KKSS PART 8

K L raw, truthful re-telling of B Hines' gritty story of a boy's alienation and brutal school life in 1960s Yorkshire
K L transformed B Hines's gritty novel 'A Kstrel for a Knve' into a moving, searingly brutal and truthful film.

Billy Casper (Bradley) is an awkward teenager, stuck in a drab Yorkshire mining town. Home life is miserable and school almost as bad. A glimmer of hope is offered when Billy finds a baby kestrel, which soon becomes the focus of his life. The relationship is all-consuming for Billy and within it he finds a vocation, something about which he can at last be passionate and articulate.

At the centre of Loch's film is a remarkable, utterly unaffected performance from Bradley, who was at the time of filming himself a Barnsley schoolboy with no acting experience. He projects a sense of brutalized sensitivity that is given maring expression in his painfully tender nurturing of the kestrel.

Loch's cinematic style is already fully formed here, with the film's naturalistic, semi-improvisatory feel, a profoundly humanist attitude, and a pervading sense of doom leavened by flashes of wit, principally the wonderful football sequence in which PE teacher Glover fulfils his Bobby Charlton fantasy.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• FILM

[NorwichGirl100]

I went to school with kids like him , the parents didnt give a rats arse about them and they'ed always pig out at school dinners because not much if anything in the cupboards at home

[neil73]

Fish and Chips for 2 Shillings! (10p). 40 years later, fish & chips will cost you anything between £3.50 - £14!! And they are nowhere near as good as they used to be.

[BreezesofConey]

I love this film. I saw it when it was new. I went to the Charterhouse but I certainly understand the idea of being isolated and bullied. School is the ultimate devastation for the underdog, the good kids, who get swept under the rug by the ruling clique.The dilemma is universal and is much the same today.

[marcN19]

I remember these days only to well.... The nostalgia this film generates warmes me more than a summers day.

[kazer4]

man we need to bring back the shiling i've still got a 1£ note lol well i think its a hand me down

[gunner5217]

"theyre not bothered about us , and were not bothered about them",

this was my school and thats what it was like, they didnt give a rats about us.

[jercx2900]

cool, i love the 4:39 - 4:40 clip, nice shot in here..

[sindlibtsbles]

Technically speaking a kestel is a falcon, not a hawk.

[movement26]

Great posting 123, I like the KKSS disguise. Colin Welland was a teacher in real life, in Leigh, Lancashire, England. Went on to greater glory writing the script for" Chariots of fire". A classic british film, one of Ken Loach's finest.

[briky71]

brilliant