Disturbing yet enthralling

Absolutely brilliant

A lot of fun.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This was the second feature film to be directed by John Schlesinger; his first had been "A Kind of Loving". Both films are adaptations of novels and both belong to the social-realist "kitchen sink drama" movement which was very influential in the British cinema of the late fifties and sixties. There is, however, a difference between the two films. " A Kind of Loving" was a serious drama whereas "Billy Liar", like the Keith Waterhouse novel on which it is based, is essentially a comedy. Heroes of "kitchen sink" dramas were often, as here, young man from a humble background but with aspirations towards a better life; it was this idea of which provided John Braine with the title of his best-known novel, "Room at the Top", also made into a film. Waterhouse, however, was using his anti-hero Billy Fisher to satirise not only the limitations of provincial life but also the conventions of "kitchen sink" fiction and drama.The film generally follows the plot of the book- Waterhouse acted as scriptwriter, along with his friend Willis Hall- but there are a couple of differences. The film, for example, omits the newspaper columnist "Man o' the Dales". On the other hand the comedian Danny Boon, who is referred to in the novel but is never actually seen, makes an appearance here when he comes to open a supermarket.The action takes place over the course of a single day in the Yorkshire town of Stradhoughton. (In the novel Stradhoughton was a fictional place, here it is clearly based upon Bradford). Billy is a young man of 19 living with his parents, with whom he does not get on. His father Geoffrey is a comic take on the stock figure of the Yorkshire paterfamilias, a stern, irascible self-made businessman from working-class stock who has risen in the world and regards his son as a severe disappointment. Billy's mother is an equally stereotypical housewife, sharp-tongued and limited in outlook. (The height of her ambitions seems to be having a request read out on the popular radio programme "Housewives' Choice"). His only other living relative is his half-mad old grandmother, who lives with the family. He finds his dead-end job as a clerk with the undertakers firm of Shadrack & Duxbury dull and unfulfilling. He feels himself trapped and frustrated by provincial life and cherishes the dream of escaping to London where he hopes to find work as a comedy writer (a dream which is based upon very shaky foundations).At the beginning of the film we have some sympathy with Billy's predicament. He is clearly a young man of some intelligence and has a way with words which enables him to express his frustrations in some witty and sardonic language. As the story progresses, however, we find ourselves sympathising with Billy less and less. His nickname "Billy Liar" is a well-deserved one, because he finds it difficult to differentiate between truth and fantasy. He spends a lot of the time escaping into a fantasy world in which he is the dictator of the invented country of Ambrosia (named after a brand of tinned rice pudding). Worse than this sort of daydreaming is his compulsive lying. Some of his falsehoods are told to try and avoid the consequences of minor misdemeanours and others to try and cover up previous lies, but most are told for no reason whatsoever, including his tale that his father was a naval officer in the war or his attempt to pass off his girlfriend Barbara as his sister. He is also capable of petty dishonesty; tasked at work with mailing advertising calendars to potential customers, he embezzles the postage money and hides the calendars under his bed.Billy's love-life is a complicated one. He has three girlfriends- the sweet-natured but naive and strait-laced Barbara, the hard, brassy and fiery-tempered Rita and the more sympathetic Liz, about the only person who comes close to understanding his strange personality. Billy, of course, tells lies to his girlfriends, generally with the intention of preventing each of them from finding out about the other two and to cover up the fact that, although he has managed to become engaged to all of them, he only has one ring. (Liz is more attractive in the film than I imagined her in the book; if Billy had been able to pull a girl with the looks of Julie Christie I doubt if he would have bothered with the likes of Barbara and Rita).There are good performances from Mona Washbourne and Wilfred Pickles as Billy's parents, Leonard Rossiter as his boss Mr Shadrack and Helen Fraser as the hapless Barbara. Christie, however, does not make as big an impression here as she was to do in some later Schlesinger films such as "Darling" and "Far from the Madding Crowd".Tom Courtenay gives a nicely judged performance as Billy, avoiding the twin traps of making him too unpleasant (in which case the film would have become virtually unwatchable) and of making him too sympathetic, in which case the whole point of the book would have been lost. Everyone loves a kidder, but nobody lends him money, and Billy is not the sort of person anyone would really want as a friend, family member, employee, workmate or lover. Waterhouse's anti-hero represents a comic, satirical take on the "poor-boy-made-good" aspirational heroes of the kitchen sink genre. By the end of the film we realise that Billy will never make good. He will never even amount to a poor-boy-made-bad like Michael Caine's character in "Get Carter". There may be no room at the top for the Billy Fishers of this world, but there is plenty of room at the bottom. 8/10

Billy Liar is a 1963 British film that captures the monumental changes of the era: the sexual revolution and the destruction of England's old town centres in modernisation schemes. In Bradford, Yorkshire young Billy Fisher (Tom Courtenay) is working a soul-crushing job in a funeral home and suffering daily the derision of his elderly parents. His only escape from this drudgery is his active imagination, where he imagines himself leader of his own country and misleads other townspeople about his family's situation with little fibs. His propensity to make things up and shrug off his responsibilities, however, leads him to end up dating two women at the same time (Helen Fraser and Gwendolyn Watts), though ultimately he dreams of escaping with the liberated Liz (Julie Christie).As a snapshot of Britain at a particular time, this is a valuable film. As background to Fisher's own personal struggles, the camera often shows wrecking balls smashing down the walls of old homes, and at one point a town councillor marks an entire swath of the city for demolition. A scene at a dance club captures the growing influence of rock 'n' roll on Britain. Old class tensions persisted, however, though American audiences might not entirely get this as it is often suggested only by characters' particular accents.The overall message of the film is a letdown though, essentially saying that young people should give up their silly dreams and give in to their parents' demands. This moral lesson was entirely overturned by the youth revolution that erupted through the Sixties. As the UK saw full employment through that decade, young people could take the risk of following their dreams even if it meant a rupture with their families and hometowns. Nonetheless, the comedic approach in the film makes it entertaining almost throughout, and I'd recommend that anyone see it at least once.

I had to read 'Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner' for a sophomore college European Literature class; I was 21. Now, I'm 72 and lost the paperback somewhere along the way.....no major issue.Last night, I labored through 'Billy Liar' (on TCM) as I did 'Loneliness...' This film was aired during presentations of films dealing with people who have multiple fantasies. I'm one of those so I thought I would relate to the film. NOT! My fantasies turn into narrative and I write for a living. I don't make much in $$$'s but enough to supplement my measly social security benefit - which I earned, because I contributed to it for 45 years, contrary to people who live off welfare and food stamps.Despite making money off my fantasies, people still think I'm eccentric.The only redeeming value in this film is Julie Christie, who has the prettiest mouth (smile, especially) in the history of film. Tom Courtenay is a fine actor and I wish he would have been the lead in 'Catcher in the Rye,' which I'm not sure was ever made into a film. I still have the paperback of that book, which I also had to read. That book was great! I'll have to check to see if it was ever filmed. Was it written by Joseph Heller? Or, was that 'Something Happened?' I took a 'C' in the class and don't remember much about European literature but I've been to England often and people do have teeth.Incidentally, I do a lot of reviews for IMDb. Look for my review of 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,' a 1947 film starring Danny Kaye. Soon, I will view the remake, directed by and starring Ben Stiller. Most remakes of good films are duds, but I don't see how one cannot exceed the quality of the 1947 version, which James Thurber (who wrote the short story)found repulsive, especially the slapstick antics of Danny Kaye. I don't blame him.

Billy Liar directed by John Schlesinger is a great example of a person who desperately wants to escape his meaningless existence but doesn't have the nerve to take action. Billy Fisher is a young man who lives with his parents and works for an undertaker. He constantly lives very vivid fantasies in his head mostly about a country he imagined named Ambrosia. He has ambitions of leaving his boring life behind and becoming a famous screenwriter but never really writes anything or makes an effort to reach that goal. His job as a clerk for an undertaker shows just how dreary and miserable his life really is. Billy is so unhappy in his Yorkshire life that he conjures up all of these very elaborate lies in order to make himself look or feel better. He juggles between two girlfriends who think they are engaged to him. Barbara and Rita are told every excuse in the book by Billy so that he can get the one ring he has to pass between the two of them. He cannot make a decision of which to be with and instead of addressing the situation, Billy uses his imagination to get him out of one jam after another. Whenever things get rough with his girlfriends, parents, or employer he imagines mowing them down with a machine gun. Instead of facing the issues, Billy just slips into his imaginary world where is in control. Billy also has a third woman in his life named Liz. Her first scene in the film tells her whole personality. She is shown slowly strolling through the streets swinging her bag looking as if she hasn't a care in the world. Unlike Billy she is happy in the real world and makes the best of it. She comes and goes as she pleases and when she wants to make a change in her life she gets up and takes action without hesitation. She is also the only person who Billy is really honest to. She accepts him for who he is and actually offers him a real escape from his life by moving to London and starting fresh. He can be with the one girl who truly understands him. Billy could pursue his screen writing ambitions and leave behind the nagging of his parents and girlfriends. Ultimately Billy leaves Liz on the train to London. He is too scared to leave his life behind even though it's all he seems to want. The last scene culminates it all. Billy imagines marching home with the Ambrosia army at his back. He was cowardly and slips back into his comfortable life leaving behind possibly the best thing in his life, Liz. Instead of dealing with those facts and his mistakes he fantasizes about marching home triumphantly. This sums up Billy Fisher perfectly. No matter how bad things are and how much he screws things up he can always drift into his fantasy world where everything is OK. This film is funny and incredibly relatable for me unfortunately. It captures the struggles of young adulthood and the fear of going for what you want.