Kes The Movie
They beat him. They deprived him. They ridiculed him. They broke his heart.
But they couldn't break his spirit
One of his earliest films, Ken Loach's raw, truthful re-telling of Barry Hines' gritty story is a moving account of a boy's alienation and isolation in a Yorkshire mining town of the 1960s. Awkward teenager Billy Caspar (David Bradley) has a miserable home life and a lousy existence at school.
The film focuses on Billy Casper, who has little hope in life beyond becoming a coal miner and is bullied both at home and at school. He is mischievous himself, often being in trouble at school for fighting and misbehaving. He finds an outlet in life through training a kestrel that he takes from a nest on a farm. There is a strong concentration on falconry and respect for the bird and that falconry is not about taming the bird or making it do tricks. The cruel murder of the bird by Billy's brother pains us for Billy, as much as for the baby Kes.
The novel on which the film is based, A Kestrel for a Knave was written by Barry Hines in 1968. Both the film and the book are slow-moving and provide an authentic portrait of life in the mining areas of Yorkshire around the time.
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