The Legend of Billie Jean (1985)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Matthew Robbins

Writers:

Lawrence Konner (writer)
Mark Rosenthal (writer)

Release Date:

19 July 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Action

Tagline:

When you're seventeen, people think they can do anything to you. Billie Jean is about to prove them wrong.

Plot:

A Texas teenager cuts her hair short and becomes an outlaw martyr with her brother and friends.

Plot Keywords:

Scooter | Teen | Texas | Outlaw | Chase

Cast

Helen Slater	...	Billie Jean Davy
Keith Gordon	...	Lloyd
Christian Slater	...	Binx
Richard Bradford	...	Pyatt
Peter Coyote	...	Ringwald
Martha Gehman	...	Ophelia
Yeardley Smith	...	Putter
Dean Stockwell	...	Muldaur
Barry Tubb	...	Hubie
Mona Lee Fultz	...	Donna Davy
Bobby Jones	...	Kenny
John M. Jackson	...	Kenny's Father
Rodney Rincon	...	Police Sergeant
Caroline Williams	...	Woman in Pickup
Rudy Young	...	Man in Pickup

Also Known As:

Fair Is Fair (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | USA:PG-13 (re-rating on appeal) | USA:R (original rating) | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Corpus Christi, Texas, USA

Company:

Delphi III Productions

Trivia:

The movie Billie Jean and the others watch about Joan of Arc is Saint Joan (1957).

Goofs:

Continuity: When Billie Jean turns the TV channel and the movie Saint Joan appears, the TV is on channel 5. Whenever it's shown again on screen, it's on channel 6.

Quotes:

Putter: Far out, I'm coming!
Billie Jean: This is serious, Putter!
Putter: I can be serious, Billie Jean, please I can't stay here without you, I'll just die!
Billie Jean: Go away, Putter!
Putter: [to Ophelia] Billie Jean said I can come, don't move!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Pat Benatar: Choice Cuts - The Complete Video Collection (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

Rebel Yell

We've got the right to be angry!

Why does everyone knock the Legend of Billie Jean so much? For me, it's one of my favorite 80s teen movies. And it's a good exploration into the concept of vigilante justice as a natural response to not only a cumbersome justice system, but also a discriminatory one.

Helen Slater is teenager Billie Jean, a nice girl from "the trailers" of Corpus Christi, Texas. When Hubie Pyat (Barry Tubbs) and some other local pranksters trash her brother Binx's (Christian Slater) motor scooter, she demands compensation. But Hubie refuses to pay and his father uses the opportunity to offer that Billie Jean trade some sexual favors to him for the cash. In the midst of her flight from the pervert, there's scuffle, and Mr. Pyat is accidentally shot. So, Billie Jean, her brother, and two friends involved in the accident, suddenly finds themselves on the run from the police.

Rather than surrendering, they use their new teenage fugitive status to stage something of a protest ("fair is fair"), and Billie Jean becomes their hero and icon for teenage rebellion as well as feminism. They become the martyrs of teenagers while the adults dismiss the entire thing as a bunch of rambunctious teenagers gone out of control. So, there is political significance in the story of Billie Jean in looking at the criminal justice system (although some of the discrimination against Billie Jean such as denying her any sort of expedited compensation occurs as a result of the system not intervening at all). If Billie Jean was an adult, would she have been taken seriously? What if Billie Jean were a male? Would that change the situation. Indeed, this movie suggests that it would.

In a decade filled with themes of teen angst, this one offers one story of the possibility of teen (and female) empowerment in a way that Pump Up the Volume or other movies like that did. I always thought it was a pretty good 80s movie and one that, judging by the message boards, still caters to a loyal audience as many of those long-lasting 80s movies do. Plus, as far as important 80s movie characteristic go, it's got good actors (Helen Slater, Christian Slater, Peter Cyote, and Kieth Gordon), and a good soundtrack (featuring Pat Benetar's "Invincible" and the Divinyls).