Period of Unrest by Ronnie Palachuk: A Movie Review
Period of unrest
By Ronnie Palachuk
In the movie Billy Elliot, directed by Stephen Daldry, choosing what direction to go in life is never easy, the struggles you face and sacrifices being made you can overcome and succeed over everything else. With the miners’ strike and Billy switching from what his father wants and what he wants, creates turmoil not only for himself but his family as well…in the end creates a world that gives him clarity and definition.
The plot focuses on Billy, the younger son of a mining family in which the mother has recently died, and Billy’s macho father and older activist brother take part in the miners struggle. Billy does not identify with the masculine world-view of his father and brother, and instead of boxing he secretly joins the ballet class. The notion of belonging to a group that shares the same values is repeated throughout the film, which portrayed class, gender and sexual orientation issues. Billy’s gender role shift journey starts as he is first exposed of a ballet class while he participated in boxing class at the gym.
A new world opens up for Billy, it marks a world of self-identity. When Bill’s father find out that he’s dancing and not boxing, his father makes it clear he’s not happy and wants Billy to quit ballet dancing. But Billy defied his father and started taking private lessons with Miss Wilkinson. Billy’s gender issues are being questioned but over comes the odds and the stereotype of what society thinks. Billy finds Michael dressing in woman’s clothing and this point, Michael embraces who he is and admits to Billy that he’s a poof and tells Billy not to tell anyone. One things that I have noticed is that fact that the village seems to be a very conservative village, gender roles are pretty much set, boys box and the girls do ballet.
Billy’s fathers perception changes he finds Billy dancing with Michael in the gym. Billy decides to dance for his father, at this moment Frankie Elliot (Billy’s father) see’s the
By Ronnie Palachuk
In the movie Billy Elliot, directed by Stephen Daldry, choosing what direction to go in life is never easy, the struggles you face and sacrifices being made you can overcome and succeed over everything else. With the miners’ strike and Billy switching from what his father wants and what he wants, creates turmoil not only for himself but his family as well…in the end creates a world that gives him clarity and definition.
The plot focuses on Billy, the younger son of a mining family in which the mother has recently died, and Billy’s macho father and older activist brother take part in the miners struggle. Billy does not identify with the masculine world-view of his father and brother, and instead of boxing he secretly joins the ballet class. The notion of belonging to a group that shares the same values is repeated throughout the film, which portrayed class, gender and sexual orientation issues. Billy’s gender role shift journey starts as he is first exposed of a ballet class while he participated in boxing class at the gym.
A new world opens up for Billy, it marks a world of self-identity. When Bill’s father find out that he’s dancing and not boxing, his father makes it clear he’s not happy and wants Billy to quit ballet dancing. But Billy defied his father and started taking private lessons with Miss Wilkinson. Billy’s gender issues are being questioned but over comes the odds and the stereotype of what society thinks. Billy finds Michael dressing in woman’s clothing and this point, Michael embraces who he is and admits to Billy that he’s a poof and tells Billy not to tell anyone. One things that I have noticed is that fact that the village seems to be a very conservative village, gender roles are pretty much set, boys box and the girls do ballet.
Billy’s fathers perception changes he finds Billy dancing with Michael in the gym. Billy decides to dance for his father, at this moment Frankie Elliot (Billy’s father) see’s the