Kes

Kes (1969) is known as a classic, innovate film that was a huge experiment at the time and was met to critical acclaim.

How does it hold up in 2018?

First, I'll discuss the structure of the film, which has some issues purely because of the time it was released and the lack of technology that would usually be utilized to fix these things today. 
Act 1 is structured differently to the others and is kind of messy. This can be due to the poor audio and thick accents stopping some from being able to understand cues and dialogue vital to the story. Also, most of the scenes are very varied in length that leads to a kind of confusing struggle to understand the plot. This all picks up after Act 1, when the scenes are more consistent and easier to follow.

This film's plot is simple, a boy has a bird and it dies, but it suits the hyper-realistic vibe it aspires to achieve. It's one of those "nothing happens" films along the lines of "Boy" by Taika Wattiti. It's infused with politics, messaging of the middle to upper class ignoring the lower class British people. The messaging isn't forced into the movie either, it's more of an insight in to their lives to spread awareness.

The character's are for the most part pretty complex, with the exception of a few less interesting people. The protagonist himself is at first a pretty unlikable kid, but as we find out more about him his personality unravels and we see the deeper side of him. His brother is a bully, he ends up killing Kes. His character is kind of unsatisfactory, it's not bad, but it's underdeveloped slightly. He's kind of an evil slate, not unrealistic, but mean.


Kes and the boy's relationship is interesting, the idea of a young child so interested in something he knows is completely unattached to him but still he cares for it so much. This concept peaked my interest the most when the relationship with the boy and his English teacher emerges. I was hoping for more development on this, as since the kid never had a real father, it could have been a nice father figure situation, but it never went anywhere. The more I think about it, it's probably for the better. The film is harsh and real, and life doesn't always work out like a movie.
 

 The ending of Kes is a strange one. Kes is buried in the mud, and you're expecting another scene to wrap up all the loose ends in the movie, but it never comes. The movie just ends. This makes me think that maybe, despite the film focusing on the boy, it's about the boy and bird's relationship. Sure the film is named after the bird, but the bird is in the film for probably 20 minutes of it's almost 2 hour run time. When the bird dies, so does the relationship, and the film ends. It's jarring and interesting.

So how does the film hold up in 2018?
It still holds up as a good movie. Sure it's flawed in quite a few areas, but it's interesting story-line and intriguing premises really propels it to be something special.  
8/10