Synopsis
They beat him. They deprived him. they ridiculed him. They broke his heart but they couldn't break his spirit.
A young, English working-class boy spends his free time caring for and training his pet falcon.
Kes
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Original Writer
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Cinematography
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Alternative Titles
Kess, 케스, Os Dois Indomáveis, 小孩与鹰, Кес, קס, Kerkenez, კესი, 鷹與男孩
Genre
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Releases by Date
Premiere
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UK
London Film Festival
27 Mar 1970
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UKU
Theatrical limited
18 Jun 1971
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AustraliaPG
Theatrical
03 Apr 1970
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UKU
19 Jun 1970
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FranceU
21 Sep 1970
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USAPG-13
09 Sep 2011
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UK
24 Nov 2011
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Netherlands
Physical
23 Nov 2011
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Netherlands16
Releases by Country
Australia
18 Jun 1971
- Theatrical limitedPG Melbourne International Film Festival
France
19 Jun 1970
- TheatricalU
Netherlands
23 Nov 2011
- Physical16 DVD
24 Nov 2011
- Theatrical Re-release
UK
18 Nov 1969
- Premiere London Film Festival
27 Mar 1970
- PremiereU
03 Apr 1970
- TheatricalU
09 Sep 2011
- Theatrical Re-release
USA
21 Sep 1970
- TheatricalPG-13
Popular reviews
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A story about a boy training a kestrel during his free time, this is not.
Ken Loach is perhaps the most important socialist name amidst the filmmakers that created and encouraged the disillusionment towards modern society through the Kitchen Sink Realism. Member of the UK Labour Party for more than three decades, a party responsible for banning the death penalty, the inauguration of the comprehensive education system and the Open University, and for the abolition of theater censorship (all of this during the 60s), Kes is firmly attached to those ideals and openly criticizes the inhuman institutionalization and oppression of the working class of its time.
The most important (and obvious) source of inspiration for this film movement was the…
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I’m not generally one to advocate for sequels, but I really need to know that Billy’s going to be alright. Maybe just a quiet little film of our boy as a well-adjusted young man, finding love and raising falcons on a farm somewhere in the lake district.
...or, failing that, a slasher with him using trained birds to pluck out the eyeballs of every miserable cunt that caused him grief, starting with that bellend brother of his.
Either way, it’d be nice just to catch up.
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It's fierce, an' it's wild, an' it's not bothered about anybody, not even about me right. And that's why it's great.
A little boy, a little hawk, and the cruel, confused society around them. It's funny at times, and often heartbreaking, but life goes on. What can you do? To quote my friend after the screening: He'll definitely train another one. And I agree with him. Isn't that what it's all about?
- seen in cinema
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What makes Kes so special? Well I think Ken Loach summed it up quite brilliantly in last night's documentary Greg Davies: Looking for Kes. It lies within "The strength of the central image of a boy who is trapped training a bird that flies free"
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ken loach makes films that when i finish them i say to myself “i think that was good?” and then 10 minutes later i burst into tears.
reminiscent of both ratcatcher & where is the friend’s house (which are probably my two favorite films) but in classic loach style, it doesn’t let you hold onto hope for quite as long. the classroom scene where everyone hangs on billy’s words as he tells them how he trained kes felt hopeful as i watched it, but comes back & hits you at the end when you see billy is still trapped. he wants to give something else the freedom that he doesn’t have, but is unable to do so.
anyway you see why i am crying now 😔
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Based on Barry Hines’ 1968 novel A Kestrel for a Knave, this second feature from Ken Loach (following Poor Cow) paints a miserable image of Britain in the late sixties. It's stabilised by a first-time naturalistic performance by fourteen-year-old David Bradley as the charismatic delinquent Billy Casper and puts forward themes concerning social class along with other issues which continue to persist and which are pertinent and prominent within the filmmaker's filmography in general.
It commands a view and spirit of a brutal working-class existence and never breaks faith to its concept by unfolding into any mawkish sentimentality or endeavouring to offer up any solutions, but it does manage to unearth aspects of spirit and wit in even the direst of circumstances which keeps it from developing into being remorselessly heartbreaking. Kes incorporates many compelling and memorable moments within its a realistic dramatic framework which is transmitted with a high degree of effectiveness throughout.
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I just had one long emotional flashback after another as I watched a child being brutalized over and over again.
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Brittle, rough, sandy social brat, which is essentially a treatise about a frustrated loser in the adult world - the teachers - against the stubborn, erratic, but also lethargic spirit of youth. The free worlds that are being created also offer no protection. It's better not to look for support in the here and now. Deeply pessimistic.
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