Kes (1969)
November 14, 2024 3:31 PM - Subscribe

[TRAILER] Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence, for a time.

Starring David Bradley, Freddie Fletcher, Lynne Perrie, Colin Welland, Brian Glover, Bob Bowes, Bernard Atha, Laurence Bould, Joey Kaye, Ted Carroll, Robert Naylor, Agnes Drumgoon, George Speed, Desmond Guthrie, Zoe Sunderland.

Directed by Ken Loach. Screenplay by Barry Hines, Ken Loach, Tony Garnett. Based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines. Produced by Tony Garnett. Cinematography by Chris Menges. Edited by Roy Watts. Music by John Cameron.

100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (with 33 reviews). It was ranked seventh in the British Film Institute's Top Ten (British) Films.

Currently streaming in the US on Tubi and Pluto. JustWatch listing.
posted by DirtyOldTown (5 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
When I tell you this might the saddest Ken Loach movie, I want you to sit with that a minute before you watch.

He literally also has a film in which a starving woman passes out while weeping and shoveling beans into her mouth barehanded in a food bank. This is sadder than that.

It's pretty beautiful though and an amazing film.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:32 PM on November 14, 2024


Dude. The trailer. I mean, ostensibly these people are all acting but still.
posted by ginger.beef at 7:37 PM on November 14, 2024


Absolutely amazing film. It's my favorite of the British kitchen sink dramas; it is also deeply mournful. I really need to watch more of Loach's work.
posted by Bryant at 8:32 AM on November 15, 2024




as in the Star Wars parody above, Loach's films primarily focus on human interactions. what i found so wonderful about Kes is that it also includes more than that: rather than the Death Star, the star is nature
posted by HearHere at 12:10 AM on November 23, 2024


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