Billy Elliot: defeat and triumph in Thatcher's Britain

Billy Elliot

Directed by Stephen Daldry

With Jamie Bell and Julie Walters 

REVIEW BY ADAM GOLDSTEIN

The depiction of British working-class life in films, beginning in
the late-1950s, emerged full-bloom in the 1990s. It has taken a particular
resonance in the aftermath of the Thatcher regime.

The contrast with the 1980s, when such films as Chariots of Fire
and Brideshead Revisited acted as mythological accompaniment to
the new right's ascendancy, could not be more stark. Films such as Riff
Raff, My Name Is Joe, Naked, High Hopes, Brassed
Off and The Full Monty recorded, albeit in varying degrees and
with differing political conclusions, the social impact of Thatcher's neo-liberal
assault.

Even films which lacked an overtly political context, such as Four
Weddings and a Funeral or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,
could not ignore the 1980s social chasms.

Billy Elliot is the latest film in this genre. Using the 1985
miners' strike as a backdrop, it is the story of the emergence of 11-year-old
Billy's (superbly played by Jamie Bell) talent for ballet.

Billy's father and older brother are both miners who support the strike
and whose lives are slowly unravelling as the desperation and isolation
faced by the strikers mounts. In this world of police brutality and poverty,
Billy discovers that his attraction for movement and dance is a means to
express his frustration and sadness, and an important release from the
oppressive social conditions he confronts.

Billy, in staunchly heterosexual surroundings, must conceal his ballet
practice from friends and family. The film explores a number of issues
related to the emergence of young peoples' sexuality — both gay and straight.
Intriguingly, Billy remains asexual, refusing the advances of both his
best friend (a boy) and that of his ballet classmate (a girl).

A number of reviewers have expressed various interpretations of Billy's
sexuality (the Sydney Morning Herald reviewer saw him as straight,
the Sydney Star Observer thought he might be gay). Clearly, if Billy
is interpreted as being gay, the film further reinforces his representation
as being out of sync with his classmates, family and community.

However, in my opinion, Billy lacks sexuality; he remains impervious
to the sexual invitations from those around him and becomes most emotionally
expressive via dance. In fact, of all the sequences of Billy dancing only
one occurs where we see him dance with another person — his teacher (played
by Julie Walters).

The film concentrates on Billy's talent as an individual. The crux of
the film is that despite the oppression of the British state and the grinding
alienation amongst the miners' community (not to mention the perceived
threat to straight sexuality that ballet represents), Billy's natural talent
and irrepressible ability triumphs.

The film offers a fantasy which most viewers can willingly embrace.
We want Billy to succeed. How could we not want him to escape a
situation where his expressive talents are denied, his home is riven with
violence due to the stress of the miner's strike and his opportunities
seem utterly circumscribed?

The film is clearly sympathetic to the miners' cause, favourably depicting
the class solidarity and culture of independence and community amongst
the miners. But the film seems to conclude that the miners are ultimately
“dinosaurs”, doomed to extinction. If one can escape this fate through
evolution, then this is to be celebrated.

Yet, this is a pyrrhic victory for the links that Billy might have had
to the struggle of workers are severed, in pursuit of a career and individual
recognition.

While the film is principally about Billy and his struggle, the implication
is that the miners' strike was inevitably bound to fail, that there was
no alternative and that a talented individual such as Billy would only
squander his gift by remaining with his class. Its defeatist conclusion
is that class solidarity is doomed to failure and that individual achievement
and the pursuit of status are the only alternative.

On the contrary, we know there will always be alternatives based on
collectivity and solidarity — especially when we are confronted with an
unparalleled and rapacious capitalism.

From GLW issue 428