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Kes [Region 2]
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Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
DVD
April 19, 2011 "Please retry" | Criterion Collection | 2 | $60.99 | $14.99 |
Watch Instantly with | Rent | Buy |
Purchase options and add-ons
Format | Import, PAL |
Contributor | Agnes Drumgoon, Joey Kaye, Lynne Perrie, Chris Menges, Barry Hines, Freddie Fletcher, Ted Carroll, Tony Garnett, David Bradley, Robert Naylor, Bob Bowes, Roy Watts, Ken Loach, Bernard Atha, Brian Glover, Colin Welland, Laurence Bould See more |
Language | English |
Runtime | 1 hour and 50 minutes |
Studio | Fox |
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Product Description
Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. Kes is the story of Barnsley boy Billy Casper (David Bradley), academic failure and eternal victim, who finds release and a sense of personal identity through training the eponymous kestrel. Committed to falconry in a way he'll never be to anything at school, Billy gets abuse from his snotty peers and malicious PE teacher Mr. Sugden (Brian Glover). Only buoyant Mr. Farthing (Colin Welland) shows any interest in Billy's extracurricular activities as, he discovers this apparently useless layabout is actually highly intelligent and dedicated.
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 1.66:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- Product Dimensions : 7.48 x 5.31 x 0.55 inches; 2.88 ounces
- Item model number : 16823DVD
- Director : Ken Loach
- Media Format : Import, PAL
- Run time : 1 hour and 50 minutes
- Actors : David Bradley, Brian Glover, Freddie Fletcher, Lynne Perrie, Colin Welland
- Subtitles: : English, Turkish, German
- Producers : Tony Garnett
- Language : German (Mono), English (Mono)
- Studio : Twentieth Century Fox
- ASIN : B00007DWR1
- Writers : Barry Hines, Ken Loach, Tony Garnett
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #208,758 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #157,125 in DVD
- Customer Reviews:
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Directed by Ken Loach
Starring David Bradley, Colin Welland, Brian Glover
Criterion | 1969 | 110 minutes | Rated PG-13
Video:
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Audio:
English: LPCM Mono
English: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles:
English SDH
Disc:
Single 50GB Blu-ray Disc
Region A locked
The film contains brief nudity and scenes which may disturb young children.
Kes is a very British film, winning two BAFTA awards from its five nominations. Colin Welland won for best supporting actor and was the only professional actor in the film. David Bradley won for most promising newcomer.
The story deals with a troubled young boy, Billy Casper (Bradley). He is bullied by his older brother at home and similarly treated by his peers in school. He's insolent, not above lying or stealing and does little to encourage people to like him. He's a loner.
The setting is Barnsley, Yorkshire, in the north of England. If you have ever seen this part of England depicted in other films, you'll know that it's a poor area populated largely by working class people. In the 1960s, that was very much the case. Billy's brother worked in a coal mine, as did most of the town. The two had to share the same bed, so you can imagine how poor they were.
Anyone unfamiliar with British accents may find the thick Yorkshire dialect hard to follow. It's the main reason that Kes wasn't given a wide release outside England. I'm completely at home with the accent because my grandfather came from Barnsley. He often talked about his tough upbringing and it gives the film additional meaning for me. His father was a miner and my grandfather only escaped that fate by joining the army.
We see Billy on his paper route, taking time off to read his comic. He also steals eggs from the milkman. Milk is still delivered to each home in the UK in this manner. When his mother and brother go out to a bar on the weekends, Billy is left at home on his own. His brother beats him and the house is generally filled with the sound of his mother and brother arguing loudly. He doesn't say much at school, but is often the target of bigger boys.
Early in the film, Billy is taking a walk through the countryside and spies a kestrel. He watches for a while and sees that two kestrels are taking food to a nest. After stealing a book about falconry from a local bookstore, he climbs up to the nest and steals a young kestrel. The bird provides an escape from his unpleasant existence and quickly becomes the focus of his life. This seemingly uneducated boy has discovered his passion. He reads the stolen book and trains the kestrel.
One day, in class, he is asked by a teacher, Mr. Farthing (Welland), to tell the other kids a true story about his life. He's reluctant and says that he doesn't have any, but one of the kids mentions his kestrel. This leads to one of the strongest and most emotional scenes in the film. He's disinterested in everything he is taught and the people around him, but talking about the bird is a different matter. Billy comes alive when he describes how he devotes his time to feeding and training the bird, who he names Kes. Farthing is engrossed in the story and sees for the first time that there's more to Billy than he imagined. He starts to look out for the boy and even visits him to watch him train Kes. It's a strong performance from Welland and he deserved his BAFTA award.
The other teachers wouldn't have a job in modern society. They shout continually and are deeply suspicious of the kids' behavior. The headmaster uses the cane and doesn't seem to mind whether those being punished were truly to blame. The gym teacher cheats at soccer and punishes Billy with a cold shower for conceding a goal. Farthing is the only one who looks at the kids as if they are young people with a chance to make something of their lives.
There's a strong political message in the film, confirmed during interviews in the special features, that many kids have no chance to escape their miserable reality. Billy visits a careers officer who only seems interested in placing him in a pigeon hole. He'll either work in an office if he has the aptitude, or he'll become a miner. The writers talk about how two-thirds of their generation suffered a similar fate. When we see Billy so animated, talking about Kes, it's a sign of his true potential. Will it be recognized or will his life be written off by others as insignificant? This is the essence of the film, along with how Billy substitutes friendship with his love for Kes.
Billy's dishonest nature eventually becomes a problem for him and there are some extremely sad scenes.
The story is based on the book A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines. Bradley was 14 when the film was made and was chosen from pupils who attended the school mentioned in the book. All of the children came from one of three schools in the town. The gym teacher (Brian Glover, Alien 3) was a real teacher at the time and Kes was his first film.
Video Quality 4.5/5
The film was made in 1969 on a low budget, but looks wonderful. Criterion's restoration was approved by director Ken Loach. There are occasional white speckles and softness, but the new transfer looks natural and full of detail. This is exactly what I would expect from Criterion, who, along with Disney, continue to maintain the highest possible standards.
Audio Quality 4/5
Two options are offered on the menu: The filmmaker's original soundtrack with production dialogue (English LPCM 1.0) and the internationally released soundtrack with postsync dialogue (English Dolby Digital 1.0). I recommend the original version. Everything is clear, including the dialogue, but some viewers may benefit from the English subtitles due to the heavy Yorkshire accent.
Special Features 5/5
Making Kes (45 minutes, 1080p) tells you everything you might want to know about the film. Criterion interviewed director Ken Loach, producer Tony Garnett, actor David Bradley and cinematographer Chris Menges in 2010 to discuss their recollections.
The South Bank Show (50 minutes, 1080i) looks at the career of Ken Loach.
Cathy Come Home (77 minutes, 1080i) is an early film from Loach and Garnett shown here in its entirety.
Trailer (3 minutes, 1080p)
Booklet (22 pages) including an essay by Graham Fuller
Kes is a wonderful human interest story with a number of deeper themes thrown into the mix, although the story ends rather abruptly. The largely amateur cast was authentic and did a good job of portraying life in Barnsley. It's on record at IMDB as being director Krzysztof Kieslowski's (The Double Life of Veronique, Three Colors Trilogy) favorite film. I wouldn't quite go that far, but it's certainly worth owning. Amazon.com has it at the bargain price of $18.99 at the time of writing. I'm glad I took advantage.
Overall score 4.5/5
Billy Casper is an early to mid teen who is not so much an angry young man (his older half-brother Jud fits that description better) but an almost totally ignored kid, even by his classmates, who doesn't really relate to anything in school or at home. His mother mostly ignores him, his brother is hostile to him and in school no one much knows him. When he adopts and raises a baby kestrel hawk, whom he names Kes, his life suddenly becomes more meaningful and fulfilling. Unlike many of the protagonists of these films, Billy is presented in a sympathetic way with only a bit of petty stealing to hold against him.
Meanwhile life goes on around him in a generally harsh environment where most everyone is in a bad mood, the teachers hate their students and the principal canes students for coughing during a school assembly. There was general questioning whether the times depicted were really so bleak and discouraging and the general answer from people who live there through those times say "Yes, it was just like that". The acting, especially by young David Bradley as Billy, is excellent and the supporting cast is good as well, especially Lynne Perry as Billy's mother and Brian Glover as a bullying gym teacher. The effect is almost cinema verite, where no one seems to be acting and the film takes on the feel of a documentary.
Like others of its kind, Kes is a slice of life film, whose intention was to show what life was like for people who were not only generally ignored by filmmakers but by society in general and whose options were few. This is brilliantly illustrated by Billy's interview with a career counselor. Slice of life films are often criticized and misunderstood by the public for not being heavily plot driven and not having the usual setup of a definite beginning, middle and end. But that was the point of these films, to show what life can be like and not to be a traditional story.
Though the box and general setting may lead you to think this is an uplifting story set in beautiful English countryside, be advised that this is a very hard hitting film though one of great merit and very worth seeing.