Billy Elliot: filmresume og analyse

The story takes place in the northern England mining town, Everington, Duram in the 1980’s, during the Miner’s strike.“The Miners’ Strike was a major industrial action affecting the British coal industry. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, and its defeat significantly weakened the British trades’ union movement. It was also seen as a major political and ideological victory for Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party. The strike became a symbolic struggle, since the National Union of Mineworkers was (if not the strongest), one of the strongest in the country, viewed by many, including Conservatives in power, as having brought down the Heath government in its 1974 strike. The strike ended with the miners' defeat and the Thatcher government able to consolidate its free market program. The political power of the National Union of Mineworkers was broken permanently. The dispute exposed deep divisions in British society and caused considerable bitterness, especially in Northern England and in Wales. Ten deaths resulted from events around the strike: six pickets, three teenagers searching for coal, and a taxi driver taking a non-striking miner to work.”

Miners are on strike and it is tensing times. Billy Elliot is a young boy, whose father and brother are participating in the strike. His mother has died quite some time ago and his grandmother needs constant care. The family is suffering through the turmoil of the infamous miners' strike, along with the community which he lives in – especially his father and brother, who are both miners on strike. Billy navigates the minefield of adolescence and takes care of his increasingly senile grandmother. Billy is a wonderful boy who will do anything for his family, and everything to make his father proud.Although Billy is encouraged by his father to participate in boxing classes, instead, he falls for the girls' ballet lessons. With the encouragement of the ballet teacher Mrs. Wilkinson, he joins in with the classes and starts to express himself through dance. He knows that his father and brother think of ballet as effeminate, and if they find out that he is dancing they will be furious. Things become even more complicated for him when Mrs. Wilkinson suggests that he should audition for the Royal Ballet School, as that would mean leaving home and require money. It is the chance at a dream come true but, if Billy is to succeed, sooner or later he will need the support of his family, especially his father. When Billy's father finds out that his son has forsaken boxing gloves for ballet shoes, he is distraught: He doesn’t think that dancing is a manly pursuit, and certainly not for a miner's son. He sometimes seems cold, strict and heartless, but in reality he is a really nice man carrying a great sorrow. He misses his dead wife, but avoids talking about it. The grief accumulates frequently and the anger takes over.Being supported by the ballet teacher, Mrs. Wilkinson, Billy keeps on training secretly while the work situation as well as the problems at home gets worse. Finally, Mrs. Wilkinson manages to get Billy an audition for the Royal Ballet School, but now he also has to open his heart to his family. But in the end his father suddenly realizes that he has let his preconceptions and pride cloud his judgment, and starts raising the money to send his son to London, for the audition at the Royal Ballet School. The main themes of this touching story are dreams and expectations. Billy loves to dance ballet and it causes him to feel free from the ugly things in life. He misses his dead mother, but when he dances, the grief gets a little easier to handle. The severe situation at home is also hard to deal with, but he forgets all about when he gets to dance. He has an obvious talent in dance, but it is not all easy, because there are different expectations for Billy. His father wishes that he goes to boxing, and Mrs. Wilkinson and his friend Michael encourages him to keep dancing.