Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall Essay

In this make, based upon a screenplay by Keith Waterhouse and Willis H solely from a novel from Waterhouse (which written in 1959 influenced by the prevailing theme of the mid-fifties the protest of the angry young men), director John Schlesinger creates the fantasized world of wand fisherman (Tom Courtenay), a young man working at the Shadrack and Duxbury funeral parlor who dreams of bonnie a great writer. Julie Christie provides some romance for the awkward clerk.Denys Coops cinematography effectively captures the drab life and imaginative world of billys existence, lending further relevance to the take away in real life. Billy is an original timbre whose fantasy life is funny throughout. Known to his officemates as Billy Liar because he is a compulsive liar, Fisher escapes his dour existence by creating a fantasy life as the military leader of the fictional, semi-fascist kingdom of Ambrosia. This fantasy supplies the power and control lacking in his effortless life where he feels trapped in his job at the funeral parlor.Though chronic fiction is not admirable and his coldness towards his family and his fiancees is dislikable trait, still, overall, Billy is an attractive character, and we can pity him as his rather pathetic pretenses be exposed, while still comprehend the justness of the exposure. Waterhouse has managed to mirror the basic nature of people being dissatisfied with what we have and therefore devising all means to be what we dream to be. Billy Liar remains a pleasing counterpoint to the depressive movies Room at the Top (1958) and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960).According to Gale (1996), this film that was originally a novel led some commentators to place Waterhouse in the Angry Young Men School. It is in some ways a study of provincial dissatisfaction. Our lives are very similar to Billy in many ways, the reality and fantasy of who we are sharply at odds. Most of us live with a family which is the ether of ordinariness so we compensate by a rich fantasy life and, unfortunately, by dishonesty, much like Billy in the film.Reminiscent of Fishers character, we lie our way through life, not out of malice or even out of any conscious desire to cause devilry or to cause hurt to those around us, precisely purely because we cannot live with, or face up to the demands of, our real lives. The overall mood in the film is, however, disquieting Fishers dreams include killing people, such as his parents, who place obstacles in his way. The film shows that the only real obstacle confronting Fisher is a lack of courage combined with no obvious talent.Much like in real life, we all have a secret vision of doing the unthinkable, bloody or otherwise, to people we extremely dislike. Our judgment is often clouded by anger for other people, which lead to ineffective use of our God-given talents, which in turn hinders the go on that we otherwise could have achieved easily. Despite its very British setting, the film ha s a universal dimension which is even more poignant in todays Internet age.In a sense, Billy Liar is an adroit satire about a society caught between socio-economic classes. Billy Fishers character is therefore struggling against the limitations of his class, family and urban environment for a better opportunity to display his ability. This theme is relevant even today, as we all strive daily to move up the social and economic ladder of society, as a response to our natural trait to be forever dissatisfied.One cannot help but be fond of and relate to Billy Liar, a unique character that deeply depicts in what boils down to a humorous yet solemn and incontrovertibly influential movie. It is apparent that this film appealed and is still appealing to audiences precisely because Billys lack of courage, commitment and his flights of fancy are not so removed removed from those of ourselves. Many of us live in dreams where we do spectacular things but given the chance we would not have the courage to accomplish them.Likewise, the film affirms that, ultimately, we must live with, rather than in opposition tom the real world, no matter how painful and uncertain the experience of that invariably will be. firearm on one level this film could be dismissed as a whimsical fantasy, there is a Billy Liar that exists in all of us. WORK CITED Gale, S. (1996). Encyclopedia of British Humorists Geoffrey Chaucer to John Cleese. Philadelphia Taylor and Francis.