Billy Elliott
Billy Elliot has been the butt of several sketch-show skits, though that probably says more about television’s Oxbridge mafia than the movie, re-emphasising the film’s theme of how difficult it is for working-class males to break from that class, its stereotype and its occupations. It is worth noting that the director, Stephen Daldry, was educated at Sheffield University and apprenticed at that city’s Crucible Theatre . The unashamedly sentimental boy-dancer plot – you know in your heart that whatever obstacles are placed in his way the talented Billy will win out in the end – is cleverly interwoven with the miners’ strike as background and barrier, the contrast of the two worlds of ballet and pit hitting home time and again. Easington in County Durham is used as the film’s Everington, which may as well be a million miles from the Royal Ballet School where Billy wishes to study. Julie Walters – one of the film’s three Oscar nominations, though none won – as would be expected relishes her role; Gary Lewis is moving as the boy’s father torn by his prejudices and hopes; but the revelation is the performance of Jamie Bell as Billy, for which he won a BAFTA. It is not surprising that, unusually for a child actor, Bell has gone on in his teens and early twenties to forge a successful career.
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1: Oliver!
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