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Kes is a British film from 1969 by director Ken Loach and producer Tony Garnett. and focuses how the aspirations of the main character, Billy Casper, are raised by his relationship to falconry while being subdued and dashed by family and school. The film is based on the novel, A Kestrel for a Knave authored by Barry Hines in 1968. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Ken Loach Kenneth Loach (born June 17, 1936), known as Ken Loach, is an English television and film director, known for his naturalistic style and socialist themes. ...
Barry Hines is a British author who has written several popular novels and television scripts. ...
David (Dai) Bradley (born September 27, 1953) is a British actor who became well-known for his first time role of Billy Casper in the critically-acclaimed film, Kes, directed by Ken Loach. ...
Lynne Perrie (7 April 1931 – 24 March 2006) was an English actress. ...
Colin Welland (born 4 July 1934 in Newton-le-Willows, St Helens, Lancashire) is an English actor and screenwriter, writer. ...
Brian Glover (April 2, 1934 - July 24, 1997) was a British actor. ...
Chris Menges (born September 15, 1940 in Kingston, Herefordshire) is an English cinematographer and film director. ...
For alternate meanings of MGM, see MGM (disambiguation). ...
// Cannes Film Festival opens, but closes in support of a French general strike without awarding any prizes. ...
Michael Caine in Get Carter (1971). ...
// Cannes Film Festival opens, but closes in support of a French general strike without awarding any prizes. ...
Ken Loach Kenneth Loach (born June 17, 1936), known as Ken Loach, is an English television and film director, known for his naturalistic style and socialist themes. ...
Tony Garnett (born 3 April 1936) is a film producer who has worked in feature films and on British television. ...
A Kestrel for a Knave is a book by Barry Hines. ...
Barry Hines is a British author who has written several popular novels and television scripts. ...
1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday. ...
Synopsis Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. The film focuses on Billy Casper, who has little hope in life beyond becoming a coal miner and is bullied both at home, by his physically and verbally abusive brother, Jud, as well as at school. He is mischievous himself; he steals milk from milk floats, gets other students into trouble and generally fights and misbehaves. Billy comes over as an emotionally neglected boy with little self-respect. His mother refers to him in the film as a "hopeless case". Wyoming coal mine Coal mining is the mining of coal. ...
Outside cadging money, smoking cigarettes and day-dreaming at school Billy has no positive interests. His greatest fear is ending up working down the pit as a coal miner but he has no apparent escape route from what would ultimately be his fate. That is until he finds an outlet from his pitiful existence through training a kestrel that he takes from a nest on a farm. His interest in learning falconry prompts Billy to take out his first Library Book (which he steals as he cannot get a borrower's card). Species See text The name kestrel is given to several different members of the falcon genus, Falco. ...
Flying a Saker Falcon Falconry or hawking is an art or sport which involves the use of trained raptors (birds of prey) to hunt or pursue game for man. ...
As the relationship between Billy and "Kes", the kestrel, during the training improves so does Billy's outlook and horizons. For the first time in the film Billy receives praise, from his English teacher after delivering an impromptu talk on his relationship with the bird.
However, Billy purposefully neglects to place a bet on a horse for his brother, instead keeping the money for himself as Billy assumes it is unlikely to win. When the horse does win and Jud receives no winnings he "pays" Billy back by killing his kestrel. This point, near the end of the film, is the bleakest moment for Billy.
Spoilers end here.
Location and Cast Both the film and the book provide an authentic portrait of life in the mining areas of Yorkshire of the time. The school used as the main set was St. Helens School, Carlton Road, Athersley South, Barnsley, but has since been renamed as the Edward Sheerien School. Set in Barnsley, the film contains broad local dialects. The cast have authentic northern accents and used or knew the dialects. Extras were all hired from in and around Barnsley. David Bradley, who played Billy Casper, was born in Barnsley and the main actors were born in parts of Yorkshire or neighbouring Lancashire. Look up Yorkshire in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Barnsley is a large town in South Yorkshire, England, lying on the River Dearne, approximately twenty kilometres north of Sheffield. ...
David (Dai) Bradley (born September 27, 1953) is a British actor who became well-known for his first time role of Billy Casper in the critically-acclaimed film, Kes, directed by Ken Loach. ...
Lancashire is a county in North West England, bounded to the west by the Irish Sea. ...
Falconry Some wildlife conservationists have waged campaigns against this film, saying that it encouraged children and teenagers who had not had training in falconry, to take kestrels from the wild to try to tame them. There is a strong concentration on falconry in the film but the film does not encourage any illegal behaviour with respect to falcons[verification needed]. Various species of deer are commonly seen wildlife across the Americas and Eurasia. ...
Conservationists are those people who tend to more highly rank the wise use of the Earths resources and ecosystems. ...
Flying a Saker Falcon Falconry or hawking is an art or sport which involves the use of trained raptors (birds of prey) to hunt or pursue game for man. ...
Literature Golding, Simon W. (2006). Life After Kes: The Making of the British Film Classic, the People, the Story and Its Legacy. Shropshire, UK: GET Publishing. ISBN 0-9548793-3-3.
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