A Masterpiece!

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This is a small, perfectly formed jewel of a film. Growing up in a similar small town, at the same time, in the north of England, I can vouch for its authenticity. The scenes and dialogue are very true to life: the paper round, morning assembly, the ordeal in the headmaster's office. The scrap in the playground, the fags behind the gym. Certainly I knew plenty of young lads like Billy Casper, though probably the circumstances weren't quite as grim as depicted - nobody I knew had to share a bed with an ogre of an older brother. The film is beautifully shot, with wonderful use of natural lighting, and very effective marrying of images to music. There are some great performances too: Brian Glover and Colin Welland have rightly passed into legend for their depiction of two very different teachers. Of course David Bradley is unforgettable, and dominates the story. The film has seeped into the consciousness of the group of friends I grew up with, and resonates still. Don't be put off by the subject matter; there are plenty of funny moments and overall the effect is to uplift the spirit.

Kes is your archetypal social realist film, set in a working class mining town in Yorkshire. The film focuses on the life of a young boy Billy Casper and his day-to-day struggles both at home and school.Billy is presented as being mischievous and deceptive. Frustrating his teachers at school by disrupting classes and daydreaming. When he's at home, his brother Jud bullies him while his mother spares no real affection for him at all. He seems to be a child in need of salvation - with little self esteem and the gradual realisation of his inevitable future working down the coal mine. When he finds a kestrel nesting in a nearby farm, he takes it and returns home to care for it. He steals a book on falconry from a local book store and starts training the bird each day.The Kestrel sparks a passion in Billy, and provides a sense of meaning in his otherwise bleak world. This passion is realised in a scene where Billy is given the chance to talk about his bird in English class. He captivates the room with his stories about 'kes' and we finally see a positive focus for Billy and his future seems a little more hopeful.As you might expect, a gritty northern realist film doesn't end on an up note. Billy's brother Jud kills Billy's bird because he spent Jud's money for the horse racing on food for Kes. Billy is shown burying his bird in the final scene - and what becomes of Billy from this point on is unknown. The film gives an honest portrait of the social circumstances at that time, with a generation of children not having their potential realised. With believable and raw performances all round, Kes is still an affecting and powerful British film.

Grim, poignant and funny, Kes is something truly remarkable. Ken Loach's direction is just wonderful, and the whole film looks beautiful with the photography and scenery very handsome. Kes also has a moving and engaging story with realistic situations that has such authenticity to it as well, while the script is beautifully written. The pace very rarely lags either, so there is seldom a dull moment.Kes is also advantaged by some fantastic acting. Freddie Fletcher epitomises the bully big brother so well, and Brian Glover is also remarkable. However, the most outstanding performance comes from David Bradley in the lead, he is very believable and very moving as well as he finds solace in the baby kestrel from the pain of his dysfunctional family life and the torment of school, so much so you do feel for him.Overall, a brilliant film and makes me proud to be British. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Billy Casper is from the tough end of town, part of a broken home, bullied by a brutish older brother and picked on at school, Billy's life is going nowhere but down. Then one day he decides to train a baby Kestrel, and with that comes a solace he never thought was possible.......Kes, adapted from the Barry Hines novel A Kestrel For A Knave, was the big screen directorial debut of Ken Loach. Loach at the time was of course more famed for his no nonsense television plays, but as it turns out, he, aided by Hines, crafted one of the finest pictures about escapism to have ever come out of Great Britain. Awash with bleakly oppressive realism, Kes triumphs as an experience because its sensitive without falling into a sentimental black hole. Glancing at a plot summary for the film, you would think it's merely another trite boy and his pet picture, but Kes is so much more than a youth bonding with something as elegant as a Falcon. It's about hopes and ideals, and crucially about escaping from dark factors and worries. But can those around him harness those things? It's not for nothing that the Kestrel here becomes a symbol of freedom. Beautifully photographed by Chris Menges, Kes gives hope to not only Billy, but also to us the viewers.Tho at times an uneasy watch, it does however have its lighter moments, none more so than a quite hilarious football match sequence featuring the wonderful Brian Glover. It's actually a moment of welcome relief when the picture is being judged as a whole. The performances from the actors are of an incredibly high standard, particularly from then new comer David Bradley as Billy. Bradley having no prior experience really benefits the film greatly because it gets extra realism due to Bradley's wet behind the ears approach. He has us in his hands from the very first frame. Kes is a truly marvellous picture, a landmark in British film making, the kitchen sink drama is given serious thought, and played out with intelligence and handled adroitly by its very aware film makers. Of course a film such as this can live or die by its finale, with that, Kes' outcome is one that thankfully once viewed is never to be forgotten. It's a film that touches me personally, with many of its functions resonating to leave me emotionally involved far more than I actually cared to be from the outset. But that is a job well done by the makers. 10/10