Kes (1970)

hyped garbage

Best movie ever!

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

To start off with I feel the need to address the claim from one reviewer that there are most only dubbed versions of this film available. If this is the case then it is a shame, because while I guess dubbing is better than nothing at all, I would encourage interested persons to hold out for the original, un-dubbed version. I saw the the original and un-dubbed version and have to say that I had a very hard time understanding the extremely heavy accents. I'm not sure exactly which part of England this film takes place but I was only able to understand maybe every third word for at least the first 30 minutes of the film. As my ear adjusted I was able to get every other word thereafter. Despite that obstacle I was still thoroughly captivated by Kes from the very first shot until the last. The score, look, and feel of this film are all so powerful that collectively they become a dynamic part of the storytelling. All of the performances are completely authentic and the story is one that stays with me to this day. I don't know why I haven't heard of this before, but it really is a must see film.

I remember when we first got a video in the early 80s and we'd only just worked out how to use it. One night Kes came on the telly and me and my brother taped it. We were about 9 and 11 years old. We watched that tape for years over and over again. We knew the whole film word for word from start to finish. My mum and dad are both from Barnsley, My dad went to school with Barry Hines. Eventually that tape either got lost or broken. Years later when I was grown up, Kes came on the telly one night so I sat down to watch it. I couldn't believe it when it came on, it had been dubbed over, the voices were different and the accents were nothing like as strong as the original. In the end I had to turn it off. I was gutted. Since then I have borrowed it on Video and then bought it on DVD and both times on the video and the DVD it is the dubbed version. You can not get the original anywhere anymore but nobody ever mentions this and I really don't understand it because it spoils the whole film. Surely there is somebody out there what remembers the original and realises that the DVD version has different voices put on. In some places it is the same but in most places it has been dubbed and it sounds awful. I just wish I could find the original version somewhere. I know that most people reading this will think that their DVD is the original version and wont have a clue what I am talking about because for some reason nobody apart from me and my brother seem to have noticed which I find hard to believe. If you own the film on DVD then I assure you it is NOT the original voices.

As much as I am willing to trust my favourite critics when they see Ken Loach as a great contemporary director, I have to admit that I had to give up on "Kes" because it was really too boring. I cannot see anything social, any big issue in it. Obviously as I did not finish, I might have just as well been not patient enough. This film has a really slow start. Or, as I tend to think that your movie reading depends on your mental state, I imagine that I was not that interested by the potential issues considered in "Kes" at the time of the viewing. It is not a bad film however, for the little I saw. You do not stop watching it shouting at the screen because it is horrendous, and I think I am likely to try it again one day. So don't get scared by my review, make your own opinion.

Celebrated socialist filmmaker worked with Barry Hines in adapting the latter's GCSE English set text "A Kestrel for a Knave" into his second cinematic feature following "Poor Cow" which won numerous awards and has been ranked seventh in the British Film Institute's Top Ten (British) Films list.David Bradley won a BAFTA for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles and he along with Freddie Fletcher, Lynne Perrie and the legendary Brian Glover are all brilliant in their first screen appearances with slightly more experienced support coming from the BAFTA wining Colin Welland as the sympathetic teacher.The burgeoning young director emerges from the BBC's "The Wednesday Play" stable with a powerful social realistic vision and an ability to work with a very limited budget but his true strength shines through in getting the finest out of his inexperienced cast who milk the script for every moment of joy and pain.I ain't going down pit.