Liberating repressions

Rating: 8/10 (15 October 2000)

This may contain spoilers.
For the first time for many years this hard boiled cynic had a tear in his eye at the cinema!
Other have given plot outlines so I won't do that. This boy is just fantastic in his portrayal of Billy, a boy on the edge of starting to discover all that there is in this game we call life. His dancing is pretty uncoordinated but he's got a fire which burns in him telling him to do it and his dance teacher, Julie Walters with fag constantly in hand, sees this too.
One of these life discoveries is to start throwing off what represses you, in this case a blinkered family and social structure that couldn't see firstly that life isn't all the pit, drinking and boxing or secondly that mines have to be closed if there is no coal in them, and however much you strike you can't change that. The saddest line was when Billy is asked if he's been to the magnificent gothic Durham Cathedral as his village is very near there and says he'd never been taken. Billy is surprised to that his father (who sports a Glaswegian accent) has never been to London.
Luckily the miners strike was only a back drop to the story, but for our foreign readers the strike was called by the largely Communist leadership of the miners union without a ballot as a result of which led to only about two thirds of miners striking. The strike had little public support outside the mining areas who responded as one would expect with great violence to those who did continue to exercise the right to work and who naturally asked for police protection. Only Mr Wilkinson on the film hints at the background to the strike.
This is an unashamedly feel good movie which should win some Oscars. Billy's cross dressing friend has the best line in the whole thing though. Billy: 'Why have you got a dress on?' Friend: 'Oh, my Dad does it all the time.' And where do they find those grim locations?
8/10 from me, which is very high, I've only ever given a few films 9 and none 10, though 'Elizabeth' got close.