Review of Kes (1970) by Arum Padma O — 19 Sep 2012

Two brilliant films in one day. I'm truly a lucky man. And tomorrow (or Saturday) I'm going to get The Master. Anywho, Kes is hailed as one of the greatest British films ever made. It deserves the credit.

Of course I'm no scholar of British films, but this has many things that I love about films. It's a close character study without much plot. The hawk in the story works equally well as a symbol and a natural place for Billy to go.

His home life is terrible. Billy has to sleep in the same bed as his brother. His mom's divorced and she can't do anything to make Jud treat him better. She can't even get him to respect her.

The only time we depart from Billy is when we see Mrs. Casper out on a date at the same place that Jud's getting drunk with his friends. It's a terribly sad scene. Jud doesn't have it easy anyway.

He should probably still be in high school, but instead he works down in the mines. Of course that doesn't give him a reason to be such a huge dick to everyone except his friends and girls, but it does make him more human.

Everywhere Billy goes people are trying to shape him in one way or another. The gym teacher wants him to be the best goalie possible, even though really the man just wants to relive his dreams of being a star football player.

It's probably the funniest and most embarrassing scenes of the film, seeing him run around the field and cheat just to win a game. Then there's the hard ass teacher trying to make him and his friends stop smoking.

He's so strict he ends up beating a boy who wasn't in there for punishment. There's also the job placement that's coming up. These British boys get the chance to drop out of school and pursue a career if that's what they would rather do.

Billy wouldn't really want to go into a job, and he doesn't like school, so at least if he goes to a job then he will get paid for something he doesn't like. One day he walks through the field and finds a hawk flying around.

He follows it to a building and asks the man who owns it if he can see the nest. Billy becomes so enamored with the hawk that he goes out and steals books about hawks from a second hand bookstore. He must know how to keep it properly and how to train it.

The film cuts between the story of the boy trying to get through his everyday life and with him training his hawk, which he has named Kes. The only teacher to listen to him, Mr. Farthing, becomes interested in his hawk after talking about facts one day in class and asking Billy to tell a story.

They have a conversation about hawks, where Billy explains that Kes isn't his pet. Hawks are free creatures. They don't have owners. They can roam free and do whatever they want. It's more of a respected friendship between the two.

Mr. Farthing says not many people could share a bond like that with an animal. We see from here that this is Ken Loach's entire point to the film. Children are not something to be controlled. You can tame and guide them, but they are not your pets.

Some discipline is necessary to keep them on the right track, but without special care you're just cruelly keeping them under your will. This is a lesson for the teachers, the parents, and the bosses.

Of course with this being a film about a boy becoming attached to an animal, in the end it must die. One day when Billy goes in for a meeting about his job placement he tries to get out as quick as possible because Jud is seeking revenge for Billy losing his money gambling.

At first he's just trying to run away, but then he realizes if his brother won't get him then he will get Kes. That's exactly what he does. Billy finds Kes dead in the trash and the end simply shows him crying and burying his beloved bird.

It's sad, tragic, and a well crafted film, from the script to the visuals to the performances; all of it's great.