Having never read the book that this film is adapted from, I had little idea what 'Kes' was even about, let alone the reputation it has as a British classic. After viewing I can safely say that 'Kes' is a film that I won't forget any time soon. This film takes you through every emotion imaginable. It's funny yet sad, depressing yet uplifting, and it's thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. The broad Yorkshire accent takes some getting used to, even as a Northerner myself I struggled to understand some of what was being said, but that only adds to the genuine, raw feeling to the film.'Kes' is an excellent British film, one that I would recommend for those who enjoy realistic and raw pictures with meaning. This is a film that I will remember and certainly revisit some time in the future.

The world of Kes is the world of our own, declares Ken Loach. He has always been a fighter for the working class, using his art to replace their lost voices over the decades where they have been beaten and forgotten. He provides them a avenue, if not to protest, then to cry out. Kes is an artefact of social realism, shot on a shoestring budget, on authentic locations, with a muddled mix of professional actors and extras plucked from the countryside. It adopts the observational mode of cinema verite, sometimes hovering behind bushes to capture Billy playing alone, sometimes right beside his skinny cheekbones as he pores over his stolen book on falconry. The backdrops are the drabbest, dullest grey, to match the shabby clothing of Billy and his fellow students. The setting becomes a cage for class. Billy may yet have the fleeting freedom to run around town all he wants, but he knows that sooner or later he will be working in the coal mines and wants nothing to do with it. Loach has enabled a systematic blurring of the boundaries that identify the transition from adolescence into adulthood. Billy is being pushed, much too early, to fend for himself and begin to start thinking about a life of manual labour. Barnsley has long swallowed all the other adults with its pessimism, resigned to their jobs, broken in spirit, and his brother is all but gone too. There is no better scene to describe this than the football match the the teacher participates in. Humorously, he imagines himself as Bobby Charlton in the prime of his career about to score the winning goal against Tottenham, but there is where the laughter ends. Brian Glover plays this part without a hint of embarrassment about him; he does not care that he is bullying and pushing little kids in order to fulfill his power fantasy. So it is a little funny, and much more sad. His punishments have an iron-willed logic about them, with a dose of cruelty. This stems from the principal, who personifies all the other teachers and adults - he yells and yells, using only his age as a superior leverage, and does not attempt to make any effort to understand those he addresses. Like everyone else, he too is waiting for a solution, for something to change. In the meantime, boys continue to be beaten by the cane, with little difference. They feel the sting of the blow, and try a little harder next time to avoid getting caught. David Bradley's Billy Casper has other ideas. He has seen what the mines have done to his brother (the employment officer mistakenly thinks this as a issue of physical safety) and will done anything to avoid it. He has a skinny skeleton for a body, and is bullied and tormented both at home and school. Billy has what you would call street smarts, which is just a fancy way of saying that he faces worse than most will in his everyday, and has the uncanny ability to worm his way out of some of these situations and do it again the next day. There is a glimmer of hope in his heart, and the world won't have it - it seeks to beat it out of him.Then one day he stumbles upon something he has never encountered before, a responsibility, a passion. The best scene of the film comes when a teacher encourages him to share his story of training the falcon, and Billy comes alive in his story, in both voice and gesture. After an hour of mumbling and a drooping posture, his eyes light up as he recounts the tale of gaining the trust of Kes. Is the teacher an angle within the ashes? He does something that no other adult does in the film, by admitting that he does not know everything, and asks Billy to share his knowledge with the class. Billy and Kes share a respect that is seldom seen elsewhere in Barnsley. Billy sees Kes not as a pet, a beast that can be tamed, but as a companion who has decided to stay along with him for a little while. He feeds Kes, who returns the favour by allowing him a small solace. Loach has created a tale of such tragedy and inevitability, because Billy sees the falcon take off into the skies, knowing full well that it could leave him and this wretched place whenever it wants, and lives vicariously in the bird anyway.

Perhaps I should first admit that I'm not as much in love with this movie as everybody else seems to be but there is also no denying the fact that this is one great movie, that is done in a classic and old fashioned style but yet at the same time also manages to feel decades ahead of its time.This is one of those movies that is being kept deliberately small and simplistic, with all of its characters, settings and story lines. A random slice of life, if you will, that depicts the every day life of a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy. It's not an easy life of course, else the movie wouldn't had been very interesting to watch. It's filled with drama but very human and realistic drama. You don't ever feel that the movie is forcing or overdoing anything, which makes this a mostly effective movie to watch.It's also one of those movies that is using non-professional actors, to add to its realistic and raw feeling. Thing with this always is; it either works out for a movie or it completely doesn't, when some of the 'actors' clearly don't know how to behave and deliver their lines. This movie is a bit in between, however. At times it works out superbly and truly adds to the drama as well, while at others it just bothered me and even somewhat took me out of the movie.It's a movie you really can get a lot out of. You can almost literally dissect this movie to death and could talk and discuss about all of its underlying themes and deeper meanings to it all. But even if you're not willing or unable to dig too deep into this movie, there is still plenty to get out of it. I think this is mostly because the movie is very easy to identify with. Even if your youth was nothing like that of its main characters, you can still understand his feelings and frustrations with school, family and just life in general. This is also really because the movie has some very simply but yet incredibly powerful and unforgettable moments in it, that are also easy to relate to, when you are watching it.In lot of ways this movie reminded me of some old fashioned and slower, Italian and French, coming of age movies, while in other ways this movie also felt as one that could had been made today. It features subjects, about classes and other social issues, that are still being very relevant and popular, in movies of this sort, that are being made now days.The movie has a very moody and typical atmosphere. The entire film feels, looks and smells of working-class life. The movie never betrays itself by becoming overly sappy or by adding in a couple of melodramatic twists. It always remains true to itself, its subject and its main characters. It's not a movie that provides any answers or tries to have an uplifting message in it. It simply shows things as they are, or at least were, in late '60's Britain.A really well made film, in its genre, by director Ken Loach!8/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

It's an apparently hopeless life for grimy teenager David Bradley (as Billy Casper), growing up in a Yorkshire, England coal-mining town. He is bullied at home by older half-brother Freddie Fletcher (as Jud), and at school by coach Brian Glover (as Sugden). Both teachers and schoolmates have little use for young Mr. Bradley; and, he is inadvertently neglected by mother Lynne Perrie.On a lonely walk, Bradley admires some hawks, and develops an admiration for the free-flying bird. He reads up on the falcon, in a stolen library book, and robs a young kestrel from its nest. Bradley trains the bird, which he names "Kes". His pet falcon gives Bradley purpose. Now, English teacher Colin Welland (as Farthing) admires the boy. At last, Bradley, who wants to escape his expected future as a working-class coal miner, has hope. Still, there are those who would break his spirit… This film has been celebrated as an accurate depiction of British working class, but it's much more universal. "A Kestrel for a Knave" writer Barry Hines' downtrodden youth is anywhere and everywhere. With a wonderful story, and photography by Chris Menges, "Kes" is director Ken Loach's masterpiece; it will show you how some poets are born. And, Bradley's characterization is unforgettable. Listen... you can still hear him calling, "C'mon, Kes!" ********** Kes (3/27/70) Ken Loach ~ David Bradley, Freddie Fletcher, Brian Glover, Colin Welland