At the age of seventy, Ken Loach directed one of the greatest films of the past decade. That film - 2006's the Wind that Shakes the Barley - is an impressive feat of filmmaking ingenuity and narrative heart; a masterpiece that many filmmakers are striving to achieve in their thirties, their formative years, and an achievement that is very rare for anyone to produce in their later days. Yet somehow Loach did it. Kes (1969), on the other hand is Loach's second film (it should be noted that he came onto the scene with a docudrama about homelessness in Great Britain, called Catherine, that was incredibly relevant for that time period and that he also had a hand in a smattering of television programs and plays before he became enamored by feature film) and over the years, the wear and tear shows. The score is outdated, the acting is sometimes questionable - though near the end we can divest ourselves completely in Billy Casper's quiet, despairing gait. However aged Kes might feel, there are leagues of cinematic brilliance that prelude, and maybe feed into, the enormity of Loach's later seminal film. The lighting in Kes is amazing. It's many scenes and the way that angles, props, and actors are staged (the movie's mise en scene) to compliment the fall of natural, pallid light recall the great works of certain painters. For me, I couldn't help but feel that Johannes Vermeer or even Edouard Manet were influences in Kes' cinematography. Also the editing technique of quick fade-to-blacks were wonderfully maneuvered This coordinated scenery lends itself to documenting the sooty realism of working class England in the nineteen sixties, a time when a significant portion of that country's population lived in poverty. Because of this, Kes was a shock to film-going audiences of the time because they weren't used to seeing the truth of their country strewn so unapologetic-ally onto celluloid. Weighing a movie's merits against it's reputation can, especially after decades, be a tricky thing to handle. Acknowledging that Kes is considered a classic (and rates #7 on the British Film Institute's list of the greatest movies their country has ever produced), we must still hone in on it's weak points in the modern cinematic curriculum. I have already mentioned the score and the decent, but not 'elevated' acting (outside of the work's protagonist) - it could also be noted that, like Trainspotting, the thick regional dialect makes it difficult to catch everything that's being said so subtitles would probably be beneficial while watching Kes. Outside of these concerns the film also suffers (though this depends on the viewer's unique perception) from deviation from the central plot to focus on society at large. This doesn't necessarily have to be a fault: to understand the protagonist's story, it would help to know the background from which his story is mined. But this is something that Loach has done time and again. He tends to briefly concentrate on the macro and shove into the background the primary anatomy of his stories - in this case, the outcast Billy Casper, from a poor mining community, and the kestrel that he finds and befriends and trains in falconry. These deviations, namely the soccer game and the scenes in the classroom, do showcase one of the film's themes: the pulverization of hierarchy, the overbearing heft of authority; this is reflected in Billy's relationship with his drunken, at times sadistic older brother. Still, Loach loses some of the heart of Kes with these sociological examinations - surgeries that work better in Barley. The rampant heart in Kes is Billy and his kestrel, and perhaps in Billy's English teacher who, for a time, takes an interest in his pupil's life and hobbies. In it's tragic close with Billy flinging his empty rope expectantly in a field, or with him slowly lifting his murdered companion from a trash bin, I found myself tearing up. Kes is integral in British filmmaking but also in understanding the hardships and loss of adolescence. It falls short of being a truly great film due to it's director's (interesting) diversions, but it's still very well executed.
CAMERA *****
EDITING ****
WRITING ****
PRODUCTION ****
ACTING ***
Total: 20/25 (Good)
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Kes (1969) 8.5
I don't know why I had such a hard time with Kes. Maybe another viewing would be worth while. Maybe I simply wasn't in the right frame of mind when I saw it. I don't know. I know that I liked it. There weren't any cinematic flaws. It just didn't stay with me and the longer I go without writing this review the less I remember about it. The question is whether or not that makes it a bad film. Is the affect that a film has on its audience a reflection of how great the film is? On one hand a powerful film like for example another Ken Loach film, his 2006 "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" could easily justify this significance. At the same time films such as Annie Hall, Dr. Strangelove, or Raising Arizona might be great films without any real deep content to grab a hold of its audience, surely this can't be counted as a weakness on the part of those mentioned or hundreds like them.
Its hard to express what I felt was lacking with the film, but basically after watching it I felt like I learned more about the 15 year old Billy Casper from reading the plot description on the NetFlix sleeve than I did from the movie. I felt like though Billy had many hardships I didn't feel much for his character as though time was never taken to develop the character past that vague description in the plot summary.
I certainly feel as though there were some strong performances by all the actors. The camera work had no faults, its just that nothing grabbed me and demanded my attention, nothing that stood out. The most enjoyable thing about it was how incredibly 60's it was. The score, the video production, the wardrobe. Which brings me to my next and maybe most important point: Mike did you notice the Hofner Colorama in the film? When they are at the concert/or whatever with the band playing? It wasn't red, but it was the exact model or darn close to the old girl we had! Which figures since it was a British film shot in the 60's, they were crazy for the Hofners back then, just ask Paul McCartney!
And one last comment to make before I wrap this up. Why did I have to watch an English film with the subtitles on? And did everyone else have too as well? Felt like I was watching a bloody foreign talkie!
-Scott-
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Scott !! - You pose a great question at the start of your review, one that I've harped on quite a bit during my 'career' as an avid filmgoer. There are a number of movies that I would prefer to watch again and again, that I consider good - or maybe great, but something like Kes might technically be executed better. How does one weigh this dilemma? You could argue from the point of view of plot versus film mechanics or vise-versa, but then, as you also mention, when you set Kes against the Wind that Shakes the Barley - both really good film that employ great film mechanics, Wind wins out. Does this have to do with pacing, believability, relatability, character-sympathy..? All? None? I haven't quite narrowed that down in my mind yet, but great question. I guess one could argue that Kes lacks an emotional pull to it - until near the movie's end. Maybe too late we sympathize with Billy Casper. It's great that this happens, but it should have happened a lot sooner.
I did think that guitar looked familiar but, for some screwed up reason, didn't realize it was a Hofner! Awesome and good eye.
Trainspotting is also a difficult film when it comes to understanding dialogue. This has to do with regional dialects. Movies like Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Nil by Mouth have characters speaking in dense cockney accents, whereas I believe Kes is supposed to articulate the Yorkshire accent? It's funny - Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery make you think you can understand a more 'native' English (this term, I am aware, is a fallacy too) but you can't. It was like this for me in Wales. The welsh are goddamn imperceptible. I wonder what the American equivelant of this is.. Maine English?
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Kes (1969) 8.5
I don't know why I had such a hard time with Kes. Maybe another viewing would be worth while. Maybe I simply wasn't in the right frame of mind when I saw it. I don't know. I know that I liked it. There weren't any cinematic flaws. It just didn't stay with me and the longer I go without writing this review the less I remember about it. The question is whether or not that makes it a bad film. Is the affect that a film has on its audience a reflection of how great the film is? On one hand a powerful film like for example another Ken Loach film, his 2006 "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" could easily justify this significance. At the same time films such as Annie Hall, Dr. Strangelove, or Raising Arizona might be great films without any real deep content to grab a hold of its audience, surely this can't be counted as a weakness on the part of those mentioned or hundreds like them.
Its hard to express what I felt was lacking with the film, but basically after watching it I felt like I learned more about the 15 year old Billy Casper from reading the plot description on the NetFlix sleeve than I did from the movie. I felt like though Billy had many hardships I didn't feel much for his character as though time was never taken to develop the character past that vague description in the plot summary.
I certainly feel as though there were some strong performances by all the actors. The camera work had no faults, its just that nothing grabbed me and demanded my attention, nothing that stood out. The most enjoyable thing about it was how incredibly 60's it was. The score, the video production, the wardrobe. Which brings me to my next and maybe most important point: Mike did you notice the Hofner Colorama in the film? When they are at the concert/or whatever with the band playing? It wasn't red, but it was the exact model or darn close to the old girl we had! Which figures since it was a British film shot in the 60's, they were crazy for the Hofners back then, just ask Paul McCartney!
And one last comment to make before I wrap this up. Why did I have to watch an English film with the subtitles on? And did everyone else have too as well? Felt like I was watching a bloody foreign talkie!
-Scott-
***********************************************************************
Scott !! - You pose a great question at the start of your review, one that I've harped on quite a bit during my 'career' as an avid filmgoer. There are a number of movies that I would prefer to watch again and again, that I consider good - or maybe great, but something like Kes might technically be executed better. How does one weigh this dilemma? You could argue from the point of view of plot versus film mechanics or vise-versa, but then, as you also mention, when you set Kes against the Wind that Shakes the Barley - both really good film that employ great film mechanics, Wind wins out. Does this have to do with pacing, believability, relatability, character-sympathy..? All? None? I haven't quite narrowed that down in my mind yet, but great question. I guess one could argue that Kes lacks an emotional pull to it - until near the movie's end. Maybe too late we sympathize with Billy Casper. It's great that this happens, but it should have happened a lot sooner.
I did think that guitar looked familiar but, for some screwed up reason, didn't realize it was a Hofner! Awesome and good eye.
Trainspotting is also a difficult film when it comes to understanding dialogue. This has to do with regional dialects. Movies like Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Nil by Mouth have characters speaking in dense cockney accents, whereas I believe Kes is supposed to articulate the Yorkshire accent? It's funny - Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery make you think you can understand a more 'native' English (this term, I am aware, is a fallacy too) but you can't. It was like this for me in Wales. The welsh are goddamn imperceptible. I wonder what the American equivelant of this is.. Maine English?
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