The second of a pair of 'classic' British films from the 1960s that my Dad bought me for Christmas, 'Billy Liar' is a far straighter film that 'Blow Up' that follows a couple of days in the life of Billy Fisher. Billy (Tom Courtnay) is a young adult in an un-named northern town. For Billy, work, friends, family and commitment are a frustration, an aside that get in the way of his incredible imagination. Billy is a compulsive liar, but not because of bad intentions, rather that his imagination takes over and ends up passing his lips before he has time to veto his thoughts. As such, the people around town each believe various truths, half-truths and outright lies about him. He has convinced two girls that he intends to marry them - when in fact he hardly likes either. Billy is a nice guy, but whose active mind and over-eager tongue have got him into more scrapes and problems than he deserves to be lumbered with.
I think that Billy is supposed to encapsulate what it was to be young in the early 1960s. The concept of the teenager as a separate social group had only recently been created, and with the huge difference in incomes and opportunities offered by the modern world compared to that of only 20 years before it was inevitable that social conflict would come about. Billy has freedom of choice and opportunity, money to do what he wants and an education. Yet at the same time his parents and societal elders were brought up in an entirely alien mind-set, one of settling down and responsibly earning a wage; they expect different things from him. Without anyone to guide him through these confusing choices of opportunities versus responsibilities, Billy inevitably comes into conflict with his friends, family and the greater world.
It is only when Billy meets Liz (Julie Christie) that he sees a way out. Liz is like a force of nature, breezing through the town the locals see her in hushed awe as the 'girl who got away'. She has been to London (seen as some kind of exotic and far away place in the film - "You can't just go to London" Billy says) and walks through the town like a ghost, aware of everything that's going on but touched by none of it. Only Billy seems to understand why she refuses to be grounded in one location, and only Liz seems to understand why Billy acts the way he does. Though his love for her is obvious to the audience, he seems oblivious to it, confused and awed as much by Liz as he is by the rest of the world.
Ultimately, 'Billy Liar' is a sad film that honestly looks at how people cope with the pressure of responsibilities versus dreams, and how making the choices you want alienates the people you love. It encapsulates the teenage contradiction and ends in a poignant way that I would never have predicted. It clearly influenced Ricky Gervais' Cemetery Junction, though the overall feel of this film is much more raw and grounded in reality. Holywood this is not, this is as British as they come and I'm amazed no-one told me to watch it earlier. An excellent Christmas present!
Billy Liar was originally penned by Keith Waterhouse, one of a growing number of left leaning writers in the early 60's, who had something to say about the dynamic social changes which the world was seeing after the 1939-1845 war.
ReplyDeleteThose changes were underpinned by a resurgent mood of optimism. Your comparison with Cemetery Junction is sound, because Cemetery Junction reflected an era ( the 70's) when that optimism was about to hit the buffers.
From where I stand it's been derailed since.
Billy Liar is classic!