Directed by
Kenneth Loach
Starring
David Bradley (Billy Casper)
Colin Welland (Mr. Farthing)
Lynne Perrie (Mrs. Casper)
Freddie Fletcher (Jud)
Brian Glover (Mr. Sugden)
Bob Bowes (Mr. Gryce)
Bernard Atha (Youth Employment Officer)
Laurence Bould
Joey Kane (Comedian at Pub)
Ted Carroll
Robert Naylor (MacDowell)
Agnes Drumgoon
George Speed (Billy's Friend)
Desmond Guthrie
Eric Bolderson (Farmer)
Joe Miller (Mother's Friend)
Beryl Carroll
Julie Shakespeare
Billy Dean (Fish and Chip Shop Man)
Geoffrey Banks (Mathematics Teacher)
John Grayson
Duggie Brown (Milkman)
Trevor Hesketh (Mr. Crossley)
Stephen Crossland (Billy's Friend)
Harry Markham
David Glover (Tibbutt)
Frank Norton (Billy's Friend)
Martin Harley (Billy's Friend)
Leslie Stringer
Zoe Sutherland (Librarian)
Written by
Tony Garnett
Barry Hines (also novel A Kestrel For A Knave)
Kenneth Loach
Original music by
John
Cameron |
This was only Ken Loach's second cinema feature
but it still ranks as one of his finest and most moving films.
Billy, a disaffected young lad living on a soulless Barnsley
estate, finds a fledgling kestrel and, for the first time in
his life, feels his imagination gripped. With infinite patience--and
a book on falconry nicked from a local bookstore--he starts to
train the bird. There's no boy-and-his-pet sentimentality here:
the relationship between Kes the bird and the puny, taciturn
Billy is the kinship, full of wary respect, between two wild
creatures, and when Kes for the first time flies free and returns
to Billy's wrist, the sense of exhilaration is overwhelming.
Although Loach never rams his message home, it's clear that Billy
stands for a whole generation of youngsters whose potential,
barring some such chance event, will never be even fractionally
realised. Chris Menges' photography brings out all the austere
beauty of the Yorkshire locations, and Loach draws believable
performances from his largely non-professional cast--especially
the 14-year-old David Bradley, stunningly convincing as Billy.
And anyone who has ever suffered under a bullying, self-satisfied
sports teacher will squirm with recognition at the brilliant
cameo from the late Brian Glover. --Philip
Kemp
Kes
[DVD] (UK)
Kes
[VHS] (UK)
The
Play of "Kes" (UK)
by Barry Hines, Allan Stronach
Kes
(UK)
Barry Hines, Lawrence Till
A
Kestrel for a Knave (UK)
by Barry Hines
Kes:
A Play
by Barry Hines, Allan Stronach
Other
Great Films from 1969
Dramatic
Film Masterpieces
Kes
(poster) 
Loach
on Loach
by Graham Fuller, Ken Loach
The
Kestrel
by Gordon Riddle
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"Kes"
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