Boxing and Ballet, Thatcher and Blair

Rating: 8/10 (29 December 2000)

Of the recent-years-"coal and music"-films (Brassed Off, The Full Monty), this is probably the best, and that's because of the acting and the human warmth in characterization. Jamie Bell (look at his reactions reading the letter from the Royal Ballet School, for instance!) gives one of the best performances I've ever seen by a child of this age. More than the other movies it tells the story of strong, "emotionless" people, who "find themselves" by losing their identities as miners and workers, by searching for a last exit from their helplessness and sadness. The career of Billy Elliot is born from despair. This is the key to understand the political and historical implications of the movie. It produces an integrative patriotic myth of the nation, by bringing together opposite cultures: coal and castles, workers and middle-class (Julie Walters!) strike and strikebreaker, boxing and ballet, not at least old sexual standards and new sexual frankness (Michael!). In a way, "Billy Elliot" neutralizes the great divide in british society: the sportive elegance of the ballet reflects the pragmatic flexibility of the Tony Blair England, which reconciles the Tories with labour, and the miners with the Thatcher tradition. In the very end, everybody comes together in a big national theatre and smiles at each other. Are the people just spectators of a political play, or do they form a national discussion group? It depends on death or survival of the "swan" Tony Blair!