How Does Billy Elliot Relate To Belonging

Film allows responders to didactically understand the contrasting emotions portrayed to appreciate individual and collective human experiences. “Billy Elliot” by Stephen Daldry, explores through the characterisation of Billy Elliot the significance of the challenges tied with adversity, the search for identity and the pursuit of dreams as a collective human experience. Daldry’s film manifests the theme of breaking a stereotype and persevering through hardships to achieve his ultimate goal of being a professional ballet dancer.

Through text, we come to acknowledge that with adversity comes difficult situations consequently causing individuals to be portrayed as an anomaly. Daldry’s use of characterisation between Billy and his father reveal

Stephan Daldry creates an image to the responders that portrays the struggles Billy has to go through to achieve his goal of becoming a ballet dancer, and the courage he has to face his whole community including his father and brother. We can clearly see the struggle which relates to many people’s human experience, to reinforce the overall struggle people experience in their life. In the movie, one scene stands out as the biggest face off between Billy and Jackie. In the dance of defiance scene, Jackie comes into the hall to see Billy teaching Michael how to dance. As Jackie walks inside the hall a close-up shot of Jackie’s face is shown to reveal his facial expressions that indicate the disappointment in Billy. Billy walks towards his father and stands in parallel with his father with a line in the middle. Daldry uses the line as a symbolic barrier of emotive divide between Billy and his father and close-ups of both of them are shown. The time stop here allows the responders to question whether Billy will be prevented from dancing further. Instead, after a dramatic pause, Billy begins a defiant dance that demonstrates to his father his love for dance and his ability to be a professional dancer. The fast paced music starts playing and Billy dances with courage and an unlike spirit, to prove himself to his father that he’s made to be a ballet dancer not a boxer. As Billy is pirouetting, Jackie leaves the hall and jogs away, Billy follows him outside and screams out loud ‘DAD!’ indicating his absolute necessity of his father’s acceptance, and portraying the human experience of craving acceptance of others and in an attempt of building up his self-esteem and getting validation from Jackie, but he walks away and tells Billy ‘Go home son’ pressisting the disappointment in