Like a bird, Like electricity!

29th September 2000!

Exactly 23 years ago to-date, this classic was unveiled on the big screens for the whole world to see and relish and soak it all in.

As destiny would have it, I was working in the UK at that time. Else I may have only come to experience its aura perhaps much later as in those times, before the rampant use of cell-phones and social media came into existence, it would have certainly taken a keen ear and some luck to have come across this gem.

I don’t remember much about the day we went to the cinema to catch this movie. Had never even heard of the film or read anything about it. Perhaps we just picked it as it was the new film running. We went in sat for just under two hours more excited as a break from the routine work and the idea of munching on some freshly popped corns sat in a cozy seat inside a heated auditorium to keep us warm from the cold winds and onset of the English winter outside.

And in there, we were fully engulfed in the magic and well and truly baptised as its fan for life.

Since that day, I may have watched the full movie a couple of dozen times and specific scenes from it innumerable times and still can’t seem to get enough of this beauty!

That is the magic of Billy Elliot.

Over the years I’ve realized that the key difference between a classic and an ordinarily good film is that while the latter loses is appeal once you are aware of the plot and have experienced it once, the former, despite one knowing the full storyline and what transpires between each shot, will still continue to hold us in the same awe of admiration as it held us the very first time we experienced its magic!

The Lion King, Sound of Music, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Green Mile, The Horse Whisperer, Notting Hill, Deewaar, No Man’s Land, The Boy who Harnessed the Wind … are among those films that I count personally as some of the classics at the very top of the best cinema ever made by us humans.

And most certainly Billy Elliot is a very deserving candidate sitting pretty on that elite list.

The story is very simple and yet its impact is so deep, hence we find its appeal so mesmerizing.

Billy is the younger of two brothers growing up in a small seaside town in England. Father, Jackie, is a widower and like most men in the town the only means of an earning is for them to work in the local coal mines, where even the elder brother, Tony, is employed and is also their Union Leader. But sadly due to labour union disagreements with the mine owners, most of the time the work is shut due to strikes hence making ends meet an even more arduous task. The only lady at home is Billy’s maternal Grandma, once an aspiring dancer herself, who’s dementia keeps getting worse as the days pass.

Billy’s best buddy is his classmate Micheal who is the one person he trusts to share his inner thoughts and aspirations. Micheal is a very interesting character himself who discovers that he is gay as the boys grow up and not surprisingly it is his mate Billy who understands and accepts him without the stigma or questions the adults seem to carry around the matter.

Billy is forced to ‘man-up’ by his dad, seconded by his brother, who push him to unwillingly join the boxing classes. Billy who despises the sport from the very first thankfully comes across Mrs. Wilkinson, a ballet dance teacher, who is temporarily sharing the gym with the boxing classes, as her own dance studio has temporarily been taken over by the striking miners who have converted into a soup kitchen to feed the men on strike.

This accidental introduction into the world of ballet dancing opens a whole new world of intrigue and attraction for Billy who gradually slips away from his boxing classes and instead pays the same 50 pence per class to Mrs. Wilkinson to include him, the only boy, into her ballet classes.

It does not take Mrs. Wilkinson long to realize that in Billy she has found a future star in the making on the floors of ballet dancing.

Unfortunately for Billy though, he has to keep his ventures into the world of learning ballet a secret from both his father and more so from his brother, who from time to time mince no words in reminding him that dancing is for the ‘sisses’ and not for macho boys.

Not willing to let a potential star lose a golden opportunity, Mrs. Wilkinson, unknown to Billy’s family, books an audition for him with the Royal Ballet School in London.

On the day of the audition however, things go well overboard with Billy’s family as the police charge against the striking miners and after a long chase Tony, their union leader, is arrested and taken into custody. Due to all this hullabaloo, Billy misses his audition much to the utter dismay of Mrs. Wilkinson.

Unaware of the happenings in Billy’s family, an angry Mrs. Wilkinson drops in at their front door to enquire why Billy had missed his most important audition. The atmosphere in the Billy household however is simmering as just then Tony would have gotten back from policy custody on bail.

The news that Billy is sneaking into ballet classes instead of learning boxing comes as a shocker to both Jackie.

Here, in my view, we get to see one of the most impactful scenes in any cinema of any era.

Tony goes on a rampage verbally abusing Mrs. Wilkinson for having led Billy astray and both Jackie and Grandma sit in silence, the former in agreement with Tony and the latter feeling sad in support of her younger grandson.

When Tony suddenly pulls Billy off his feet and places him on the tiny circular table in the room to prove he is good at dancing, Mrs. Wilkinson warns Billy not to give in to his bullying. Unable to say or do anything to make his family understand his passion, Billy has his own breakdown moment as he shuts himself in the toilet and starts dancing, then he moves on to the stairs, on to the compound wall and then all the way to the edge of town, lined on each side by the typical symmetrical English town houses.

This scene is forever etched in my mind as it is so beautifully shot.

There is a steep gradient from the sea at the bottom of the viewers’ gaze to the metal wall erected at the top by the police to keep the striking miners at bay and a narrow, asphalted street runs from one end to the other and Billy venting out his anger dances away without losing a breath and keeps on going until he reaches the wall and, in the background, we see a single sail-boat making its way towards its destination.

?When the scene starts it will be a nice and sunny day with clear skies and the camera slowly zooms in on Billy to capture his emotions up-close until he cools himself down and when Billy finally starts to head down home, hearing Micheal calling his name, there is snow all around and over the houses all the way down to the sea at the bottom and he pulls up a jacket that has suddenly materialized and slowly walks off leaving his footprints in the snow.

Truly magnificent cinema making!

Billy finds that the only way out for his frustration from all things happening around him is to put more focus and energy into his new found love, ballet dancing. He keeps at it with continued support from Mrs. Wilkinson and soon there is not a moment when he is not thinking about or practicing or both. Be it in the confined space of their tiny bathroom in front of his mirror, be it on his small bed in his shared bedroom with Tony or be it in the gym long after the classes have come to an end and everyone have left having asked to him lock up the place when he is done.

One such evening, having seen the gymnasium light still on well after the boxing class hours, and suspecting Billy to have gone back to his wayward ways of trying to learn ballet dancing, an angry Jackie rushes in to the gym only to stand dumbfounded seeing a fully focused Billy doing what he does best – ballet dancing.

In that moment the fatherly affection in Jackie comes alive, as he realises that his son has found his one true calling in life and in that calling the father sees a bright or at least a different future for his young son, who otherwise would have been swallowed by the dark sands of the town where every household sees every adult male getting into the depths and despair of the bleak coal mining world with no way out from their poor existence that gradually has killed any and all thoughts from them to dream different or aspire for a better life.

From that moment on Jackie does all he can to give Billy the opportunity to try and succeed in what he loves to do. Apologizing to Mrs. Wilkinson to start with and requesting to her make one more attempt in getting Billy that elusive audition opportunity to even going back to work much against the wishes of the coal miners’ union and his own son and union leader Tony.

Thankfully though, soon enough the union comes to terms with the mine owners and the strike is called-off and everybody returns to work.

Mrs. Wilkinson manages to get an audition for Billy and for the first time in their lives both father and son travel out of their little world from their little town to big and mighty London.

The first part of audition is done with where they test his dancing abilities and then they are called into a room for a final discussion where Billy is asked what he feels like when he is dancing.

At first there is a long silence before Billy says “Don’t know” and the expert panelists all exchange disapproving glances while a helpless Jackie watches on wishing that his son was more forthcoming with his answer to their question.

Another long pause by Billy by when the panelists by their body language have all but let Jackie known that their visit to London has been a futile missed opportunity.

?But when Billy speaks again everyone is all eyes and ears on the boy and nothing else in the world exists for any of them in that room (and the same happens to everyone, every time watching the film, either in a cinema hall or at home alone).

“Sort of feels good”

“Once I get going, I forget everything”

“and … sort of disappear”

“Like I feel a change in my whole body”

“Like there’s fire in my body”

“I’m just there, flying – like a bird”

“Like electricity”

“Yeah, like electricity”

In that moment the magic is well and truly all through our veins, it is flowing in our body, the same electricity that Billy felt while dancing is also felt by us.

Shortly after that Billy gets a confirmation letter about his admission to the Royal Ballet School and the film concludes fast forwarding a few years down the road when adult Billy, a well-known name in the ballet circles all around by then, makes a spectacular entry on stage with a leap that almost portrays ironically the very leap his own life took from the dark mine-dust laden towns to the bright and glistening world of ballet dancing.

And a very proud dad Jackie is there trying to hide his tears sitting alongside an equally proud brother Tony who fails to recognize at first Billy’s best mate Micheal seated next to him.

Well that is in-short the plot and storyline of the movie and a damn good one at that.

So you may ask what transpires this from being just another good movie to a cult classic?

?In life, as in any classic film, what stands out in our memories are those simple moments occurring at random intervals that leave a deep impact on us.

It is these moments that when strung together uphold the true essence of the classic and forever stamp their imprint in our memories for eternity.

There are so many such moments in the film, but I would love to recollect a few that stand tall and bright in my own memory.

First and foremost is the lovely father and son moment shared between Jackie and Billy. Despite him coming out at times as a very strict and angry dad, the undercurrent of the love he has for his son is very evident.

“This will sound strange Billy, but for some time now I’ve been thinking of??? the Royal Ballet School”

“Aren’t you a bit old Miss?”

“No not me, You! I’m the? bloody teacher”

“Miss, you don’t fancy me, do you?

“No Billy, funnily enough, I don’t! Now piss off”?

The day the much-anticipated post comes from London and Billy just returns from school and Jackie, Tony and Grandma are all already restless, even more than Billy, to know what the message is within the yet unopened post. Billy takes the letter and shuts himself in his room making their anxiety go through the roof and finally when Jackie can’t take it anymore, he opens the door only to find Billy sitting on his chair and crying and suddenly all the three adults’ heart sinks showing sympathy for Billy only until he says “I got in”. And then we see an excited Jackie run all around town to inform his mates that his lad has made it.

Throughout the film Tony comes outwardly looking as a bullying elder brother who always talks Billy down and is not happy when his younger one listens to his records when he is not around, but in this scene when they are sending off Billy to London and Tony and Jackie come to the bus station the awkwardness of Tony who is unable to express his love and wishes in words to his brother is captured beautifully.

?And finally, the moment when an adult Billy makes a spectacular entry on to stage just moments after he is informed back-stage that his family are present in the audience.

Well, you may be wondering why all of a sudden I woke up to write this now, today.

There is a reason for that too. And, but for it, I may never have written this or at least not for a few more days or years till something else had prodded me to.

On the film’s 20th anniversary in 2020, their Facebook page had put out a celebratory message to which, a big fan for life that I am, I posted my own comment letting them and all other fans know that I was sharing their jubilation likewise.

Until recently the only person who had liked my comment on the post was a good friend of mine.

And then out of the blue I get a pop-up message on my phone one fine evening just a few days ago that I had a notification from one “Gary Lewis”.

Something suddenly clicked in my mind though I must confess I couldn’t immediately place who Gary Lewis was as I had forgotten him by his real-world name. Because for me, and perhaps, to many other fans of the film like myself, he was and will always be known as Jackie, Billy’s dad.

He had not left any comment not even a single character, but a simple???????? emoji that made me go crazy all over again for this magical world that “Billy Elliot” had created.

Thank you, dear Gary!

It means a lot to me that you appreciate my love for the masterpiece that you were well and truly at the heart of making.

I replied back to Gary on Facebook Messenger that I appreciate him reading my comment and leaving a message to which I got back this from him.

What an amazing soul!

It is a pity that none of the OTT platforms are streaming this gem in our region though it is available in the west on Prime Video. Only the Musical is available for viewers in India and while I’ve not watched that myself, I’m sure that would also be worth watching.

For any of you who are truly delighted by this film so far and have not watched it yet and would love to do so, I can lend you my personal collection of its DVD.

However you need to know that I treat my personal collection of books and film DVDs as my primary valuable assets even beyond any bank balance or stuff of materialistic value.

So you may have to return the same back to me within a day ?? even if you were to borrow the same to enjoy this amazing film.

I will leave you with some of the reviews the film garnered when it was released to further appreciate the classic that it is while I go freshen-up myself and stretch a bit to get rid of the laziness from having sat at my desk and typed away since 6 a.m. this morning to get this finished.

And after a quick warm bath I would love to sit and catch the film once again!

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"If you are making up a ten best list this year, you will only need nine more"

?- Detour Magazine

"Inside everyone of is a special talent waiting to come out, the trick is finding it"

?- UK Films

"Those who have lost faith in the British Film Industry, prepare to have it restored "

- EmpireOnline.com

"One of my favourite films ever, I can watch this again & again & I still always cry at the end. Amazing film! "

- Michelle Richardson

"I love, love this movie. I recommend it to every parent struggling while forcing their child to become something they don’t want to be"

- Constance Ferguson

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