Author Archives: ketakeeg

In today’s class, we talked about Tony’s attempted escape from the police, and how funny it was. At the same time, it was terrible because Billy watches his own brother get beaten down by the police. Since this movie is all about making tributes to older films, perhaps that scene was a tribute to “A Clockwork Orange“. The creepiest scene of this movie is when the protagonist smashes a meter long, phallic-shaped statue into a woman’s face for no reason whatsoever (she dies). This is horrid, but presented in a hilarious manner that forces you to laugh [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAB0WzTnMl4] . It leaves you feelings messed up because you’re laughing at people getting kicked in the face, raped, and killed. So, possibly that’s what Tony’s scene was aiming for in Billy Elliot, but a more innocent version of it.

When the film started, it reminded me a bit of “Kes” with the dysfunctional family and the impatient older brother. Fortunately, it was almost Disney-like. Interestingly enough, even though it deals very overtly with the definition of masculinity, all the lead characters names can be used interchangeably for women– tony, jackie, billy. The only person who has an undoubtedly masculine name is Micheal, and he’s a homosexual (or possibly I misunderstood what he was saying). Perhaps it was a coincidence, or may be these names were given to show how the lines between gender norms can be blurred just like the names.

I was surprised that the movie portrayed Mark in a relatively good light given its limited means. The book didn’t seem as sympathetic with his character, the way the movie did where even the bad things Mark does to others isn’t played out too harshly. Like the fact he’s indirectly responsible for Tommy’s death. After all, it is because of his video that Lizzy and Tommy break up, which starts Tommy’s drug use. Possibly the choice of Ewan McGregor, who usually is the good looking lead character in his films, to play Mark was also to influence the audience. What doesn’t make sense then is Mark’s justification in the end that he stole the money because he was a bad person. The audience knew that from the start, but the movie was working throughout to make us think differently, so the changed outlook at the end didn’t make much sense.