Some parents may object to anything other than a negative portrayal of homosexuality. The film accepts Michael’s homosexuality without any negative implication. In other words, the parent was wrong in such a fundamental way that the child’s disobedience was justified.īilly’s best friend Michael tries on women’s clothing, as the film reveals his nascent homosexuality. Had Billy complied with that instruction, he would have missed his life’s calling. The father’s insistence that Billy box rather than take ballet restricted the growth and development of his child. While some parents might object to this part of the story, we see it as a strength. No serious injury is suffered by anyone in these incidents.īilly defies his father and surreptitiously attends dance classes. No gore is shown, and there is no thrill factor to the violence in this film. There are frequent violent clashes between the police and striking miners. The father also hits his older son, an adult, drawing blood in a futile attempt to stop the young man from an early morning foray to damage company property. In one of them, the father, pushed to his limits by not being able to support his family, by the strike, by the recent death of his wife, by having to raise a child he cannot understand, and by many other events beyond his control, throws Billy against a wall. The family pulls together in the end, but not before violent arguments. Though softened by an English North Country/Scottish Border accent, the f… word, pronounced as rhyming with “cook,” is heard in every sentence of some speeches. Billy and his friend Michael curse matter-of-factly. Billy’s father and older brother Tony curse continually. The film reveals the sacrifices required of striking union workers and their families, as well as the anguish of a community whose way of life is doomed in the face of new economic conditions. The family’s struggle is set against the background of the 1984 English coal miner’s strike in which the British government, determined to drastically reform the country’s bloated and inefficient coal industry, crushed the miner’s union, and changed English society. “Billy Elliot” also illustrates the far-reaching influence that a dedicated teacher can have on a child’s development.
(Billy lovingly takes care of his grandmother.) In this film, a friendship between two boys survives the fact that one is homosexual and the other probably is not. The film illuminates the tensions and sorrows of a family dealing with the loss of its wife and mother while the grandmother gently sinks into senility. It demonstrates the redemptive agency of love in a family under enormous stress and shows a father coming through as a parent after some egregious errors.
This warmhearted story shows children the rewards of perseverance in following their own star despite parental or popular opinion. FICTION (SOAPS, DRAMAS, AND REALITY/SURVIVAL SHOW).
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