Happy Feet

Love and friendship plays a major role in everyday life. This is shown particularly well in the film Billy Elliot, directed by Stephan Daldry. It is set in Evington in 1984, during the miners’ strike. Throughout the film love and friendship is portrayed in a range of different ways as Billy, the main character, has a different relationship with each of the other characters. The effective use of symbolic and technical film codes and the narrative elements; point of view, plot and characterization position the viewers to challenge the stereotypical understandings of love and friendship. By applying symbolic codes the director has shown the relationship between Billy and his father Jackie Elliot to be quite unique. Throughout the film the relationship between Billy and Jackie change. In the beginning Jackie is very easily worked up, about the miners strike and the loss of his wife. This anger he takes out on his sons forcing them have to act very tough. In his time Jackie was a great boxer, therefore he wanted Billy to do boxing in order to become strong and fit. What Jackie didn’t know was that Billy was suffering greatly during these lessons, he just was not fit for boxing. Whilst Jackie was involved in the miners strike.

The progression of moving ‘into the world’ provides opportunities that can lead to growth and development. This change in an individual’s life is shown through significant experiences that force the individual to step out of their comfort zone and into the new world. Scene 10 in Billy Elliot is a scene that demonstrates the protagonist, Billy Elliot, confronting his father and family and dancing on the table. Daldry uses close up shots and editing between Billy, his family and Mrs Wilkinson, his teacher to show the tension between them and to emphasise the panic they are all in as Billy continues to confront his family’s comfort zone. The use of editing shots shows that Billy is caught between two worlds – the world of his ordinary life