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Kes [DVD] [1969]
 
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Kes [DVD] [1969]

DVD ~ David Bradley
4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.98 & eligible for Free UK delivery on orders over £5 with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Customers buy this item with A Kestrel for a Knave (Penguin Modern Classics) by Barry Hines

Kes [DVD] [1969] + A Kestrel for a Knave (Penguin Modern Classics)
Price For Both: £9.97

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Kes [DVD] [1969]
94% buy the item featured on this page:
Kes [DVD] [1969] 4.7 out of 5 stars (23)
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Product details

  • Actors: David Bradley, Brian Glover, Freddie Fletcher, Lynne Perrie, Colin Welland
  • Directors: Ken Loach
  • Writers: Ken Loach, Tony Garnett, Barry Hines
  • Producers: Tony Garnett
  • Format: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
  • Language English
  • Subtitles: Turkish
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: PG
  • Studio: MGM Entertainment
  • DVD Release Date: 20 Jan 2003
  • Run Time: 106 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00007DWR1
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 746 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

    Popular in these categories:

    #12 in  DVD > Classics > Drama
    #82 in  DVD > DVD Bargains > All DVD Special Offers

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
This was only Ken Loach's second cinema feature but it still ranks as one of his finest and most moving films. Billy, a disaffected young lad living on a soulless Barnsley estate, finds a fledgling kestrel and, for the first time in his life, feels his imagination gripped. With infinite patience--and a book on falconry nicked from a local bookstore--he starts to train the bird.

There's no boy-and-his-pet sentimentality here: the relationship between Kes the bird and the puny, taciturn Billy is the kinship, full of wary respect, between two wild creatures, and when Kes for the first time flies free and returns to Billy's wrist, the sense of exhilaration is overwhelming.

Although Loach never rams his message home, it's clear that Billy stands for a whole generation of youngsters whose potential, barring some such chance event, will never be even fractionally realised. Chris Menges' photography brings out all the austere beauty of the Yorkshire locations, and Loach draws believable performances from his largely non-professional cast--especially the 14-year-old David Bradley, stunningly convincing as Billy. And anyone who has ever suffered under a bullying, self-satisfied sports teacher will squirm with recognition at the brilliant cameo from the late Brian Glover. --Philip Kemp

Special Features
Original theatrical trailer
Interactive menu screens and chapter selections


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Customer Reviews

23 Reviews
5 star:
 (19)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
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 (1)
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Best of British, 26 Oct 2003
This is my favourite film of all time. It's gritty and earthy, ultimately a very sad film, for sure, and there are some shocking moments, but its social drama is heightened because it is juxta-posed against some of the funniest scenes ever made in British cinema. The games lesson with Brian Glover, doing his best to humiliate his class, is enshrined in folklore - and anyone who's ever experienced a PE lesson in a British school will relate to it. But all the school and home scenes are equally as realistic at least in part due to the improvised nature of much of the dialogue and the fantastic casting. Forget her drunken performance on Shooting Stars, Lynne Perrie is on top form here.

An american blockbuster Kes certainly aint and fans of such a genre might like to like to carry on lining the pockets of Arnie. But anybody with half a brain will surely not fail to be moved by this exceptional film.

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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Kes is one of Ken Loach's finest films, 9 Aug 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Kes [VHS] [1969] (VHS Tape)
Kes tells the remarkable story of Billy Casper and his relationship with a falcon that he finds, nurtures and trains to fly. But before you dimiss this as a kid's flick- the relationship between Billy and Kes acts as a metaphor. Billy gets more respect from the falcon than he does from his school teacher, his peers or his family. Billy is an outcast, a poor lad who is intelligent beyond his years but no-body is willing to give him a chance.

The scenes featuring Billy and the falcon are quite remarkable. Other standout scenes feature the late Brian Glover as a Sport teacher from hell whose bullying tactics send all the lads at the school reeling.

If you have ever wanted to see a film that recaptures your childhood, the humourous moments, the sad moments and the moments when adults treat you as if you are 5 years old when in reality you are 14/15, see Kes.

A British film to be proud of and definitely one to cherish.

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42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A film of power and beauty, 12 Dec 2004
By Peter Fenelon - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
In the days before Ken Loach made obscure socalist parables he made this wonderfully accessible tale of childhood alienation in the North.

Billy (an astonishingly powerful performance by David Bradley) is a misfit at home and at school, a boy more drawn to the rugged Pennine landscape that surrounds his dreary hometown than to the drudgery of school and to the eventual horrors of working down the pit.

Billy's only friend is Kes - the young kestrel with whom he forms a real bond. Billy falls foul of brutal PE teacher Sugden (the legendary Brian Glover), but younger and more understanding Farthing (the equally excellent Colin Welland) realises that Billy has found his own variety of freedom, happiness and success.

Naturally for any "kitchen sink" drama, Billy's happiness cannot last and the prospect of a crushing non-future in the mines is all that's left to Billy...

Everything about this film is near-perfect. Cinematography, acting, direction, script, location, pacing. You really sense the freedom Billy craves in his relationship with Kes; the suffocating deadness of Barnsley contrasted with the beauty of the Yorkshire landscape; the casual brutality of the school system; the hopelessness of his environment.

And yet despite the ultimately bleak ending there is a grain of hope in the film - you can't take Billy's love of nature away from him, and even if the system tries to crush him there's always the magnificence of nature close by....

A wonderful and unmissable film.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Sorry everyone
I thought these reviews could do with some balance. I didn't like it. It is such a heart crushingly depressing film about how horrible it was to live up north in 60's/70's. Read more
Published 21 hours ago by K. Söze

5.0 out of 5 stars Memories
Was so good to watch this film again after so many years after its release, very funny but at the same time moving
Published 2 months ago by David Tinkler

5.0 out of 5 stars Reality TV - but in a good way
Barry Hines' brilliant novel of unconditional love, poverty and betrayal, makes a superb film; director Ken Loach demonstrates his trademark earthy, no punches pulled style, and... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Binro The Heretic

5.0 out of 5 stars Kes DVD
One of my favorite British films of all time. The movie is based upon Barry Hines, classic 1968 novel `A Kestrel for a Knave'. Read more
Published 3 months ago by D. Sivyer

5.0 out of 5 stars Kes soars sky high
An absolutely brilliant film. True northern down to earth family life. A thoroughly entertaining and moving film about a young boy and his kestrel. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Film Watcher

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!
I first saw this beautiful and legendary film today and all I can say is, what a gem it really is!
The storyline is wonderful, the acting is truely unbeatable and "Kes" will... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Jake M

5.0 out of 5 stars Schooldays.........
I had to read the book for my school english exams,'A Kestrel For A Knave' by Barry Hines. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and could not wait to see the film. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Hickers

5.0 out of 5 stars Will always be a British Classic
You can probably overwatch this film and get bored with it over the years, but you will still have a soft spot for it and many will always have it in their top ten. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Lou Knee

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Unpretentious and Naturalistic
This is a beautiful little film about a young man at high school called Billy, who faces a grim future which was faced by his father and his father before him: working in the... Read more
Published on 7 Jul 2007 by J. Roberts

5.0 out of 5 stars Gritty, funny and witty
Plenty as been said about this film, but sometimes the humour is overlooked.

Some of the scenes in the school, with the kids filmed naturally talking the way they do,... Read more
Published on 30 May 2007 by Peter Jones

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