DIRECTOR: Max Baer
The mystery behind Bobbie Gentry’s haunting song should have remained a mystery. That was its allure. That was its magic. Unfortunately, in the summer of 1976, whether we liked it or not, screenwriter Herman Raucher (“Summer of ’42”) and actor-turned-director Max Baer (formerly Jethro in “The Beverly Hillbillies”) solved the mystery!
Rural Mississippi in the summer of 1953. Billy Joe McAllister (Robby Benson), a shy, sensitive farm boy, courts fifteen-year-old Bobbie Lee Hartley (Glynnis O’Connor)—their romance blossoms despite her father’s strict rules about dating. Billy Joe struggles with his identity but he also hides a deeper secret – a sexual encounter with another man. When word gets out, the revelation devastates him, and he withdraws emotionally from Bobbie Lee. In a tragic climax, Billy Joe jumps off the Tallahatchie Bridge, echoing the unanswered mystery of Gentry’s song.
WHY DID BILLY JOE MCALLISTER JUMP OFF THE TALLAHASSEE BRIDGE?
BECAUSE HE SLEPT WITH A MAN.
Robby Benson is sympathetic as the unfortunate title character, as is Glynnis O’Connor as Bobbie Lee who is left heartbroken reflecting on lost love, repression, and the harsh social conventions of the time. Meanwhile, Joan Hotchkis is just about perfection as O’Connor’s mother.
Ultimately, however, despite good work all round, the whole affair feels reductive and backward-looking and it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.
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