Movie

Kes

1970 · 111 min

A quietly devastating, compassionate portrait of a boy's harsh life, where fleeting moments of connection with a wild creature offer the only light.

Tagline: They beat him. They deprived him. They ridiculed him. They broke his heart. But they couldn’t break his spirit.
Overview: Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.

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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone: bleakstrength 3 of 3
melancholicstrength 2 of 3
earneststrength 2 of 3
warmstrength 1 of 3
Pacing: slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: coming-of-age
isolation
family
class
grief
Places: small town
school
countryside
Era: period
Audience: teen
Form: None
Content intensity: Gore mild
Language mild
Violence strong
Sex mild

All scales, 0 to 10

Scales, 0 to 10
Scale	Value	0 to 10
Action	1
Horror	1
Humour	3
Realism	9
Romance	0
Tension	4
Darkness	8
Complexity	5
Emotional weight	9

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Details

Genres: drama
Directed by: Ken Loach
Written by: Ken Loach, Tony Garnett
Starring: David Bradley, Freddie Fletcher, Lynne Perrie, Colin Welland, Brian Glover, Bob Bowes, Bernard Atha, Laurence Bould
Music: John Cameron
Cinematography: Chris Menges
Runtime: 111 min
Country: United Kingdom

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Kes

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