The family pulls together in the end, but not before violent arguments. Seemingly rejected, Billy returns home with his father. She asks for his ballet shoes if he's not coming back, but he opts to keep them. You can also see the abundant use of natural lighting within the home leaving much of the setting dim and sometimes hard to see. Join StageAgent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. The film depicts a young boy facing the challenge of overcoming traditional In County Durham, during the endless, violent 1984 strike against the Margaret Thatcher closure of British coal mines, widower Jackie Elliot Widower (Gary Lewis) and his firstborn, fellow miner Tony (Jamie Draven), take a dim view of 11-year-old second son Billy's (Jamie Bell) poor record in boxing class, which worsens when they discover he sneakily transferred to the neighboring, otherwise girls-only-attended ballet class. What do these two actions have in common and why did the screenwriter juxtapose these two scenes? Daldry does not portray music as objective or separate from Billys human experiences it is tied deeply to his character. Billy is also coming of age and is discovering girls. Billy defies his father and surreptitiously attends dance classes. Mower also went back to the London stage musical to play the dream ballet's "Adult Billy" in Billy Elliot the Musical Live (2014). 7. Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes. Billys family is under tremendous strain. 8. The British Government was in the hands of Margaret Thatcher, a conservative prime minister, who wanted to sell off state owned industries, crush the unions, close many mines (or pits, as the English call them) and lay off hundreds of thousands of miners. Billy and his friend Michael curse matter-of-factly. Billy lives with his widowed father Jackie (Gary Lewis), older brother Tony (Jamie Draven), and his invalid Nan (Jean Heywood), who once aspired to be a professional dancer in Durham. 15. This is where things get, as Shawn would say, squishy. Over Christmas, Billy learns his best friend, Michael, is gay. But he is weak in the sense that he has a low status in his family and community (brother doesnt treat him with respect and wont let him use his records; another kid says hes bad at boxing). Why was it ironic that Mrs. Wilkinsons husband, who had himself been made redundant, took the position that the miners should abandon their strike? Billy Elliot also illustrates the far-reaching influence that a dedicated teacher can have on a childs development.

These scenes allow the responder to infer that Billy will face further struggle and opposition as he attempts to make his transition into the wider world and although his journey into his artistic expression will be difficult, that he is motivated to succeed. The fathers insistence that Billy box rather than take ballet restricted the growth and development of his child. What was Mrs. Wilkinsons motivation in teaching ballet class? Benny Hill scene with laundry and English back gardens, a scene type thats typically farcical but has an extra edge of real danger as the riot-geared police chase Tony down. GradeSaver "Billy Elliot Part 1: Billy Elliot Summary and Analysis". This movie is on TWMs list of the ten best movies to supplement classes in Health, High School Level. While the idea for this movie took screenwriter, Burberry celebrated the 15th anniversary of this movie by using it as the inspiration for their 2015 Christmas campaign, starring Dame. I know the final scene of Billy Elliot is the scene where he is playing the lead role in Swan Lake. The gloves (or fists) evoke the violence attached to many of the male characters in the film, while the shoes (or feet) are often shown in moments of vulnerability or elegance particularly for Billy. Defend your answer. Billy tells her he has to go to boxing and leaves. Not affiliated with Harvard College. The only life the Elliots have known is working in the mine. Should Billy have maintained his friendship with Michael after he realized that Michael was a homosexual? The father also hits his older son, an adult, drawing blood in a futile attempt to stop the young man from an early morning foray to damage company property. Every teacher dreams of being the agent for allowing a child to find him or herself. It starts stiff and that but once I get going, then I like forget everything and I sort of disappear. Individualism is celebrated as the all-powerful force of our lives, a message reinforced to the audience in the final shot of the film as a grown-up Billy leaps on stage during a production of Swan Lake. from other boys of the same age. At school, Michael and Billy do a run for gym class, and Michael leads him to a hiding spot so they can get out of the run. When Billy was in the library and wanted the ballet book, but the librarian wouldnt let him take it out, Billy decided to borrow it against the rules. In Billy Elliot, the director uses media techniques to introduce Billys character. See Discussion Questions for Use With any Film that is a Work of Fiction. The key to Billy Elliot is understanding how challenging ideas about the human experience new perspectives and arguments about how we should live our lives are delivered in sympathetic and even comedic ways. Goofs 13. (Additional questions on this topic are set out in the Social-Emotional Learning/Friendship/Sexual Orientation section above. Mrs. Wilkinson tells Jackie about the missed opportunity, but fearing that Billy will be considered to be gay, both Jackie and Tony are outraged at the prospect of him becoming a professional ballet dancer. There is also the authority of Mrs Wilkinson, which is stern yet nurturing and encouraging, and echoes the presence of his mother. WebRemember that Billy Elliot is a film. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Billy Elliot, directed by Stephen Daldry. All of producer Jon Finn's family on his mother's side worked in the pits in the region where the filming was done. But that meant leaving his family, his community, his best friend, and everything that was familiar to him. Your first week of Year 11: whats on stake, what to take, smash this piece of cake. But even in more intimate spaces such as in Debbies room, where Billy experiences a moment of sexual awakening the set design employs floral wallpaper and pillow covers to express these sexual overtones. He runs over to the stove and takes out some boiled eggs, before catching a piece of toast on a plate. She loved the ballet and wanted to see children enjoy it as well. It is only when Billys legs come into the foreground, identifiable by his lack of ballet stockings and his shoes, that the audience realises he has taken up Mrs Wilkinsons offer. Can you describe the relationship, what the boundaries are, and how they have been set? SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING Breaking Out; Families in Crisis; Father/Son; Courage; Grieving; Friendship; Parenting; Grandparents; GLBTQ; Education; MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS Caring; Responsibility; Respect; Trustworthiness. What does this scene show? Impatiently, Tony tells Billy to stop playing the piano, and Billy protests that their mother would have let him if she were alive. Ask the Quick Discussion Question. Because of how homophobia and prejudice against artistic young men in his working-class community functions, even after trying his hand at ballet, Billy doesn't think that he likes dancing much, insisting to Debbie that he is a boxer even though this is blatantly not the case. In 1984, while the miners' strike rages, Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) is a young boy living in a small County Durham town, who discovers he has a talent for ballet, much to the chagrin of his widowed father Jackie (Gary Lewis), leaving him torn between his dreams and the only life he's ever known. Will the beleaguered Elliot family pull together and heal? Production was greatly in excess of demand and new and cleaner sources of energy, oil and natural gas, were coming on line from the North Sea. Drawing parallels between Billy and the swan may be a useful way to explore how Daldry draws on the archetypal story and recontextualises it to connect with modern audiences. The British trade union movement has never recovered. The librarian tells him he cannot take it out on a junior ticket. It was enormous, at one time employing a million men. Daldry implies the steady breakdown of rigid traditionalism that occurs between generations, a kind of social awakening that mirrors Billys own awakening to dance. WebWhen Billy leans on Ms Wilkinsons shoulder and cries, it shows that all Billy wants is comfort, acceptance, love and perhaps his mother back. When Billy is playing the piano one morning, Jackie scolds him for making music, slamming the piano hood down when Billy protests that his mother would have let him. The mine ultimately closed for good in 2005. And it could be argued that this story is, like Rocky, Status > Sentimental because Billy doesnt seem to be without meaning in the beginning. The film centres on his struggles with various forms of authority his father, the police, the government and social gender norms.

Later, when Mrs Wilkinson takes Billy out for a drive to the lake, heavy industrial machinery in the background is juxtaposed against a serene, natural environment which Daldry demonstrates through extreme wide shots and careful framing. Easily become a resource hero by simply helping out HSC students. We had some disagreement about the internal genre: On the one hand, Billy himself, though he eventually earns social and artistic respect, is almost untouched by shame at any point in the story, which makes, the more likely internal genre. Example from Billy: Billy is hesitant to enter the boxing hall, as he acknowledges his desire to.

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