The Legend of Billie Jean (1985)
Way back in the Jurassic era, when BQ began a long career of buying movie inventory for video stores, this little film became one of our favorites for any number of reasons.
#1. Customers loved it and rented it out repeatedly. Very nice Return On Investment to cover the exorbitant prices studios charged video stores for each VHS cassette. (Movie studios despised video stores because at the time, they weren't getting a cut of the rental profits.)
#2. Its lovely star Helen Slater, a blonde beauty who combined sweet innocence with an aura of steely determination. (Not surprisingly, one year earlier, she'd made a splash playing the title role in "Supergirl".
#3. We think if any movie represented cinema's cultural landscape in Ronald Reagan's America, it's this one. The daring, downbeat films of the 70's that took a jaundiced, depressing view of the country (and world), they'd by and large disappeared. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas ushered in the new era of feel good blockbusters, guaranteed to make us all leave the theater smiling. (Though we cinema purist dearly love those groundbreaking, uncompromising 70's downers....)
"The Legend of Billie Jean" worked on a familiar premise, the terribly wronged (and wrongly accused) individual struggling for justice against hissable villains. The bloody and brutal versions of this trope became wildly popular through the 1970's (Walking Tall, Fighting Mad, White Line Fever). "Billie Jean", in true 80's style, softened up the idea for audiences who now much preferred cinematic comfort food.
In Corpus Christie Texas, teen Billie Jean (Slater) and her younger brother Binx (Christian Slater, no relation to Helen), turn outlaw after being bullied, beaten and abused by local shopkeeper Hyatt (Richard Bradford) and his equally loathsome son Hubie (Barry Tubb.)
After Hubie wrecks Binx's motorbike and his father attempts sexual assault on Billie Jean, the siblings end up on the run when Binx accidentally shoots Hyatt in the shoulder.
Billie Jean's battle cry, ("Fair is fair!") referring to the $608 dollars she demanded from Hyatt for the bike's repair, captivates the public. She and her brother become instant 'Bonnie & Clyde' folk heroes, to the bemusement and concern of the local sheriff (Peter Coyote) who knows Billie Jean's been done dirty by the wretched Hyatts.
Along for the ride with the fugitives are Billie Jean's teen pals Ophelia (Martha Gehmen) and Putter (Yeardly Smith, whose little girl voice would later be put to use as Bart Simpson's sister Lisa). And watch for future film and TV director Keith Gordon (The Chocolate War) as a lonely rich boy who becomes Billie's ally and love interest.
Taking her inspiration from viewing a film clip of Jean Seberg burned at the stake as Joan of Arc, Billie Jean scissors off her long blonde locks to duplicate Seberg's boyish warrior appearance. But as her fame increases, the ever rapacious Hyatt starts raking in the dough by selling 'Billie Jean' merchandise.
Remember this was the culturally comforting 1980's we're talking about, so audiences knew for sure this film would head for a satisfying showdown between Billie Jean and Hyatt and a rewarding, comfy-cozy epilogue to leave everyone happy.....(and cuing up a rip-roarin' empowering anthem belted out by Pat Benatar).
BQ's not here to knock or mock the film. Perfectly cast and swiftly paced, it's still a whole lot of fun to look at and enjoy. And with the country now gripped in the evil and stupidity of Donald Trump, the film's cringy scene of 17 year old Billie groped and almost raped by the middle-aged Hyatt couldn't be more up-to-date with today's headlines.
So we say, welcome back Billie Jean. Always nice to see you back in action again, groin-kicking Trumpian scumbags.......3 stars (***).
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