Billy Elliot Advance English

[Matth3wliu]

Hello, can someone please give me some feedback on this common module essay

“We can never truly understand the motivations of others”
To what extent does this statement reflect your understanding of the human experience?

Texts allows us to temporarily immerse ourselves within the experiences and lessons learnt by others. It is by making these connections that we are offered an opportunity to apprehend the motivations of another person. The film Billy Elliot (2000) directed by Stephen Daldry serves as a mirror to the sociocultural zeitgeist of 1980's England, inviting the modern viewers to reflect on the transformative nature of people’s motivations over time. Daldry explores the motivations to live authentically through the human experiences of adversity and breaking the ideal pattern which are reinforced by strong gender stereotypes. Additionally, the film explores the importance of one’s desire in finding their raison d'être (reason for being), as it strengthens their identity and relationships with others. Fundamentally, Daldry employs cinematic storytelling in Billy Elliot to enrich our understanding of other people’s motivations.
 
Billy Elliot challenges society's tendency to glorify the ideal pattern by immersing the audience into a contextually disparate setting that prohibits self-expression. The film follows the teenage protagonist Billy, whose bildungsroman forms a distinct dichotomy with the rest of his community as they mechanically conform to the gender expectations of the patriarchal mining town Durham. As such, Daldry’s narrative heightens our understanding of people’s motivations to break the ideal pattern in order to live authentically despite predestined expectations and design. During Billy and Debbie’s discussion about the gender stereotypes surrounding ballet “he is as fit as an athlete”, the tracking shot accentuates the array of propaganda posters regarding the miners’ strike in the background. This deliberate composition reinforces the town’s rejection of effeminacy, demonstrating to the audience how an individual’s milieu can impede their motivations. Consequently, Billy’s interest in ballet is rendered anomalistic, causing him to question his personal identity “I don’t know what to do” & “I feel like a right sissy”. The wide angle shot captures Billy’s confused movements and the crowded proxemics within his ‘intimate space’ which has been occupied by other female dancers highlight the uncertainty and discomfort that he experiences in subverting the ideal pattern. However, Billy remains persistent to master the pirouette in pursuit of becoming a professional dancer. The montage and repeated non-diegetic voice-over narration by Wilkinson “prepare” and “go” accentuates Billy’s motivation to grasp his own ideal pattern. Not one of his cultural expectations. As such Daldry invites the audience to celebrate Billy’s rewards at the end of the film. The upward vector lines created by the escalator and the Swan Lake soundtrack reaching the climax symbolises the culmination of the ‘Hero’s Journey’. The wide and low angle shot of Billy jumping onto the stage evokes great satisfaction within the audience as he successfully transitions into his authentic self. Thus, Daldry’s film certainly provide insights that allow us to understand the motivations of others by accentuating the importance of finding one’s ideal pattern.
 
Through cinematic storytelling Billy Elliot heightens the importance of one’s raison d'être (reason for being) in order to inspire the viewers to pursue their own. By exploring Jackie’s evolution as a father, the audience becomes privy to the dichotomy that may arise between an individual’s motivation and their actions. The film exposes the impact of tradition on one’s existence, as Jackie’s perception of virtue manifests upon the machismo ideals of his community; as exemplified by the passing on of the boxing glove motif. When Jackie takes Billy out of ballet class “You! Out now!”, dramatic irony is used to highlight the paradoxical nature of Jackie’s care for Billy. In protecting Billy from humiliation for pursuing an effeminate activity in ballet, Jackie becomes an enforcer of external expectations, which inhibits Billy’s search for self-expression and also obscure his own reason of being as a  supportive father. However, when Jackie discovers Billy’s potential as a dancer on Christmas night, successive close-up shots during Billy’s dance accentuates Jackie’s shift from disappointment to acceptance. Such an emotional scene demonstrates the possibility of evocative human experiences acting as catalysts for one to embrace their motivation and raison d'être. Furthermore, the dutch shot of Jackie sitting on a strikebreaker bus portrays his emotional unease as he sacrifices his status as a striking miner in order to support Billy. It is this alignment between motivation and action which ultimately facilitated the reconciliation between Jackie and Billy’s relationship. The warming lighting, diegetic bird chirping and close proximity between the characters all contribute to mise-en-scene which illuminates a positive interaction between Jackie and Billy, highlighting the transformative impact of finding one’s raison d'être can have on one’s identity and relationship. Therefore, Daldry enriches our understanding of the relationship between other people’s actions and motivations by exploring an universal desire of finding one’s raison d'être.

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