Should you watch Billy Elliot?
Who it’s good for, who it isn’t, and what’s in it. No ratings, no scores.
Billy Elliot
Film · 2000
County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.
The sides of Billy Elliot
- A miner's son who takes up ballet
- The 1984 miners' strike
- A father and brother on the picket line
Billy Elliot is good for you if…
- you like being moved by a father who changes his mind.
- you like a widowed father and his son learning to understand each other.
- you like Billy dancing his anger to T. Rex and The Jam.
Billy Elliot is bad for you if…
- you roll your eyes at a boy telling an audition panel that dancing feels like electricity.
- you can't face a grieving family in a hard strike.
About: dreams · class · masculinity · grief
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