Sightlines · reception
How Kes was received
1970 · Ken Loach · Kes on Sightlines
The arc
Distributors nearly buried it — American executives famously grumbled they'd have understood the Yorkshire accents better if the film were in Hungarian — but it became a word-of-mouth hit in the North of England and is now fixed in the canon, ranked 7th in the BFI's list of the greatest British films of the 20th century.
What’s debated
The perennial fan debate is whether Loach, across five more decades and two Palmes d'Or, ever actually topped his second feature.
Its footprint
The football match — Brian Glover's PE teacher casting himself as Bobby Charlton and commentating his own game — is one of the most quoted comic scenes in British cinema, and the poster image of Billy's two-fingered salute became an icon in its own right.
Where it stands
A 'you must have seen this' cornerstone of British cinema — the film people reach for when they say social realism can also be funny and tender.
Did you know? Brian Glover, unforgettable as the bullying PE teacher, wasn't an actor at all — he was a real schoolteacher (and part-time professional wrestler) cast on the suggestion of Barry Hines, the novelist, making his screen debut.
Named by the director
- Miloš Forman — Loach has repeatedly cited the Czech New Wave — Forman's films in particular — as the model for Kes's naturalistic look and humor.