Preview

Billy Elliot Family

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1309 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Billy Elliot Family
Describe at least ONE idea that was worth learning about in the text(s). Explain why the idea was worth learning about in the text(s) as a whole, using examples of visual and/or oral language features to support your ideas.

The film Billy Elliot directed by Stephen Daldry, is set in the miners town of Durham in the north east of Engand in the 1980’s. The film focuses on Billy Elliot, a 12 year old boy who is pressured and abused by his violent family as he tries to pursue his love of dancing in a predominantly miners town where ballet is for girls. An idea I felt was worth learning about tin the film was the idea of family relations. I believe this idea was worth learning about because it showed me why Jackie and Billy held such disdain for Billy’s ballet, Billy’s feelings as a result of his families pressure and that family bonds can overcome great adversity. Throughout the film, Daldry uses a range of film techniques to portray this idea of family relations.

The first reason why the idea of family relations was worth learning about was because it showed me why Billy and Jackie held such disdain for Billy’s ballet. Throughout the film, Billy and Jackie represent the major obstacle Billy has to overcome to pursue his love of ballet. Following the recent death of Tony and Billy’ mother (Jackie’s wife) everyone in the family is wrought with grief. Adding to this is the intensity of the miner’s strike going on in the town which Jackie and Tony are involved in. In this tense home environment, the last thing they wanted was their son to be doing ballet, especially in the highly stereotypical society they lived in where ballet dancers are labeled as ‘poofs’. The main reason Tony and Jackie hated ballet so much, was because it reflects badly on the family. Tony and Jackie are great fans of boxing and push Billy towards it, even though he is blatantly useless at boxing. With the high pressure of the time they are in, Billy’s doing ballet is the last straw and Jackie

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Harper Lee Bravery Quotes

    • 1106 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Describe an idea that was worth learning about in a text you studied this year. Explain why this idea was worth learning about.…

    • 1106 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Billy Elliot is an eleven year old boy who stumbles out of the boxing ring and into ballet lessons. He learns to deal with many trials and triumphs as he hopes to change his family's set ways and the inner conflict between them.…

    • 758 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The film Billy Elliot addresses the theme of ‘into the world’ through various camera techniques, dialogue and themes. The theme of ‘into the world’ is mirrors by the theme of individual growth. Billy unmistakably grows as an individual as he is able to make the transition between being a minor’s son during 84-85, expected to follow a traditional path into mining and participating in sports such as boxing to pursuing a career as a professional ballet dancer. This transition is reflected through the scenes when Billy is seen running the streets of Everington with his boxing gloves around his shoulders and the later scene where Billy replaces them with ballet shoes. Additionally, there is a pan of the students’ lower body of Mrs. Wilkinson’s class. Here we see Billy in his boxing boots practicing ballet amongst the students wearing ballet shoes. These scenes clearly display Billy’s movement into a new world.…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wilkinson’s sense of belonging to ballet is shaped through her life experience. During one of the setbacks, Ms. Wilkinson and Billy are waiting on the bridge. When Ms. Wilkinson tells Billy the story Swan Lake, she is implying a metaphor for her own life. She was once a ballet dancer like the girl who was the princess; she was entrapped in the town like the princess who was turned into a swan; she used to have a strong sense of belonging to ballet but now it is dead, just like the wrong ending she tells Billy “she’s dead… it’s just a ghost story.” Her sense of belonging is dead because of her life experience. Through a long shot at bottom angle, the composer shows the magnificent steel bridge, which is like a huge cage exerting a massive depression to both characters. Audience can also experience the pressure, from Billy’s point of view. The bridge is the symbol of the town which entraps both of them. The next shot shows Billy is looking up the bridge like a bird who wants to break the cage, whereas Ms. Wilkinson just smokes and doesn’t even bother looking at anything. This indicates that Billy wants to break the cage and see the outside world, whereas Ms. Wilkinson has lost all motivation to chase her dream and accepts what she has now. Her sense of belonging to ballet is re-shaped by her life experience in Everington where ballet dance is not…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Pipers Son

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In your view, what distinctive ideas are explored in your prescribed text? Analyse how these ideas are developed throughout the text by examining the ideas, form and language used in the text.…

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Simple Gift Text Analysis

    • 845 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Billy feels distanced from his father, school, his town and the community. Josie feels different towards her family as she does not relate to her Italian heritage or fit in with her Australian friends either. The aspect of not belonging in Matilda is within her very own family. These all pushed them on to the path of belonging.…

    • 845 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    An individual's willingness to step out of their comfort zone determines the pathway and significant experiences that they face in their transition into the new world. This concept has been successfully conveyed through Daldry’s film, Billy Elliot, which explores multiple perspectives and their response to life situations as they move into the new world. Both Billy and his brother Tony are confronted with a violent and underprivileged life, with the adverse effects of the mining strike among the working class that they belong to. Tony conforms to society's expectations by taking part in the miners strike and has an overall defiant and violent attitude whereas Billy is seen as a sensitive and caring young boy who struggles to fit in the male stereotype put down. This stark comparison is presented effectively in sequence seven during Tony’s arrest where a long shot is seen of the riot police advancing on the strikers. The non-diegetic sounds of The Clash’s “London Calling” which lyrics go, “Now war is declared and battle come down” effectively captures the angst and anger felt by the miners during the strike. This scene is quickly contrasted to billy standing on a brick wall that has him in an elevated position with a low angle compared to his brother who is now lying on the floor being beat by the police, suggesting their different partaking in the strike and overall temperament. Tony’s change only comes about when he decided to accept his brothers dreams by stepping out of his comfort zone and past opinions on gender stereotypes. If Billy didn't have the courage to pursue his dream than the path that not only both the brothers but also Jackie wouldn’t have positively flourished.…

    • 1547 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The topic that stood to me the most was point illustration explanation (PIE). PIE makes the reader understand one’s purpose better. When using PIE, the…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Word Doc

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Billy Elliot’s interaction with the world of boxing is portrayed as chaotic. Daldry’s use of dizzying camera angles, ridiculous choreography, distracting piano playing in the background and aggressive yelling from the coach and Billy’s dad, convey Billy sense of pressure and confusion. The knock out marks his failure and the coach’s words, “You are a disgrace to this gym and to these boxing gloves” states the reality that Billy does not belong to his father’s world of boxing.…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Families In The Outsiders

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Sometimes, just because you may be related to a person, it doesn't make them family. This was a theme that was beaten into to us throughout the story of the Outsiders. So many characters dealt with fathers beating them, mothers turning a blind eye, whether it was from sheer will or from drug abuse. The “Greasers” and the “Socs” both had to deal with parents abandoning them, being neglected, and not having parents there when their own children needed them most. It seemed like if you had a kid in this story that was even a little essential to the plot, you were the epitome of bad parenting.…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    the simple gift essay

    • 1027 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the first part of the story Billy lacks connection in every aspect mentioned. In terms of people, Billy disowns his father for many reasons. His upbringing influenced what turned into hate. Through the technique of metaphor he says “he gave me one hard backhander across the face, so hard I fell down… and slammed the door on my sporting childhood” explaining how his father physically and psychologically push him away. He does not use father but ‘Him’, even reducing him to the “old Bastard”. Through this passage Billy’s alienating and abusive father is apparent. Billy pushes his connection to the person closest to him because it is what he has been taught. He turns into a social outcast because of this.…

    • 1027 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    2.2 consider an important theme in your text and to what extent is it relevant in our lives today…

    • 1574 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Billy Elliot

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This essay examines the visual representations of working-class masculinity portrayed in Stephen Daldry‟s stage musical adaptation of the film Billy Elliot (2000). After a brief discussion of the portrayal of the male ballet dancer in the dancing scene since the 1990s and the inherent voyeuristic inclinations of contemporary audiences, the analysis will focus on five aspects of male presence in Billy Elliot the Musical (2005). The dynamics of working-class masculinity will be contextualised within the framework of the family, the older female, the community, the self and the act of dancing itself. These aspects will be referenced using reviews of the musical version of the work and articles written on the film of Billy Elliot. However, have today‟s audiences conditioned their gendered gaze to allow for the male ballet dancer to dominate the contemporary stage? Or do we still control our social perceptions and cultural associations with out-of-date images of the past? Have popular perceptions about the male ballet dancer changed? Is there a birth of a new male dancer phenomenon?…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Billy Elliot

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages

    in this gritty coming-of-age drama about a young son of a poor English coal miner who dreams of being a ballet dancer. The film is set during a 1984 miners' strike in Durham county, where angry clashes between picketers and cops in riot gear are nearly daily occurrences. Among the most vociferous protestors are Tony (Jamie Driven) and his dad (Gary Lewis), who nags his youngest son Billy (Jamie Bell) into taking boxing classes. Though the kid can do some fancy footwork, he can't take a punch. One day at the gym, he notices a ballet class taught by hard-bitten Mrs. Wilkinson (Julie Walters), whose young daughter dares him to join. When his father gets wind of this less-than-manly pursuit, he pulls him from the class. Sensing a raw and natural talent, Mrs. Wilkinson offers to teach the lad for free in preparation for the local auditions to the Royal Ballet School. When Tony gets in trouble with the cops, Billy is forced to miss the trials, leading to a confrontation between Billy's pop and Ms. Wilkinson. Though at first he steadfastly refuses to consider his son's desires of going into ballet, he comes to realize that this might be the one shot that Billy has in order to escape the danger and grinding tedium of a miner's…

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Billy Elliot

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The author of the article is Andy Borowitz, born January 4th, 1958. He is an American comedian. He wrote the article “Alarm Bells” to “The New Yorker”, edition Sept. 26, 2011, about net dating. The article has a very ironical angle told by the main character, who might be the author himself in 1st person. But is it all irony?…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays