Instead the miners raise the money as the strike is being sold out. He is stopped from committing unpardonable treason by his elder son and his own sense of shame.
Desperate to help, Billy's father signs up to become a scab. The next obstacle is gathering together the resources to travel to London for an audition. But Billy is now psychically opened up and the relentlessness of his passion eventually alters and unifies the family.
The 11 year old is not equipped to deal with the searing contradiction between duty and desire. The arrest of his brother for battling with the police makes it impossible for Billy to attend an audition being held locally by the Royal Ballet School in London. Billy's father is overwhelmed, traumatized by the loss of his wife and the monetary repercussions of the strike (the piano must now be used for firewood) Billy's brother is violent, a union militant in a battle where the leaders are “caving in.” Art seems irrelevant and ballet a crime against masculinity, already threatened by an emasculating, hostile world.īilly is encouraged by his artistically-frustrated teacher (Julie Walters), but the real strength to challenge the seemingly insurmountable is an intangible feeling coming from deep within his own being. The 50 pence will now be put to use in the interests of learning how to dance.īallet dancing would under no circumstances be an acceptable pursuit for the young Elliot, but the family tensions created by the strike made the highly improbable impossible. During a boxing lesson one day, Billy has the opportunity to watch a ballet class. When Billy attempts to play, however, his dad closes the lid over the keyboard. The boy is attracted to music and one of the few sticks of furniture in his home is a piano, which belonged to his recently deceased mother. That boxing is a male tradition in this community is not an accident.īilly receives 50 pence a week, a sacrifice considering the family's economic hardship, and his grandfather's boxing gloves, with which to learn how to fight. The coal miners, left isolated by the union bureaucracy, have only their spirit and their fists. The mining village in the North East of England (County Durham) is occupied by paramilitary riot police. His widower father (Gary Lewis) and brother (Jamie Draven) are coal miners involved in the historic 1983-84 strike, a pivotal struggle against the Thatcher government. Written by Lee Hall, the film is the directorial feature film debut of Stephen Daldry, a former artistic director of the prestigious Royal Court Theatre in London.īilly Elliot (Jamie Bell) is 11 years old. Billy Elliot is the latest in a series of comic or quasi-comic social realist films about working class life in the north of England.
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