Film Forum

(1969) In a surprisingly green Yorkshire mill town, David Bradley’s feckless Billy Casper is the runtiest of the runtiest: sleeping two to a bed, he’s ruthlessly awakened two hours early by his Big Brother from Hell; casually “nicks” smokes and snacks on his paper route — “nicking” a book on falconry when he decides to train a kestrel hawk he’s spotted — nailed in class for talking when he’s quoting the BBC; picked last for football, then terrorized by the coach; can’t pay attention, constantly makes excuses, can’t wait to split from an important meeting — but when sympathetic teacher Colin Welland actually goads him to speak in class, he eventually mesmerizes the bleeding carpers with an electrifying monologue on the taming and training of “Kes.” And then, in “the thrill of a lifetime,” Welland gets to watch. Loach’s adaptation of Barry Hines’ story is a triumph of austere realism, with Chris Menges’ natural light camerawork rendering lyrical an all-too-typical mill town, and a dead-on true cast of non-pros and first timers (Welland, later an Oscar winner for his Chariots of Fire screenplay, was the sole working actor). A huge critical and modest commercial hit in Britain, Kes couldn’t even get a U.S. commercial release, in part perhaps due to the seeming impenetrability of the authentic Yorkshire accents, later re-dubbed for more general release (we are showing the original version, accents and all). Approx. 113 min. DCP restoration.

A PARK CIRCUS RELEASE

Reviews

“A MASTERPIECE...The scenes in which young Bradley learns to train his eponymous falcon are riveting, unfolding with detail and elegant movement.”
– Chris Cabin, Slant
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 [highest rating]
#1 CRITICS’ PICK OF THE WEEK!
"LOACH'S MOST ENDURING WORK! Cinematographer Chris Menges translated Loach’s documentary-style realism into a quiet form of natural-lit observation." 
– Time Out New York

“STILL CUTS LIKE A KNIFE!”
– The Telegraph

“A MASTERPIECE! MORE LUMINOUS, MORE IMPASSIONED THAN EVER! A RICH FILM OF FLESH AND BLOOD.”
– The Guardian

“As classic and inevitable as Truffaut’s The 400 Blows! Superb, as are individual scenes, seemingly improvised, that erupt with enormous vérité.”
– Vincent Canby, The New York Times

“Loach is still championing the resourcefulness and bravery of those poor people who refuse to buckle down and know their place in society. In Kes, it’s there in the lyricism of Menges’s cinematography and John Cameron’s gorgeous score. It’s there in the comedy. And, most of all, it’s there in Billy himself: his smart-aleck witticisms, monkey-like climbing skills, his eloquence when describing his kestrel; even, most importantly, his ability still to feel hurt.”

– Sukhdev Sandhu, The Telegraph

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