The acting was brilliant, Courtenay was superb so were the supporting cast. His vivid imagination scenes are fantastic and the storyline was great. Just a great movie and great in the truest sense. How its only 7.4 and only that ammount of people have voted is a disgrace.
shareThis has grown on me. I was fairly indifferent to after I first saw it in around 1998. But since seeing it again it has become one of my favourite British films of the 60s (one of John Schlesinger's best ever). Courtenay's performance is both compelling and original (and the grandma is hillarious "too many twins being born"). I always get annoyed with Billy for not going with Liz in the end (I put myself in his position whenever I see it and I know I'd be out of there in a shot if I were him). I bought the region 2 DVD in 2002 only to find out later that the region 1 DVD is much better (better quality and loads of extras) so I may get hold of a r1 copy before I watch it again.
Crisso
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I am interested to see the views of different generations to this movie. Being in my early twenties in England when the film was made, it had an enormous effect on me. Young people really were socially trapped in a claustrophobic and class-conscious society. Billy Liar was made at the beginning of the period that so dramatically changed all that. How England had changed just a couple of years later when "Blowup" was made! Forty years later the harbinger probably does seem a little tame, but dramatically, Courtenay's performance is astonishing, and the curent DVD has an enormously interesting commentary track by Schlesinger, Courtenay and Christie.
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It is one of the greatest movies of all time - and being a massive Smiths fan and from Manchester it has a special place in movie connection, it's the only film which makes me cry
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When I first saw it, I visited IMDb desperately hoping it would be in the top 250 and was sadly disappointed that is was absent. It's only .1 above the first, terrible Pirates of the Caribbean sequel.
Sayonara, not to be confused with cyanide, which is, of course, goodbye in any language.
I hadn't seen this film in decades. What a treat to rediscover it! I'm a big Courtenay fan.
Aside: I couldn't help but think of the hens in Chicken Run, though, whenever Helen Fraser smiled. (Sorry.)
The Voices are back... excellent.--Dexter
I love this movie! Having first seen it on our local PBS station (WTTW 11) in the early 1970's. They showed this and "The Man in the White Suit"quite often. I always enjoyed this one more. I'm always hoping he gets back on the train with Liz (Julie Christie).
sharePeople rightly say that Tom Courtenay was excellent in this film and Julie Christie shines too, but the quality of the performances of the actors portraying his family members tends to be overlooked. So, due praise to Mona Washbourne, Ethel Griffies and Wilfred Pickles.
"I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken."
Fine rating, it's an above average film, but nothing special or important.
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