| Notes | Criterion Collection Blu-ray edition
Named one of the ten best British films of the century by the British Film Institute, Ken Loach’s Kes, is cinema’s quintessential portrait of working-class Northern England. Billy (an astonishingly naturalistic David Bradley) is a fifteen-year-old miner’s son whose close bond with a wild kestrel provides him with a spiritual escape from his dead-end life. Kes brought to the big screen the sociopolitical engagement Loach had established in his work for the BBC, and pushed the British “angry young man” film of the sixties into a new realm of authenticity, using real locations and nonprofessional actors. Loach’s poignant coming-of-age drama remains the now legendary director’s most beloved and influential film.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION
Newly restored digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Ken Loach and director of photography Chris Menges, with the filmmaker’s original production soundtrack, with uncompressed monaural audio on the Blu-ray edition
Making “Kes,” a new documentary featuring Loach, Menges, producer Tony Garnett, and actor David Bradley
The Southbank Show: “Ken Loach,” a 1993 profile
Cathy Come Home (1966), an early television feature by Loach, with an afterword by film writer Graham Fuller
Alternate, internationally released soundtrack, with postsync dialogue
Original theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by Fuller
New cover by Sarah Habibi |
