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Billy Liar [VHS] [1963]
 
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Billy Liar [VHS] [1963]

VHS ~ Tom Courtenay
3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

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6 new from £4.49 6 used from £3.50 1 collectible from £3.74

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Billy Liar was the multimedia phenomenon of its era. Starting out as a novel by Yorkshire writer Keith Waterhouse, it rapidly became a long-running stage play, adapted by Waterhouse with playwright Willis Hall, which lead to the movie, scripted by Waterhouse and Hall for John Schlesinger to direct, then a stage musical and finally a spin-off TV series. Do you get the feeling it caught the mood of the times?

The basic set-up owes a lot to James Thurber's classic short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Our hero, Billy Fisher, lives at home in a Bradford semi with his nagging parents and works as a lowly clerk in an undertaker's parlour. But, in his imagination he lives a rich and varied fantasy life as gallant military leader, suave socialite, best-selling novelist and so forth. Trouble is, he can't always keep fantasy and reality apart, any more than he can the keep two girls he's engaged to separate. Not to mention his other problems….

Schlesinger's direction brings out the desperation behind the comedy, and Tom Courtenay, at once defiant and hangdog, slips perfectly into the role created on stage by Albert Finney. But the whole cast's a joy, not least the great Leonard Rossiter as undertaker Mr Shadrach, Billy's saturnine boss. And then there's Julie Christie--the luminous spirit of the Swinging 60s--in her first starring role as the girl who offers Billy a chance of real escape. At the end, when she takes the train to London, away from the smoke and the grimness "oop" north, the whole British New Wave went with her.

On the DVD: just the theatrical trailer which is a fairly crass affair. There's been no remastering, it seems, but both sound and vision are clean enough and the print preserves the original's full 2.35:1 widescreen ratio. --Philip Kemp

Synopsis
A young undertaker escapes from his mundane working-class life by entering a fantasy world where all his dream ambitions come true. As work, romance and family pressures build to almost intolerable levels, a young lady enters his drab life, offering the only chance he'll ever get to leave the past behind.

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Billy Liar [VHS] [1963]
59% buy the item featured on this page:
Billy Liar [VHS] [1963] 3.9 out of 5 stars (9)
Billy Liar [DVD] [1963]
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Billy Liar [DVD] [1963] 5.0 out of 5 stars (4)
£4.98
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Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Stick to the Criterion edition, 20 Jan 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Billy Liar [DVD] [1963] (DVD)
Go to amazon.com and order the American version instead. Sharper, widescreen print, plus commentaries from Schlesinger/Courtney/Christie, original trailers, and a clip of the 1993 Northern Lights documentary (Waterhouse and Hall revisiting locations etc). None of which are on this UK disc.

Once again, the British lose out to the 'that'll do' mentality and get a very shoddy product. Billy Liar is the best film ever made, and deserves better.

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Don't lump this together with other gritty northern dramas!, 29 Dec 2000
'Billy Liar' isn't just about life 'oop north! It always was and always has been far less simplistic than those other gritty genres . It's whole being revolves around life's limits and how much you're prepared to trap yourself and be trapped by your own personal circumstances.It alternately lifts and drops you on waves of ambient humour and self-pity. I defy you to watch this and not want to lift yourself above the ordinary humdrum of life and, perhaps, leave something a little more remarkable behind than a crumpled up memo reminding yourself to one day do something amazing!
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars CINDERELLA, 8 Feb 2003
By wdanthemanw "wdanthemanw" (Geneva, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Billy Liar [DVD] [1963] (DVD)
... A superb widescreen copy, english subtitles, a commentary by John Schlesinger and Julie Christie (not very interesting), a theatrical trailer and a 15 minutes excerpt from a BBC serie about british cinema (very interesting) are offered as bonus features.

Tom Courtenay is William Fisher, a young man with problems. He doesn't like his job as a funeral furnishings employee, he still lives at his parents's home and spends a lot of time lying to his two girlfriends. In order to quit for a while his everyday life, he has created an imaginary world - Ambrosia - that has got some resemblance with the South or Central America bananas republics of the sixties. He is the leader of this country and people adore him. In short, he is an escapist.

BILLY LIAR has been shot partly on location, partly in studio and I often had the feeling to watch two different movies on the screen. Like Billy. The destructions of buildings shown throughout the movie add to the strange impression that a world is collapsing. When Billy meets Liz, played by a terrific Julie Christie, he has the opportunity of his life to give some reality to his dreams because Liz is so real. Let's admire how John Schlesinger, in a french New Wave style, films her strolling in the streets. A great moment of cinema.

Comedy, social study or metaphor on the Cinema, BILLY LIAR can easily be seen at different levels and is, in my opinion, a valuable addition to your library....

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Who doesn't identify, a bit, with Billy?
A great deal is said that Billy Liar is set 'Up North' and 'in the swinging sixties' which is true and all the better for it but the story it tells is just as relevant to anywhere... Read more
Published on 10 May 2006 by M. Lilly

5.0 out of 5 stars Billy Liar revisited
A wonderful, amusing and entertaining film, full of nostagia of the times, for those who have lived through them. Read more
Published on 6 Dec 2005 by kelvin433

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Perfect
In many ways a tragic tale, and a very realistic portrayal of an average young adult. Who wants to break the mould of the society he is trapped in. Read more
Published on 28 Jun 2004 by Only Me

5.0 out of 5 stars The first cinematic slacker, maybe?
A surreal comedy set during England’s swinging sixties. Tom Courtney is unbelievably funny as a working class boy unable to leave the safety of his family home and venture... Read more
Published on 2 Feb 2004 by myrubybaby

1.0 out of 5 stars 4 stars for the movie , 1 for the dvd !
It's a great movie in a poorly packaged dvd,the reviews that you might have read about subtitles and extras are for the American version only!!! Read more
Published on 26 Dec 2003 by Tomovon

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Ambrosia!
Billy Liar still makes me laugh out loud every time I see it.There are very few film adaptations which equal the original book but this one makes the grade and more. Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2002

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