Film Review: Billy Elliot

Never judge a book by its cover

Billy Elliot is a British drama film directed by Stephen Daldry. The movie is set in a fictional town Everington during the 1984-1985 UK miner's strike. It follows the life of an 11 year old boy who instead of participating in boxing classes, became fascinated in ballet.

Billy Elliot, the protagonist of the film, lives with his widowed father, Jackie, his older brother Tony, and his grandmother. Both Billy's father and brother are coal miners out on strike. Jackie takes Billy to learn boxing, but Billy disliked the sport. He then saw a ballet class and became fascinated to it. He secretly took the lessons with the help of Georgia, his dance teacher. The film then goes through Billy's journey in learning ballet. He was supposed to audition for a ballet scholarship when Tony, who is a miner on strike, got arrested. He was about to quit his dreams when his father knew how talented Billy is. The moment Jackie saw Billy dancing in the gym during Christmas, he did everything to realize his son's dream. Billy then auditioned to the ballet school and later on, he was accepted. The film ended in a recital with an old Billy as the lead.

The film's plot is well-connected. The composition of the story is somehow chronological, where everything happens in the right order.

The movie's main conflict is that Billy gets torn with his father's expectations from him and his love of ballet.

The use of music also goes well with the scenes. When the scene is sad, the music is also sad. But when the scene is happy, like when Billy is dancing, the music is up beat and therefore, making the mood alive.

I think the main theme of the film is about dreams can come true, you just have to do everything to make I work. Another theme I think is also in the film is that there is a special talent hidden inside of us. We just have to wait for the right time for it to manifest.

Overall, I really liked the film. It is the best I've seen so far. I sincerely recommend this to everyone. It is not violent, there's not too much flesh exposure, and the best of all, Billy Elliot is inspiring.