Customer Reviews

Ode to Billy Joe [VHS]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Amazon first listed this DVD for a release date of Feb. 10, then April 28, NOW they have completely removed it all together, no explanations! After searching many other websites I have found that the release of this long awaited DVD has been cancelled! What's up with that!?

If you, too, are disappointed with this decision, write to Warner Bros. Home Video and voice your complaint, as did I.

O.k. so perhaps this movie wasn't fast-paced, action-packed, or full of big budget special effects. Perhaps it wasn't even filled with gratuitous nudity, but it still had a lot of things going for it. It had a kind of simple tenderness to it which I found entirely enchanting. It's one of those films that sort of haunt me as though it were one of my own memories. The transformation from innocence and immaturity to harsh reality was eerily vivid. This movie is a definite must-see.

This has been a long awaited dvd release!! I will add more to the review after seeing what they have done to this classic. LOOKS LIKE AMAZON HAS CANCELLED THE DVD RELEASE...IT IS NO LONGER ON MY WISH LIST AND HAS DISAPPEARED FROM ANY SEARCHS..

I had the good fortune of being an extra in this movie, and I went to school with Bobbie Gentry's two sisters, knew her grandparents and have met Bobbie on more than one occasion. The song was fiction, as was the movie. It was not a true story as many people have said. It's a haunting movie, with good performances, especially Robby. I enjoyed working with him on this movie for over a week and watching him as a professional. I have always felt he was an underrated actor, and he has gone on to be quite successful as a director. When we made the movie, we never thought it would have such a long life, but it has. It lives on, and I think that is a testament to the good performances and Bobbie's wonderful song.

*********** SPOILER ALERT ***********

This was a well-acted portrayal of teen heartache and heartbreak.

The lyrics of the theme song by Bobbie Gentry allegedly had some basis in truth.

Max Baer Jr.'s production of this film gave him a vehicle to break out of his "Jethro Bodine" stereotype.

A young Mackenzie Philips played Bobbie Lee's friend.

When I saw this film as a youth one of my schoolmates reached the conclusion that "Billy Joe was gay". I disagreed then and I still do.

Billy Joe was young, intoxicated, and taken advantage of by an older man. There was nothing to suggest that he was on the prowl, searching for male partners. If anything, he was totally in love with and attracted to his girl.

The real tragedy of this story was that Billy Joe did not have the maturity or perspective to take a one-time episode for what it was: an isolated incident as opposed to an event that would have or should have changed the course of his life.

With sufficient wisdom and insight he would have set his mortification aside and gone on to live a fulfilled life. This was a single episode and, although it was disturbing, it was not worth ruining and cutting short his life.

As for Bobbie Lee, it was not all that plausible that she could have and would have gone off on her own at fifteen, but she sure had a noble reason for doing it. This was a larger than life response to her situation, but that is often why I watch movies and read novels.

This was an especially poignant work of fiction, but it was no guide on how to navigate the disturbing events that sometimes violate and disrupt our lives.

For another epic adolescent story by Herman Raucher, see or read Summer of Forty-Two. Few writers have ever captured the teenage mind as skillfully as he has. All the better that Summer of Forty-Two ends on a higher and more hopeful note.

Wonderful pre-summertime movie. The producers did an excellent job recreating the era. Well acted. The fake southern accents are a little overdone, but not as bad as some other movies set in the south.

The song and the movie complement each other. The song doesn't go into a lot of explanation about what happen to Billy Joe and the movie offers one detailed possibility based on the title and characters in the song. I don't think the producers are trying to portray the movie as being the actual account of Billy Joe's death (assuming Ms. Gentry's song is based on a real event).

I disagree with some of the points in the review by "gft", especially the part about Billy Joe being black. "Gft" suggests in the song that a interracial love conflict is what leads to Billy Joe's apparent suicide. If Ms. Gentry's song is based on a true event, Billy Joe was not likely black. According to the song Billy Joe, a guy named Tom, and the brother of the girl in the song put a frog down her back at a "picture show". Blacks and whites did not sit in the same sections in movie theaters in those days. Also the song implies that Billy Joe and the girl's family went to the same church. Blacks and whites would not have attended the same church in the south in those days and rarely do so even today.

If you want to see a good movie about teen love and the old south, "Ode to Billy Joe" is for you. I hope there will be a DVD version soon, maybe with producer/actor commentary.

Robby Benson brings sensitivity and an etheral quality to this character. His Billy Joe is naive, but sincere in his love for Bobbie Lee as well as his devastation and sense of being doomed after what he considers an unforgiveable act. I am brought to tears each time I view the scene in which a tortured Billy Joe confesses his secret to Bobbie Lee and runs off into the woods, never to be seen alive again. Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor are magnificent together. Watching their love progress steadily throughout the movie destined to be unnecessarily thwarted by Billy Joe's tormented guilt leaves this viewer with a sense of frustration and sadness, but delighted with the range of this actor!

The product description tells the ending - something that the song never did (It just left you to wonder). This needs to be addressed for people who have not seen the movie!

BTW, I wish it was available on DVD - the VHS is outdated and the prices are too high for a movie!

Ode To Billy Joe was one of my favorite movies in the seventies, as were many Robby Benson movies. I identified with his characters: naive, innocent, bullied by family and friends... I have been waiting a long time for the original uncut film to come out on DVD and I don't know why it is taking so long. There are many worse or more inconsequential movies released. I hope to see this on DVD soon. I was a teenager in the seventies and these movies bring me back memories.

A film setting out to explain the mystery of an immensely popular song just doesn't sound very promising. It smells like a cash-in and it easily could have been one. However Max Baer, Jr. was smart enough to hire Harold Raucher and Harold was smart enough to avoid the obvious interpretation of an unwanted pregnancy as the reason Billy Joe jumped off that bridge.

The film turns out to be a nicely done melodrama with competent direction, strong acting and an excellent atmosphere that never makes a caricature of the deep South (well, maybe the boys from Alabama).

What's funny is that in an effort to provide an interesting story, they sort of bypass the main theme of the original song (which is more about the family's indifference towards Billy Joe's death and it's obvious impact on Bobbie Lee than on why he jumped). But I can't say that the film suffers for it.

Well worth a watch. It's a shame the DVD was cancelled.