Billy Elliot

Module C:

INTO THE

WORLD

• By 1980’s demand for coal had dropped by 67% since the 1920s. Why?

• There were alternative cheap oil and gas power available.• Re-structuring of the coal industry was long overdue….How would this effect the Workers? Families? Communities?

• Uneconomic pits had to close and productivity had to be increased so that in the long run, at least some Miners jobs would be secure.

Important Definitions

Trade Unions

A trade union is an organisationor group of workers who join together to negotiate , hours, benefits, and working conditions. ….. Why do we need Trade Unions?

• Union members and supporters of unions claim that they are necessary because the people that run companies want to pay as little as possible.

Collective Bargaining

• The leaders of a union work with management (the people who run the business)/ or Government in order to get a contract that gives workers what they want.

• What happens if they don’t get what they want?

Strike and Picket Line

• A Strike is when a large number of workers stop working in protest of pay or conditions. (in this case, the closing down of mines and the loss of jobs).

• Strikes are sometimes used to pressure governments to change policies.

• The workers walk in front of where they work, chanting and holding signs. This is called a Picket Line.

“Scabs”• Scabs refers to any circumstance in which

union workers themselves cross picket lines to work.

• Why are they called scabs???

• They argue that the picket line is symbolic of a wound and those who break its borders to return to work are the scabs who try to heal that wound before it treated/fixed.

A culture of violence?

• Workers on strike would sometimes forceably try to prevent a desperate worker from crossing the picket line.

• Violence would often break out and riot police often controlled situations.

• However, most workers would not cross a picket line. This is a way of showing solidarity (or support) for the union.

Privatisationthe process of transferring ownership of a government

run business, to the private

• Jobs are often cut in a bid to make the business more efficient and more profitable.

• Steps were taken by government (and the new business that now run the business) to try and stop overstaffing and overspending.

Margaret Thatcher’s Cunning Plan!

“by the 1970’s the coal mining industry had come to symbolise everything that was wrong with Britain.”

(inefficient/costly/supported = must be fixed)

Anticipating mine worker strikes, the government built up the national stocks of coal ready, if necessary for a long strike haul. (i.e. ‘strike for as long as you like .. You are only hurting yourself)

Music as a social voice

• Popular music focused on subject matter that revolved around the social issues of the time: social displacement*, unemployment*, racial conflict*, drug use*, and the responsibilities of adulthood*.

(* all aspects that an individual faces in their experience of going “into the world”)

• We hear music of this genre throughout the film. it is an anchor, tying the images we see with the social attitudes at that time.

The basic premise…• Billy’s father and brother work and live in the poor

mining community of Durham, North England.

• Privatisation and anti-union measures by Margaret Thatcher in the previous decade had seen the closing of many mines and the decline in heavy industry.

Major upheavals in employment meant threats to the struggling mining communities and the deeply entrenched traditional attitudes shaping men (which define them and restrict them.)

Consider …How does SETTING (time, place,

context/atmosphere) shape a character?

According the values and attitudes of people in Durham (1985) - What is a “man”?

1. List the qualities that (according to social expectations in 1985 in Durham) a “real man” possessed:

• Name the characters in Billy Elliot who possess – or support - the qualities of a “real man” in Durham.– Identify and analyse specific scenes to prove

your statements.

• Name the characters (male and female) in Billy Elliot who CHALLENGE the stereotype of the “real man” in Durham. – Identify and analyse specific scenes to prove

your statements.