2. Kes (1969)
Based on a novel by Barry 'Threads' Hines, director Ken Loach broke all of our hearts in his film Kes. Critically, a highly regarded film the BFI have placed it in the top ten British films ever made. The story concerns a boy called Billy who is pestered constantly by his older half brother Jud and who is also bullied mercilessly in school. Seemingly with no hope of a better life, Billy plays pranks on people and gets into trouble at school. His mother despairs of him and has basically written him off. A daydreamer, Billy has no interests and will probably follow his father down the mine. He finds an interest when he hand raises a baby Kestrel (which he dubs 'Kes'). Billy learns all about falconry from a stolen book. As he trains the bird, his outlook improves and he receives praise from his English teacher for a talk he gives on his relationship between himself and Kes. One day, Jud gives money to Billy to put a bet on two horses for him. Billy is told the horses aren't likely to win so he uses the money for a chip and food for Kes. Unfortunately the horses win and Jud is raging at Billy. He kills Kes and chucks him in the bin. First of all, I am a bird enthusiast. One of my favourite hobbies is bird watching and I have four birds of my own (two cockatiels and two budgies), I know of the bond that exists between bird and man. It can be rather profound, and given that Billy has bonds to nobody or nothing except Kes in the film, it is all rather soul destroying when the bird is killed. You just feel Billy's future draining away, as well as the death of an innocent animal. The film really makes you feel for Billy. He is stuck in a poor Northern mining community town with no real prospects. Miners in the region where Kes is set were among the poorest paid workers in the Western World. The film, as per usual for Loach, takes a social realism approach to its subject matter and uses authentic Barnsley accents which apparently, many Americans were befuddled by on the film's American release. The film is universally acclaimed, I have never heard a bad critical word about Kes. It is an uncompromising look into the life of a disaffected boy.