BILLY ELLIOT
​
Plot
This is the story of a young boy, Billy, who is trying to chase his dreams of becoming a professional ballet dancer despite the rigid gender stereotypes of the time; ballet was for girls. Billy is sent by his father to join a boxing club to make him more ‘manly’. Not being to his taste, Billy take up ballet instead and joins a ballet class- not with ease however. Billy’s father, Jackie, discovers Billy’s passion and tries to put a stop to it. However thanks to Billy’s determination, he continues to take classes without anyone knowing. Billy proves to be so talented that he is offered an audition at the Royal Ballet School in London, however he misses it due to his older brother tony nearly being arrested. This doesn’t stop Billy from dancing however and leads to Jackie walking in on Billy dancing. He realises that his son is truly gifted and decides to take him to another audition. Thanks to the help of the town, they raise enough money to go to London and Billy goes on to get a place at the school and become a successful ballet dancer.
​
Sub plot
There is a small subplot in the film where we follow the story of Billy’s best friend Michael. We are shown how at the time, a time of secular views and rigid perceptions of gender, it was so difficult to come out as gay, as Michael portrays to us. Billy accepts Michael showing how as the generations grew, so did society and their views towards homosexuality.
TODOROV
This film follows Todorov’s theory as the film can be split into 5 stages.
1. There EQUILIBRIUM is an equilibrium at the start of the film as we are shown how, despite there only being 3 of them, Elliot’s family are close knit and look out for each other
​
2. There is a DISTRUPTION when Jackie find out that Billy has rebelled against him and has decided to take up ballet instead of boxing.
​
3. This disruption is RECOGNISED when Jackie and Tony realise that Billy is serious about becoming a dancer and are outraged due to fears that he may be gay (which was looked down upon at the time). However when Jackie sees Billy dancing, he realises he must help Billy fulfil his dream.
​
4. The disruption is attempted to be RESOLVED when Jackie helps raise money for Billy to go to London to attend a new audition.
​
5. A NEW EQUILIBRIUM is created when we see Billy get into the school and years later we see him happy and dancing on stage as a professional dancer while his family sit in the audience supporting him.
PROPP
A few of Propp’s character types can be identified in this film:
​
HERO: BILLY is our hero as we follow him on his journey to achieve his dreams and get acceptance from his family.
VILLAIN: JACKIE, despite being Billy’s father, seems to be the person standing in the way of his goals. He is heavily influenced by what other people think of him and his family.
DONOR: THE MINERS all pitch in, as well as the people in the community, to raise enough money for Billy to go to London and attend his audition.
HELPER: MRS.WILKINSON, Billy’s dance teacher, is his helper as she encourages him to follow his dreams and teaches him how to get better at what he does. She arranges his first audition for him and helps him attend ballet classes without his dad’s knowledge.
FATHER: THE ROYAL BALLET SCHOOL is in some ways the princess’s father as they are the ones who set our hero’s quest on becoming a professional dancer. The also offer a reward of being able to perform on stage which is tempting for Billy.