. In Loach’s films, the characters stand for particular political positions, yet, they manage to convey realistic human warmth because the positions they take up are so all-important to everyone. Loach’s cinéma vérité style suits this gritty tale set in northern England well - and with deft visual-touches, unobtrusive camera work and naturalistic acting produces a genuine and understated masterpiece.
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