Engelsk tentamen Task 3 Making difficult decisions is a part of life We face decisions everyday, we decide what to wear in the morning, what to eat for breakfast, how to get to school, the list goes on and on. But sometimes we have to make decisions that mean a lot more, that have consequences no matter what you choose and that can effect the people around you. In this text I am going to present two films where the characters have hard decisions to make. Billy Elliot is a film about Billy, an 11-year-old boy who lives with his father, brother and Nan (grandmother).The film takes place in “Everington” in the UK, from 1984 to 1985 which was in the middle of the UK miners strike. The main conflict of the film is that Billy wants to be a ballet dancer.
His father on the other hand, would rather have his son doing what every other boy at the age of 11, which is boxing. However, Billy? s father comes around after he sees how good Billy actually is. Billy? s ballet teacher thinks he? s good enough to attend The Royal Ballet School in London. The problem is that the school is very expensive and seeing as Billy? father and brother are both in the middle of the mining strike, it is impossible for them to get the money on their own, unless they become “scabs” (go back to work during the strike). This is obviously a very hard decision for Billy? s father.
He truly wants Billy to become a processional ballet dancer, but becoming a scab was at that time like betraying everyone you cared for. Scabs were outcasts in the society, they had betrayed themselves, their friends, fellow workers, their family and their country. Billy? s dad had until recently been protesting against the scabs, but was now on the verge of becoming one himself.The mining industry was crumbling and he really wanted to save Billy from the miserable life a miner led. Billy? s father decides to go back into the mine, so that he can pay for The Royal Ballet School.
On his way to the “Pit” (the coal mine) Billy? s older brother Tony stops him. He begs his father not to give in, which is understandable seeing as they had been striking for a really long time. He manages to convince his his father that they will find another way to pay for the school, and so Billy? s father goes back with his son to continue the strike.This is a very powerful scene in the film. You can see how much pain Billy? s father is in, he really feels rotten for betraying all his friends and colleagues.
When Tony begs his father not to go, you can see how hard it is on him, so you really do understand him when he decides not to go. In the end they manage to scrape the money together, all the miners on strike pitch in so that Billy? s father wont have to go back to work. But I imagine that if they had not found another way, Billy? s father would have gone down to the Pit to get the money for Billy.No matter how hard it would have been for him. Moulin Rouge is a film about Satine, a prostitute who works at The Moulin Rouge in Paris.
Her dream is to get out of the place, but she has no money and has no option but to work there. That is until she meets The Duke. A wealthy and powerful man who is willing to pay for her to become an actress and turn The Moulin Rouge into a theatre, if he can have her as his own. She would have leapt at the opportunity at once, had it not been for Christian, who she fell in love with after her agreement with The Duke.She knows that if she leaves with Christian, she will betray all her friends at The Moulin Rouge by leaving them with nothing, but she also knows that she will betray herself and Christian if she doesn't leave with him.
Because The Duke has threatened to hurt Christian if she does not do as The Duke wants her to. She decides to leave with Christian. If they leave, The Duke wont find them and she will never have to lay eyes on that miserable place again. At least that was the plan until she finds out she is dying of tuberculosis.Now she has to decide if she wants to spend the little time she has left with Christian, and betray all her friends. Or she can stay with The Duke, which will help everyone at The Moulin Rouge, and it will protect Christian.
I know that it seems quite clear what she should do, she should stay with The Duke, she has such little time left and should not be selfish and spend it with Christian when it will affect everyone she cares about in a negative way. She will break Christians heart either way. He will be heartbroken if she dies, but it would still be worse if she lied to him and said that she had chosen The Duke.She decides to stay with The Duke, and when she tells Christian, you can see that it pains her to do it. He denies it and wants her to tell him why she changed her mind, he knows that what she is saying not true.
So she lies and says that she would rather live a wealthy lifestyle than be with him. Watching as she does it is really heartbreaking because you know that she is lying. And the worst part is what he will think of her when she is dead, when the truth is that she was protecting everyone before she died.As a summary, I would say that not all of us have to make decisions that have consequences like in Billy Elliot or Moulin Rouge, but we all have to make hard decisions. And I think that evan though making the selfless decision often is the hardest one, at least you walk away with a good conscience, and people will respect you for it in the end.
Making difficult decisions is a part of life. But if you think about it, what you decide is really the life part of it because you have to live with the decision you made afterwards. Sources: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Billy_Elliot Billy Elliot- the film Moulin Rouge- the film
