Customer Reviews:
Great Movie.......2007-10-04
As a 18 year old when I first saw this,it convinced me that I was not nuts and that other people had their own fantasy worlds just like Billy's "Ambrosia".
In the days before franking machines, the stamp tin was the personal perquisite (perk) of the junior clerk of the office.
When Billy tries to hand in his notice at the Undertakers where he works, he is told that it will not be accepted until "the stamp book balances".
The piles of unposted Christmas calendards hidden in Billy's bedroom always bring back guilty memories for me!
Also, this movie caused me to fall in love with a young and impossibly beautiful Julie Christie.
A great piece of 1960's Northern life.
Buy and enjoy
Amazon.co.uk Review
Billy Liar was the multimedia phenomenon of its era. Starting out as a novel by Yorkshire writer Keith Waterhouse, it rapidly became a long-running stage play, adapted by Waterhouse with playwright Willis Hall, which lead to the movie, scripted by Waterhouse and Hall for John Schlesinger to direct, then a stage musical and finally a spin-off TV series. Do you get the feeling it caught the mood of the times?
The basic set-up owes a lot to James Thurber's classic short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Our hero, Billy Fisher, lives at home in a Bradford semi with his nagging parents and works as a lowly clerk in an undertaker's parlour. But, in his imagination he lives a rich and varied fantasy life as gallant military leader, suave socialite, best-selling novelist and so forth. Trouble is, he can't always keep fantasy and reality apart, any more than he can the keep two girls he's engaged to separate. Not to mention his other problems….
Schlesinger's direction brings out the desperation behind the comedy, and Tom Courtenay, at once defiant and hangdog, slips perfectly into the role created on stage by Albert Finney. But the whole cast's a joy, not least the great Leonard Rossiter as undertaker Mr Shadrach, Billy's saturnine boss. And then there's Julie Christie--the luminous spirit of the Swinging 60s--in her first starring role as the girl who offers Billy a chance of real escape. At the end, when she takes the train to London, away from the smoke and the grimness "oop" north, the whole British New Wave went with her.
On the DVD: just the theatrical trailer which is a fairly crass affair. There's been no remastering, it seems, but both sound and vision are clean enough and the print preserves the original's full 2.35:1 widescreen ratio. --Philip Kemp
Customer Reviews:
Who doesn't identify, a bit, with Billy?.......2006-05-10
A great deal is said that Billy Liar is set 'Up North' and 'in the swinging sixties' which is true and all the better for it but the story it tells is just as relevant to anywhere and anytime and is, as such, timeless and placeless.
This is a great film. The characters are brilliant and the cast play their parts to a tee. The storyline is poignant, witty and insightful and makes you feel a little uncomfortable as, I'm sure, there is a varying degree of Tom Courtenays's character in all of us.
It's difficult to comment much more on the film without giving the plot away but I very much recommend it to anyone both as a very enjoyable story but also as a thoughtful look at a person's mentality and how they deal with their situation, their hopes and their fears in giving up their current lot and breaking free.
And Julie Christie is simply georgeous!
Excellent entertainment.
Billy Liar revisited.......2005-12-06
A wonderful, amusing and entertaining film, full of nostagia of the times, for those who have lived through them. Tom Courtenay is perfectly cast as the day dreaming Billy Fisher, unable to take the final step necessary to achieving anything of substance. Ably supported by a cast of great characters, to an ending that is both poignant and sad. British film making at its best, an evergreen.
Just Perfect.......2004-06-28
In many ways a tragic tale, and a very realistic portrayal of an average young adult. Who wants to break the mould of the society he is trapped in. First time I watched this I just thought it was an average film typical of its era, watched a second time realised it was just amazing by the third it was a master piece and my 2nd favourite film of all time, Just excellent. Script is perfect and contains many laughs the granny is hilarious. Buy this DVD and indulge in a British cinematic triumph. 10/10
The first cinematic slacker, maybe?.......2004-02-03
A surreal comedy set during England’s swinging sixties. Tom Courtney is unbelievably funny as a working class boy unable to leave the safety of his family home and venture out on his own. He creates a fantastic world he retreats to when his daily encounters and unconventional actions get out of hand. Not even Julie Christie can drag him out into reality.
One of the most entertaining films in cinema history, Billy Liar is a universal character that has surely set the bases for many slacker characters in film since then.
4 stars for the movie , 1 for the dvd !.......2003-12-26
It's a great movie in a poorly packaged dvd,the reviews that you might have read about subtitles and extras are for the American version only!!! I love this film , I have seen it some time ago in a cinema but I had a hard time following the dvd version because the are NO SUBTITLES !!! Not even English subtitles !!! So it's hard to keep on with some characters since they speak with a very heavy English accent.Better buy the American version...
Amazon.co.uk Review
Billy Liar was the multimedia phenomenon of its era. Starting out as a novel by Yorkshire writer Keith Waterhouse, it rapidly became a long-running stage play, adapted by Waterhouse with playwright Willis Hall, which lead to the movie, scripted by Waterhouse and Hall for John Schlesinger to direct, then a stage musical and finally a spin-off TV series. Do you get the feeling it caught the mood of the times?
The basic set-up owes a lot to James Thurber's classic short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Our hero, Billy Fisher, lives at home in a Bradford semi with his nagging parents and works as a lowly clerk in an undertaker's parlour. But, in his imagination he lives a rich and varied fantasy life as gallant military leader, suave socialite, best-selling novelist and so forth. Trouble is, he can't always keep fantasy and reality apart, any more than he can the keep two girls he's engaged to separate. Not to mention his other problems….
Schlesinger's direction brings out the desperation behind the comedy, and Tom Courtenay, at once defiant and hangdog, slips perfectly into the role created on stage by Albert Finney. But the whole cast's a joy, not least the great Leonard Rossiter as undertaker Mr Shadrach, Billy's saturnine boss. And then there's Julie Christie--the luminous spirit of the Swinging 60s--in her first starring role as the girl who offers Billy a chance of real escape. At the end, when she takes the train to London, away from the smoke and the grimness "oop" north, the whole British New Wave went with her.
On the DVD: just the theatrical trailer which is a fairly crass affair. There's been no remastering, it seems, but both sound and vision are clean enough and the print preserves the original's full 2.35:1 widescreen ratio. --Philip Kemp
Customer Reviews:
Who doesn't identify, a bit, with Billy?.......2006-05-10
A great deal is said that Billy Liar is set 'Up North' and 'in the swinging sixties' which is true and all the better for it but the story it tells is just as relevant to anywhere and anytime and is, as such, timeless and placeless.
This is a great film. The characters are brilliant and the cast play their parts to a tee. The storyline is poignant, witty and insightful and makes you feel a little uncomfortable as, I'm sure, there is a varying degree of Tom Courtenays's character in all of us.
It's difficult to comment much more on the film without giving the plot away but I very much recommend it to anyone both as a very enjoyable story but also as a thoughtful look at a person's mentality and how they deal with their situation, their hopes and their fears in giving up their current lot and breaking free.
And Julie Christie is simply georgeous!
Excellent entertainment.
Billy Liar revisited.......2005-12-06
A wonderful, amusing and entertaining film, full of nostagia of the times, for those who have lived through them. Tom Courtenay is perfectly cast as the day dreaming Billy Fisher, unable to take the final step necessary to achieving anything of substance. Ably supported by a cast of great characters, to an ending that is both poignant and sad. British film making at its best, an evergreen.
Just Perfect.......2004-06-28
In many ways a tragic tale, and a very realistic portrayal of an average young adult. Who wants to break the mould of the society he is trapped in. First time I watched this I just thought it was an average film typical of its era, watched a second time realised it was just amazing by the third it was a master piece and my 2nd favourite film of all time, Just excellent. Script is perfect and contains many laughs the granny is hilarious. Buy this DVD and indulge in a British cinematic triumph. 10/10
The first cinematic slacker, maybe?.......2004-02-03
A surreal comedy set during England’s swinging sixties. Tom Courtney is unbelievably funny as a working class boy unable to leave the safety of his family home and venture out on his own. He creates a fantastic world he retreats to when his daily encounters and unconventional actions get out of hand. Not even Julie Christie can drag him out into reality.
One of the most entertaining films in cinema history, Billy Liar is a universal character that has surely set the bases for many slacker characters in film since then.
4 stars for the movie , 1 for the dvd !.......2003-12-26
It's a great movie in a poorly packaged dvd,the reviews that you might have read about subtitles and extras are for the American version only!!! I love this film , I have seen it some time ago in a cinema but I had a hard time following the dvd version because the are NO SUBTITLES !!! Not even English subtitles !!! So it's hard to keep on with some characters since they speak with a very heavy English accent.Better buy the American version...
DVD:
- Blow Up [1966]
- Brief Encounter [1945]
- Casablanca [1942]
- Casablanca -- Two Disc Special Edition [1942]
- Citizen Kane [1942]
- Dad's Army - Series 1/Lost Episodes Of Series 2 [1968]
- Doctor Strangelove (Collectors Edition) [1963]
- Doctor Who - The Time Meddler [1965]
- Doctor Zhivago [1965]
- Dr Who: The Dalek Collection (Dr Who And The Daleks & Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150AD + Dalekmania documentary) [1965]
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