“It's fierce, an' it's wild..."

March 21, 2016 3:32 AM

RIP Barry Hines, author of A Kestrel for a Knave that was adapted into the British film classic Kes. He also wrote the screenplay for Threads.

The real 'Kes': The Barry Hines story was based on his little brother's experiences
Kes - Trailer, The football scene, The whole film.
Threads

posted by fearfulsymmetry (16 comments total)

RIP Barry Hines, author of A Kestrel for a Knave that was adapted into the British film classic Kes.

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He also wrote the screenplay for Threads.

Fucker owes me a week of sleep.
posted by eriko at 3:47 AM on March 21, 2016 [11 favorites]

Kes is no picnic, either.
posted by leotrotsky at 4:10 AM on March 21, 2016 [6 favorites]

Threads, man.
Threads.

I'm not touching Kes with a barge pole. Just the wiki synopsis was... a bit too like high school.
posted by Mezentian at 4:41 AM on March 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

Threads, man.
Threads.

I keep waiting for "Mentions Threads" to show up in the reason to flag list.
posted by eriko at 4:56 AM on March 21, 2016 [8 favorites]

It's funny how all those sort of sixties/seventies Mainstream and Widely Distributed Depressing Films About Class (like Kes) are actually the products of relatively decent times. I know that everyone points out that UK post-war educational, housing and economic policies fell far short of the wishes of their first framers, but they had real impact - you can tell by who was able to become an artist, politician or writer, for one thing, and by the stories that could be told.

Whereas now, we get a lot of lying uplift (even when it's very good lying uplift with redeeming values, like Pride) that is bullish on the simple community virtues and the power of dance, but that elides what is actually happening to working people and the increasing eliteness of artistic production.

I was not able to watch too much of Threads - not past the actual nuclear war part - but I was watching it as part of a "let's watch movies about nuclear war from the early eighties" project, and it struck me that Threads devoted an unusual amount of time to characterization and setting, and in particular to establishing class and how the characters live. It's extremely effective, to my mind, and made me wish that it could have been more of a "how characters handle the threat of a nuclear war which then dissipates but has a profound effect on their lives" film so that there could have been more of it.

It's gotta be hell on these older left artists to die now when it seems like everything they worked for is in ruins. To borrow from Attilla the Stockbroker, I sure do wonder just who will stand up for us now.
posted by Frowner at 5:07 AM on March 21, 2016 [12 favorites]

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Both movies go so far into you, so deep, that you never ever lose them. RIP.
posted by colie at 6:12 AM on March 21, 2016

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posted by Mister Bijou at 6:19 AM on March 21, 2016

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I have this book. Through a club, while in school, back in the 1970s.
posted by infini at 7:08 AM on March 21, 2016

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posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:31 AM on March 21, 2016

It struck me that Threads devoted an unusual amount of time to characterization and setting, and in particular to establishing class and how the characters live. It's extremely effective, to my mind, and made me wish that it could have been more of a "how characters handle the threat of a nuclear war which then dissipates but has a profound effect on their lives" film so that there could have been more of it.

I've just been listening to the Barnsley poet Ian McMillan discussing Hines' legacy on a BBC arts programme. He made the point that Threads (which was set in Sheffield) was written at the same time Margaret Thatcher's polices were wreaking havoc on the city's old manufacturing industries. McMillan knew Hines well at this time, and he was in no doubt that Threads was - among many other things - a metaphor for the destruction Sheffield and the UK's other Northern cities suffered under Thatcherism. Next time I see the film, I'll watch it with fresh eyes.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:44 PM on March 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

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posted by NailsTheCat at 12:47 PM on March 21, 2016

Yorkshire found its voice in Kes - Ian McMillan
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:59 PM on March 21, 2016

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posted by On the Corner at 1:12 AM on March 22, 2016

".....while Kes was my kestrel, says Richard Hines [Barry's brother], I was no knave."
posted by On the Corner at 1:40 AM on March 22, 2016

Kes Skywalker
posted by vbfg at 5:12 AM on March 22, 2016

Threads thread fun fact: Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode is heard three times in the movie, as a reference to the fact that it is the only pop song included on the Voyager Golden Record (the one sent into space in 1977 on the off-chance that aliens were still rocking their vinyl, and so would have some idea who we had once been).
posted by colie at 5:22 AM on March 22, 2016