Billy Elliot
Billy Elliot is a 2000 British coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Lee Hall. Set in County Durham in North East England during the 1984–1985 miners' strike, the film is about a working-class boy who discovers a passion for ballet. His father objects, based on negative stereotypes of male ballet dancers. The film stars Jamie Bell as 11-year-old Billy, Gary Lewis as his father, Jamie Draven as Billy's older brother, and Julie Walters as his ballet teacher.
This article is about the film. For the musical, see Billy Elliot the Musical. For other uses, see Billy Elliot (disambiguation).Billy Elliot
- Greg Brenman
- Jon Finn
John Wilson
- 29 September 2000
110 minutes[1]
United Kingdom
English
$5 million[2]
$109.3 million[2]
Adapted from a play called Dancer by Lee Hall, development on the film began in 1999. Around 2,000 boys were considered for the role of Billy before Bell was chosen for the role. Filming began in the North East of England in August 1999. Greg Brenman and Jon Finn served as producers, while Stephen Warbeck composed the film's score. Billy Elliot is a co-production among BBC Films, Tiger Aspect Pictures and Working Title Films.
The film premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, and began a wider theatrical release in the United Kingdom on 29 September 2000 by Universal Pictures through United International Pictures. Billy Elliot received positive critical response and commercial success, earning $109.3 million worldwide on a $5 million budget. At the 54th British Academy Film Awards, the film won three of thirteen award nominations. Jamie Bell became the youngest winner of Best Actor in a Leading Role. The film also earned three Academy Award nominations, including for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
In 2001, the film was adapted as a novel by Melvin Burgess. The story was also adapted for the West End stage as Billy Elliot the Musical, first produced in 2005. It opened in Australia in 2007 and on Broadway in New York City in 2008.
Plot[edit]
In 1984, Billy Elliot, an 11-year-old from the fictional Everington in County Durham, England, loves to dance and has hopes of becoming a professional ballet dancer. Billy lives with his widowed father, Jackie, and older brother, Tony, both coal miners out on strike (the latter being the union delegate). His maternal grandmother lives with them; she has Alzheimer's disease and had once aspired to be a professional dancer.
Billy's father sends him to the gym to learn boxing, but Billy dislikes the sport. He happens to see a ballet class that is using the gym while their usual basement studio is being used temporarily as a soup kitchen for the striking miners. Unbeknownst to Jackie, Billy joins the ballet class. When Jackie discovers this, he forbids Billy to take any more ballet classes. But, passionate about dancing, he secretly continues his lessons with the help of his dance teacher, Sandra Wilkinson.
Sandra believes that Billy is talented enough to study at the Royal Ballet School in London, but due to Tony's arrest during a clash between police and striking miners, Billy misses the audition. Sandra tells Jackie about the missed opportunity but, fearing that Billy will be considered to be gay, both Jackie and Tony are outraged at the prospect of him becoming a professional ballet dancer.
Over Christmas, Billy learns his best friend, Michael, is gay. Billy is supportive of his friend. Later, Jackie catches Billy and Michael dancing in the gym, and realizes his son is truly gifted. Although stunned at first, he resolves to do whatever it takes to help Billy attain his dream. Sandra tries to persuade Jackie to let her pay for the audition, but he replies that Billy is his son and he does not need charity. Jackie attempts to cross the picket line to pay for the trip to London, but Tony stops him. Instead, his fellow miners and the neighbourhood raise some money, and Jackie pawns Billy's mother's jewellery to cover the cost, and Jackie takes him to London to audition.
Although very nervous, Billy performs well. He punches another boy in frustration at the audition, and fears that he has ruined his chances. He is rebuked by the review board and, when asked what it feels like when he is dancing, struggles for words. He says that it is "like electricity". Seemingly rejected, Billy returns home with his father. Sometime later, the Royal Ballet School sends him a letter of acceptance, coinciding with the end of the miners' strike, and Billy leaves home to study in London.
In 1998, 25-year-old Billy performs as the Swan in Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake with Jackie, Tony, and Michael watching from the audience. As Billy takes the stage, his father is overcome with emotion while the other dancers watch from the wings.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Lee Hall developed Billy Elliot from his play Dancer, which premiered as a rehearsed reading in 1998 at the Live Theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne.[3] He was heavily influenced by photographer Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen's book Step by Step, about a dancing school in nearby North Shields. Writing in 2009, Hall said that "almost every frame of Billy Elliot was influenced by Step by Step [...] as every member of the design team carried around their own copy."[4]
Hall met with director Stephen Daldry, who was working at the Royal Court Theatre at the time. At first, Daldry was not convinced with the script, but said, "I liked the emotional honesty of Billy Elliot. Also Lee writes brilliant kids. And there's a series of themes in it I rather enjoyed: Grief; finding means of self-identification through some sort of creative act, in this case dance; and the miner's strike itself."[5] Working Title Films approached Daldry to become director and he accepted the offer. The BBC financed the project.[6]
Casting[edit]
Thousands of boys were considered for the lead role. The producers were looking for a boy in a specific geographical area with a dance background. Jamie Bell had about seven auditions in total before eventually in mid-1999, it was announced that he would play the lead role in the film.[5] Peter Darling, the film's choreographer, worked with Bell for "eight hours a day for three months, finding out what drove him as a dancer." Julie Walters accepted the role of Sandra Wilkinson. Walters called the script "moving", explaining, "It was a diamond in the sand [...] I loved the character, and the fact that she was disappointed on every level possible. She was so grim and jaded. Her relationship with the boy was so unusual".[7]
In preparation for filming, Gary Lewis met with miners which he said was beneficial.[8] Lewis stated that his own personal experience of the miners' strike made the role enjoyable. "My family and I were very active in supporting the miners: I stood in picket lines, I raised money for the miners and I was involved in the whole campaign to stop [...] closing the pits. Basically, it was the state that launched a complete attack on a section of the work force, a section of the working class. Lots of people responded with solidarity and that was a key element in the script: solidarity working at different levels, the collective solidarity, the economic solidarity."[8]
Billy Elliot
Reception and legacy[edit]
Box office[edit]
Billy Elliot premiered on 19 May at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival under the title Dancer.[17] It was later decided to re-title the film Billy Elliot to avoid confusion with Dancer in the Dark, another film at Cannes that year. Billy Elliot was theatrically released on 29 September 2000 in the United Kingdom by Universal Pictures through United International Pictures. In the United States, Universal Focus released the film on 13 October 2000.[18] Against expectations, the film grossed $109,280,263 worldwide, including $24 million in the United Kingdom and $22 million in the United States and Canada.[18][19] Universal Home Entertainment released Billy Elliot on VHS on 20 April 2001, and on Blu-ray on 10 January 2012. The Blu-ray includes a short documentary of the film's production.[20][21]