Kes

Year:  1969

Director:  Ken Loach

Screenplay:  Barry Hines, Ken Loach and Tony Garnett, based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines

Starring:  David Bradley, Freddie Fletcher, Lynne Perrie, Colin Welland, Brian Glover

Running Time:  112 minutes

Genre: Drama

Fifteen year old Billy Caspar (Bradley) lives with his mother (Perrie), and older half-brother Jud (Fletcher), in a rough, working-class coal mining town in South Yorkshire.  At home Billy is frequently bullied, both physically and verbally, by Jud who works as a miner, and is more or less ignored by his mother.  At school things are no better, as Billy has been more or less written off by his teachers, and is often bullied by classmates and teachers.  Billy is due to leave school soon, and faces the grim prospect of working down the mine with Jud, the one thing that he has sworn that he will never do.  However, a chink of light shines into Billy's bleak existence when he finds a baby kestrel, which he calls Kes.  As he raises and trains Kes, Billy forms an increasingly strong bond with the wild bird.

Based on the 1968 novel A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines, which is well worth seeking out if you haven't read it, this is an early film from acclaimed British director Ken Loach (credited here as Kenneth Loach).  Loach had already made something of an impact with gritty, socially conscious work such as the controversial TV play Cathy Come Home (1966) about a homeless teenage girl, and his feature film debut Poor Cow (1967).  Filmed on location, in and around the Yorkshire town of Barnsley, with a cast of mostly non-professional actors, and dialogue delivered in strongly accented Yorkshire dialect.  Everything in the film looks and feels grim and bleak, but there are moments of real beauty when Kes soars over the hills and valleys.  It also happens to be a very funny film.  One stand out scene is Brain Glover's hilarious performance as the monstrous Manchester United supporting PE teacher who takes Billy's class for a football lesson.  David Bradley, who now goes by Dai Bradley to avoid confusion with the Harry Potter and After Life actor of the same name, gives a fantastic, naturalistic performance as the tough, yet vulnerable Billy.  The actors often weren't told what would happen in some scenes, in order to get a more natural reaction from them.  The film is a portrayal of British working class life in the late 1960s, and also a howl of protest on behalf of the children who were written off by the education system.  Billy is not a bad kid, although he is no angel, he occasionally steals eggs, bottles of milk from a milk float, a chocolate bar and a comic, as well as a book on falconry after he is unable to join the library, and it is mentioned that he has been in trouble with the law.  However he is intelligent  and compassionate, and has a deep yearning for freedom, which finds expression in his bond with Kes.  

David Bradley in Kes