Alex Page This movie was definitely worth watching. It captures the time in which it was produced and the harsh reality of life, especially of where it was set.Though the movie may have some slips and the direction may be a little different of what most people are usually accustomed to, you must take in account these factors do not interrupt the experience of watching it. In fact, it may add quite a bit of effect to the movie. The ending is a bit harsh and abrupt. To put it in a way, it simply "just ends" and leaves the audience wondering for more, though not in a thought-inducing good way. It just offers no explanations; even though this is based on a book, which *does* keep the story going after the death of Kes.The rendition of the actor of the lead character, Billy, is clearly not professional. However the work of David Bradley in this movie is simply excellent. Some scenes may seem forced sometimes, but overall it is an outstanding performance for the young actor. It truly engulfs you into his role and his character's situation. I would definitely recommend this movie. Despite being a bit rough around the edges, it's a heart-warming tale that is also able to teach about the harshness of real life.

samwilliams21 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.

Cosmoeticadotcom Kes is not a great film, nor even a near-great one, but it is a good film- at times very good (even with brilliant flashes), and shows how political art can be of quality when the art trumps the politics. That Kes, the bird, has so little screen time in its titular film is merely a recapitulation of Billy's reality that shows that the bird, while not the main part of his existence, is certainly the best part of his existence- at least for the duration of the film. It's odd, for sometimes when one watches an old film for the first time (especially a film of an emotionally or intellectually resonant quality): there is a tendency for them to sort of backfill one's own past. I.e.- they sort of get locked in to a place in time that seems like it has always occupied in one's own past, as if one had seen it when younger, and always carried an idea or memory of it with one. At least that's the way it is with me, and others have told me similar things. Hopefully, Billy Casper was never so locked in to anything, past or present, and escaped the life in the town's coal mines that he so dreaded. I hope he did. I knew him once.

wes-connors It's an apparently hopeless life for grimy teenager David Bradley (as Billy Casper), growing up in a Yorkshire, England coal-mining town. He is bullied at home by older half-brother Freddie Fletcher (as Jud), and at school by coach Brian Glover (as Sugden). Both teachers and schoolmates have little use for young Mr. Bradley; and, he is inadvertently neglected by mother Lynne Perrie.On a lonely walk, Bradley admires some hawks, and develops an admiration for the free-flying bird. He reads up on the falcon, in a stolen library book, and robs a young kestrel from its nest. Bradley trains the bird, which he names "Kes". His pet falcon gives Bradley purpose. Now, English teacher Colin Welland (as Farthing) admires the boy. At last, Bradley, who wants to escape his expected future as a working-class coal miner, has hope. Still, there are those who would break his spirit… This film has been celebrated as an accurate depiction of British working class, but it's much more universal. "A Kestrel for a Knave" writer Barry Hines' downtrodden youth is anywhere and everywhere. With a wonderful story, and photography by Chris Menges, "Kes" is director Ken Loach's masterpiece; it will show you how some poets are born. And, Bradley's characterization is unforgettable. Listen... you can still hear him calling, "C'mon, Kes!" ********** Kes (3/27/70) Ken Loach ~ David Bradley, Freddie Fletcher, Brian Glover, Colin Welland