Just who is Ken Loach? What are his films about? Why is he so highly regarded? Honestly, I can’t answer these questions without any great amount of knowledge, but after watching Criterion’s treatment of Loach’s second feature film, Kes, I’m beginning to have a greater understanding of the man and why Loach has remained a director appreciated by many since the mid-1960s.
Last year at the Cannes Film Festival I saw my first Ken Loach film, Route Irish. Kes was my second, and considering the British Film Institute named it the seventh best British film of the century my expectations were quite high.
To begin with, you are most likely going to want to turn on the subtitles for this one. The Yorkshire accents are so strong in the opening scene I couldn’t understand a word. Things improve as you go along, but the dialect adds to the difficulty. Where some may complain about such a hindrance, considering this is a film in English, it’s the first of many examples of the realism Loach brings to the film.
The next level of realism comes by the way of the actors used as the majority of them were simply cast out of the area where the movie was filmed. Among them David Bradley is pitch perfect as Billy, the young, misguided boy at the center of the story whose wayward life changes when he begins caring and training a young kestrel. Brian Glover is an absolute gem during his 15 or so minutes about midway through the film featuring him as Billy’s physical education teacher. These 15 minutes constitute some of the best and most entertaining minutes I’ve seen in a film this year.
I also enjoyed the acting of the film’s one professional actor, Colin Welland as Billy’s teacher Mr. Farthing. This is a character that could have ruined everything Loach was going for as Billy is a young boy lost amidst a society where a child’s future is hardly an afterthought as he is meant to move quickly into employment. In Billy’s case, this most likely means heading into the mine with his “brother” Jud (Freddie Fletcher). Farthing takes an interest in Billy’s training of his kestrel, or Kes as Billy has named him, and could have created a scenario where Farthing helps Billy find his way, guides him and shapes him into the next Will Hunting. But real life doesn’t work that way, and real life can often be cold and devastating… Kes touches upon real life.
Kes is an adaptation of Barry Hines’s novel so I can’t credit Loach solely for the melancholy nature of the film, but at least it has some high points that make sure we aren’t wallowing in despair for the entire film.
The BFI’s blurb describes Kes as “a classic of its time”. Criterion describes it as “cinema’s quintessential portrait of working-class Northern England”. These are important distinctions and distinctions you may not necessarily make or notice until you begin digging through the special features Criterion provides. However, what makes Kes a notable effort is that without even fully realizing Loach’s intent and the films political and societal correlations, it still carries the same message.
I didn’t know this was largely a political feature, or that Loach was considered the voice of the working class during his time working with producer Tony Garnett. After watching a series of features that include a new, 45-minute making-of documentary featuring Loach, Garnett, cinematographer Chris Menges and actor David Bradley this becomes entirely more evident as well as a great introduction to Loach and his early work. “The Southbank Show” is a 50-minute profile on Loach from 1993 that gets even closer to the heart of Loach’s work and includes comments from Garnett and Loach, but also Stephen Frears (The Queen) and Alan Parker (Midnight Express) among others. I believe it is Frears that quotes Loach saying something along the lines that, “It’s easy to make a film with style, but it’s most difficult to mimic reality.” You listening Zack Snyder and Michael Bay?
Finally, there is “Cathy Come Home”, an early 78-minute television feature Loach directed for the BBC, again focusing on the hardships of the middle class, dealing with homelessness. A new, 11-minute commentary from Graham Fuller accompanies it.
This is a release that’s just as easy to recommend you buy it as it is to tell you to just rent it. Kes is a very good movie and Criterion has delivered a package well worth the purchase. However, if you aren’t a film nut and are solely interested in a one-time watch then you really should do just add it to the Netflix Queue since this is a release bolstered as much by the film as by the features. Depending on your relationship with Loach at this point it’s as a good starting point as any I assume. I’ll know more once I finally start seeing more of his films.
