After watching "Billy Elliot," I had to take 30 bags of leaves from my backyard to the curb out front, all in darkness. The entire time I was working, I tried to understand why I liked Billy Elliot so much. I knew that I liked it a lot. But I couldn't figure out why. After all the bags had been moved and my jeans had been thoroughly dampened, I came to some conclusions about why I like "Billy Elliot."
First, I like it because it is well made. Now I'm not quite sure what "well-made" actually means, but I understand it more than I did 6 months ago. For me, a movie is well made if it can repeatedly come up with interesting shots and stick with them. No cutting for close ups. If a movie can stay with a great shot, it is well made in my mind. As for "Elliot," I can remember several shots that were noteworthy: the ballet teacher standing in the gym smoking; Billy and his father checking in to the ballet school; Billy sitting in the car on the ferry with his ballet teacher in the reflection of the window. These are good shots. If a movie isn't well made, it can't go any further in my mind than "it was aight."
Second, I like it because the main actor Jamie Bell (who has since been in movies like "King Kong" and "Defiance") is likable and talented. He plays troubled well, and his crooked smile is amiable.
Third, I like the story. A boy rejects the social norms of what young boys are supposed to do and pursues ballet, even when his family is against him. A memorable scene is between Billy and his father right after his father found him in his ballet class. The father tells Billy that he will no longer dance because boys aren't supposed to do that. Boys are supposed to do "football, or boxing, or wrestling. Not friggin' ballet." But Billy doesn't believe it. Why not, Billy asks. Why can boys not dance? It is apparent that Billy's father is rooted in a society that has rigid gender stereotypes, and he doesn't want his boy dancing because that means he's gay. But Billy is not gay. He even has a friend who is gay (secretly), but Billy is not. And when Billy sees Michael as he is about to leave and kisses him on the cheek, I took this gesture to mean that Billy will always be his friend no matter what, that Billy supports him and can be trusted.
Billy studies secretly for a while, then is forced to tell his family that he wants to dance. At first, the family is horrified. They don't want a gay family member. He will be normal, you can almost read in between the lines of their anger. But Billy only wants to dance. Billy describes what it is like to dance to the board of the Royal Ballet School, and to be honest, I cried. I cried because how he feels about dancing is how I feel about movies.
"Don't know. Sorta feels good. Sorta stiff and that, but once I get going... then I like, forget everything. And... sorta disappear. Sorta disappear. Like I feel a change in my whole body. And I've got this fire in my body. I'm just there. Flyin' like a bird. Like electricity. Yeah, like electricity."
Dancing is everything to him, the thing that makes him happiest. Billy articulated how I feel about movies, and in doing so, validated my thoughts that films make me feel like nothing else. (Sidenote, you know a monologue is delivered perfectly when it doesn't have the same effect on you as it did when it was said in the movie. Just sayin)
I like this movie because I can actually see the joy Billy gets from dancing, and therefore, I get joy too. I get to watch someone doing what they love. Well, I know that Jamie Bell is acting, but he could have fooled me.
This is the second film where the main characters are told something untrue. In "Revolutionary Road," April is told that the American Dream is the only way to happiness; in "Billy Elliot," Billy is told that boys act a certain way. I wonder, in the movies to come, how many movies depict characters being told lies. I wonder.
No comments:
Post a Comment