This movie had some problems!

Rating: Null/10 (1 November 2000)

I don't consider it a "spoiler" to mention a certain theme running throughout this movie that I found disturbing: Being that this film's premise is about a young boy taking ballet lessons, I expected to see plenty of scenes of his father and brother saying to him, "What are you, a homo or something?" To the contrary, the main person who said a lot of homophobic remarks was Billy Elliot himself.
Early on, he reluctantly takes ballet, telling his friend he thinks ballet is for "poofs." That word, a slang for homosexual, gets used over and over by Billy. Later, the screenwriter repeatedly points out to the audience that Billy is straight (through important plot elements that can't be revealed because they're "spoilers"). I questioned this because it was done in a defensive way...as if being gay is a bad thing. Also, there is a scene near the end where an effeminate boy Billy's age is talking to him and Billy punches(!) him in the face and calls him "bent" (another derogatory slang for homosexual). I find this insulting to the gay community because, like it or not, if it wasn't for the contribution of hard work and talented dancing that many gay men have put into ballet since its beginnings, ballet wouldn't exist.
It doesn't make sense that Billy is involved in the world of ballet, but the audience never sees one openly gay ballet teacher or dancer. If we had, it wouldn't have contributed to the plot, but at least it could have shown the audience "See? Gay people can be good dancers and do beautiful things. They don't just hang out in bars all day. They aren't just a bunch of 'poofs' as this movie likes to call them." Without revealing another spoiler, I will say there is a gay character thrown in, but he is a ridiculous stereotype. I've been involved in the gay community for almost ten years and I've never seen such a joke of a character.