Ode to Billy Joe (1976) watch online HD

Yes, it's the film of That Song. No movie can ever hope to to justice to the enigmatic, doom-laden 1967 Bobbie Gentry hit, or come close to capturing the stifling Southern atmosphere that the song evokes so well, but as a film in its own right, this prettily-photographed tale is not at all bad. The locations are all genuine Mississippi, and cinematographer Michel Hugo has done an excellent job of evoking the exuberance of high summer.

And talking of the 1960's, remember Jethro Bodine and his sixth-grade education? Well the actor who created Jethro (and is also the son of the heavyweight boxing champion), Max Baer Jr., produced and directed this quirky little offering.

It is Mississippi in 1953, and the pretty adolescent girl Bobby Lee is having fantasies about boys. Billy Joe McAlister begins to court her, but as their mutual affection blossoms, darker currents are swirling beneath the Tallahatchee Bridge ...

A careful, almost literal rendering of the song, the film is a commendable effort which gets stronger and more assured as it goes along. If it is somewhat heavy with Deep South cliche (plenty of "ah dew declayer" and "raaaht neighbourly"), it really couldn't have been otherwise. The song itself is overloaded with similar stuff. I personally did not like Bobby Lee's poem, which struck me as to syrupy and too slow.

Bobby Benson is adequate as the haunted Billy Joe, but the film's real success is the performance of Glynnis O'Connor as Bobby Lee. She handles the range of emotions with aplomb, and virtually demands that the viewer identify with her. The final scene on the bridge confirms that Bobby Lee has grown as a person and has emerged from the tragedy stronger than the adults around her.

Bobby Lee's huffy soliloquy on the country road is very good, with its subtle edge of self-deprecating humour, and the long courting-scene which follows it is nicely-judged. The rueful interregnum after Billy Joe's disappearance is beautifully done, dominated by the delightful Michel Legrand piano score. The rag doll floating in the water is a striking symbol, both of Billy Joe and of the abandonment of childhood.

Verdict - If a film version of the Bobbie Gentry song is going to be done, this is probably the best way to do it.

If this film had been directed by Truffaut or Bergman it would have swept Cannes. The fact that many viewers find it almost impossible to understand is testimony to the film's authenticity. As a life-long Southerner I feel compelled to state that anyone from the South over the age of 35 either knows or is one of these characters. The time period represented is one which lives in the memories of those alive today. Mississippi is particularly well drawn. I lived in Mississippi for four years and this film captures that distinct Mississippi flavor of charm,vindictiveness,religious observance,and sin. The bridge scene is what Southern pride and "redneck" are all about. Daddy just WON'T back up. One of the main themes of Southern art is the fact that many of the characters are so far from introspection and so close to instinctive, impulsive, animalistic behavior. When someone is "different" tragedy and/or myth tends to happen. Tennessee Williams mined that vein. Like the characters in this film, his people often dimly understood that they needed to either leave home or accept self-revelation in the confines of their environment. Most couldn't do either. The result is usually some sort of denial,death, or sacrifice. Great films/novels/short stories about the South have a sense of yearning and fatalism which I find very honest and moving. If you are into Russian literature, you are probably into Southern literature too! My thanks to Max for this beautiful film.

While this good film is no masterpiece, it certainly has earned its place in Hollywood lore. First of all, the screenplay was co-written by Bobbie Gentry. She hand picked Herman Rauncher( Summer of Forty Two) and spent weeks helping him with the screenplay Belinda( the stripper in the film) is a song from Bobbie's masterpiece album, PatchWork. Benjamin( the imaginary childhood friend) started out life as a Bobbie Gentry song too. Her vision is all over this film. Her grandparents farm in Mississippi even served as the back-drop for the story.Billie Joe is the first gay character portrayal in film history without a hint of stereotying. He is full of real depth and humanity. On a production budget of 1 million dollars, this film had a box office run of 50 million. Business savy Bobbie Gentry still owns 10% of it in her deal with Warner Brothers. Because of its success,Coal Miners Daughter would receive a huge production budget in 1979.

ODE TO BILLY JOE is a humerous and touching tale of events leading up to why "Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge", as related in the Bobbie Gentry hit. Director Max Baer Jr. (who would have thought "Jethro" had this kind of talent?) skillfully re-creates an atmosphere of 1950's rural Mississippi. and breathes life into characters only hinted at in the song. Scripted by Herman Raucher, with the same feeling of nostalgia he gave SUMMER OF '42, and beautifully scored by Michel Legrand, ODE TO BILLY JOE is a sweet and touching story of the awkwardness of teenage love, and the consequences of an unfortunate event, which, in today's politically correct times, would probably be scorned or laughed at. Glynnis O'Connor and Robby Benson, are re-teamed after their excellent debut in JEREMY. Another treasured film on VHS, that I hope will someday come out on DVD.

I recall seeing this movie when it first came out - I was surprised at how empty the theater was. This is a movie based upon the beautifully charismatic song by Bobby Gentry from the 60's.

I thought the storyline was very engaging and realistic. It touches on a subject which may put some people off, but it is done in a mature way and isn't shown on-screen. A slice of life from the rural deep south. Easy on the eye and easy on the ear. I remember the acting performances being very good. For those of us who haven't experienced this type of upbringing, it was a good insight.

The song itself, is one of the great songs of 60's. For me the movie worked well. I could feel the long hot summers and the simplistic lifestyle and also showed you some of the darker side of life which was kept very quiet. It's a pity it never comes round on TV - it obviously wasn't a hit at the box office, but don't let that cloud your judgment. I think it's worth seeing. If you like Fried Green Tomatoes and The Trip To Bountiful, there's no reason to believe that you won't enjoy this.

The story, as several reviewers have noted, follows the Bobbie Gentry ballad.

Glynnis O'Connor, as a young woman coming of age in rural Mississippi. Robby Benson is good, although the story itself awkward at times, and at times when the plot is revealed outright embarrassing, with an improbable twist.

When this film came out, I saw this in the theater. It was considered radical at the time, much like "Summer of '42" in that there is a secret revealed which audiences clamored to see. Unfortunately, what is revealed is that Mr. Barksdale has taken liberties with Billy Joe; and Billy Joe eventually ends his life.

Glynnis O'Connor does well, portraying confusion, frustration and passion; the melange of emotions of a young woman, who wants to find love. One of the final scenes, when she encounters Barksdale on the Tallahatchie Bridge, is quite touching and sad. She sounds to him a world-weary adult, after all that has happened she tells Barksdale to basically, move on. Nothing can be done. It is time to let go. Moving in its finality, she is a young woman going out in the world with nothing but a suitcase; when he asks her what she will do she says "somehow I'll manage".

The ballad is evocative of earlier, hazy days in the country. While I have not lived in Mississippi, I have visited it and South Georgia, and also resided in rural northern Florida for a time. There is still the sense of the south, a slower pace, even today.

If you like movies of this era, you may enjoy this. The cinematography reflects the stillness and unspoiled beauty of the rural South. 8/10

POSSIBLE SPOILER

I saw this movie on cable TV in Mexico City at the end of the seventies. I was a teenager and was just going through the turmoil of accepting my sexual identity, and this movie made me feel so scared, so lonely and so desperate. The seventies in Mexico had a lot in common with the social mores of the South depicted in this movie. I am sure teenagers today could not possibly feel what I felt when I saw this movie, as alternative lifestyles are represented everywhere in the media nowadays. The comments of other posters that saw the movie recently make me realize how much the world has changed in 25 years. This movie was at that time poison for a confused teen, but now it just seems like a period piece, a reflection of a long forgotten nightmare.

It has been a long time since I saw this movie. I always read very negative reviews of it, but I always thought that the photography and sound were beautiful. It was my impression that Max Baer Jr. was making a movie about how beautiful the rural South is. Of course a movie based on a rather enigmatic song is doomed to storyline problems, but as a mood piece, I think it was a great success.

I remember seeing 'Ode to Billy Joe' when I was about twelve, and just starting to deal with the fact that I was gay. Growing up in rural Wisconsin I could relate very well to the negative attitudes towards gays, and find it very believable that a young gay person in that situation would consider killing themself. I also find it very believable that a young gay person would date a person of the opposite sex, just think about how many gay people do get married. Even though Billy Joe is a tragic figure I found the movie to be comforting, I think I took comfort in the fact that at least someone was talking about homosexuality, being Catholic my family never spoke about sex much less homosexuality and I think that is the way it was in most families in the seventies. Over the years I have thought of that movie often and I think at times it helped me keep my sanity, I would love to see it again!

It's interesting that most reviewers of this film seem to want to resolve one way or another the question of whether Billy Joe was gay or not. Music buffs prize the song for its ambiguities, but IMDb reviewers want the film to explain everything. Actually the film is all the better for leaving things unresolved. The passionate way that Billy Joe talks to and kisses his girlfriend Bobbie Lee might be interpreted as a genuine manifestation of desire, or it might be his desperate attempt to convince himself that he's heterosexual. Similarly, it's not clear whether Billy Joe was raped by the older man, or whether he slept with him willingly. My own interpretation is that Billy Joe is probably unsure of his own sexuality. After he confesses that he has slept with a man, Bobbie Lee tries to comfort him by saying, "I know you're not a man like that - I couldn't be wrong about you"; Billy Joe responds, "Well, you are wrong." It's not really relevant whether the character is gay or not; the important thing is that, at this stage, one sexual encounter with a man has led him to believe that he must be gay. As for whether he slept with the guy willingly, he says, "I knew what was happening". Also, it's unlikely that Bobbie Lee would let the other man go free, as she does in the final scene on the bridge, if she thought he had raped and caused the death of her boyfriend. If she thinks that Billy Joe went with him willingly, this scene makes more sense. But again, this doesn't necessary mean that he was gay. It could be that the conservative attitudes of 1950s Mississippi made it difficult for young people to feel comfortable with any sexuality at all - Billy Joe wants to have sex with his girlfriend, but that's taboo, and she is reluctant to go all the way, so he jumps at the first chance he sees for real sex, even if that means sleeping with a man. In either case, the film works as a satire on the small-minded attitudes of rural America, and the assumption, fuelled by Christianity, that sex is dirty and sinful. The tragedy of the film is that Billy Joe's society can't accept the idea that sex, whether straight or gay, is a natural urge. Since Billy Joe has internalised these attitudes, they destroy him.

SPOILER ALERT! I probably have not seen this film since the 70s but I loved it. I had an absolute crush on Glynnis O'Connor. I seem to remember the sweat on her upper lip in one scene and of course the moonlight swim bit sticks in my memory ("Look at you, Bobbie Lee! Look at you in the moonlight!") Contrary to the opinions of others, Billy Joe was not gay. He was a bit confused like most his age, but he definitely liked girls. His hormones were erupting and a predator took advantage of him. The mores of the time and place dictated that he could not live with himself after such an event, even with Bobbie Lee's love. If you liked this one definitely check out "Summer of '42"---"Baby Blue Marine"--- and "One On One."

An excellent movie my today's standards. There are no "F" words, no visual sex, & the only nudity is a brief shot of the top portion of a woman's breasts (no nipples shown) before the camera cuts away to another scene. I would recommend this to any parent wanting a movie that they can show in a mixed audience of teens/pre-teens. If it were made today, it would probably receive a PG rating.

Robby Benson & Glynnis O'Connor play their parts well. The movie manages to capture the haunting atmosphere of the song by Bobbie Gentry. I saw it for the first time when I was 15 in 1976 and I still love to watch it.

Mississippi, 1953. Gangly, yet likable and persistent Billy Joe McAllister (an excellent and engaging performance by Robby Benson) falls in love with precocious fifteen-year-old Bobbie Lee Hartley (a fine and appealing performance by Glynnis O'Connor). However, things go awry after Billy Joe becomes ashamed and suicidal over something awful he did at a jamboree while drunk out of his mind.

Director Max Baer Jr., working from a compelling script by Herman Raucher, offers a strong downhome rural atmosphere and a vivid depiction of the 1950's period setting; it's this surprisingly potent sense of time and place along with the stark rendering of the era's stifling sexual mores centered on the concepts of guilt and sin which in turn give this movie a sinewy dramatic punch. The winning and natural chemistry between Benson and O'Connor further holds the film together; they receive sturdy support from Joan Hotchkis as Bobbie Lee's doting mom Anna, Sandy McPeak as her no-nonsense dad Glenn, James Best as amiable saw mill boss Dewey Barksdale, and Terence Goodman as Bobbie Lee's hearty brother James. Michael Hugo's pretty cinematography provides a lovely picturesque look. Michael Legrand's delicately melodic score hits the harmonic spot. A solid little film.

After watching this film on CMT recently, having not seen the film since I was a young man in the '70s, I was impressed by the fact that the filmmaker had definitely captured a time and an attitude prevalent in the South. Unfortnetely, we are still struggling against anti-gay sentiment in the USA (read ex-gay ministries and conversion therapy). We have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go when it pertains to normal human sexuality. And the commentators that indignantly insist that Billy Joe was raped-- I suggest that they watch the whole film in it's entirety (thanks CMT for not cutting out the scene where Robby Benson--the Billy Joe character --admits to Bobby Lee that he willingly had sex with the man). A very sad and evocative film dealing with very real issues of homophobia, denial, hypocrisy and intolerance!

Well, all I want to say is that this movie was a really great movie. It starred Glynnis O'Connor as Bobbie Lee Hartley and Robby Benson as Billy Joe McAllister. Bobbie Lee and Billy Joe fall in love but can not be together because Bobbie Lee is not allowed to date. But Billy Joe tries anyway and when they finally are allowed to date, an event happens that you did not see coming. You have really got to check this movie out!! It is like my favorite movie of all-time! I know a lot of people that commented on this movie wrote something about bad Mississippi accents..Well they are not from Mississippi and they have no right to say anything bad about how horrible this movie is based on something like that! There is nothing wrong with their accents, thats just how it is supposed to be, and if you don't want to hear accents, then don't watch the movie. But if you aren't a total idiot, I recommend that you see this movie. I give it 2 thumbs way up and 10 stars!! Wooo!!

If this is truly supposed to be an adaptation of the Bobbie Gentry song, it makes utterly NO sense. I'm gay, so I'm usually sensitized toward picking gay references out of pop culture, but to make Billy Joe in the film struggle with his sexuality is fairly ridiculous.

If you read the lyrics to Bobbie Gentry's song, it seems pretty darn obvious that what the narrator and Billie Joe are throwing off the Tallahatchee Bridge is their out-of-wedlock baby.

Just Google search the lyrics, listen to the song, and see if that interpretation doesn't make much more sense than how the movie presents the story.

I just watched Ode to Billy Joe today because my mother and aunt talked me into it, and I am 13 and I have the biggest crush on Robby Benson(in his younger years of course). I was so shocked at how the ending turned out, but of course I knew he would jump of the Tallahatchie Bridge from the song. I have to say, at the end I was crying a river and I really thought this movie was great. I really think that because Billie Joe was drunk, he may not have realized the reality of what was going on when that man raped him(in my opinion it was rape). I think he was just extremely ashamed because he knew that was totally unacceptable in that time and very scared and didn't know what to do. So, that is why I think he jumped off the bridge. If you ever get a chance to see this movie, go for it. You won't be disappointed, trust me.

I watched this movie back in 1992 when I was 14 on midnight but I can still remember the scenes and plot vividly. This is I must say, a haunting film, as it excellently portrays the courage of a young lady who has to face her whole neighborhood upon the death of her young love, Billy Joe McAllister, who jumps into the Mississippi river and meets death. A lot of speculations are spreading across the southern town, but little do they know that Billy Joe is secretly being raped by a man. Absolutely memorable. If only Malaysian Censorship Board would allow more scenes to be displayed I would have a clearer view of the film. But it truly is excellent...

Ode to Billy Joe is a great coming of age movie about a young man who obviously has homosexual tendencies in the early seventies. This of course was unheard of then but is celebrated in our modern age. Robbie Benson (Billy Joe) was not raped as others would like for you to believe, but rather explored his true feelings. Many individuals have used alcohol and drugs to try to escape their feelings about the way they truly feel. Sadly sometimes they go to extremes to hide their true self as demonstrated in the ending of this great American classic. It is sad that this is a reality for some individuals who don't have the support that they need to live a wonderful and happy life.

Based on the hit song by Bobbie Gentry, this 1976 film is an outstanding coming of age drama about the potential romance of two teens in the backwoods of Mississippi. The film really captures the deep south and both Glynnis O'Connor and Robby Benson shine as the likable protagonists. Benson impressively tackles the tough role of a teen tormented by the guilt of a horrible mistake while O'Connor brims with love and compassion.

"Ode to Billy Joe" could only be released independently today as it refuses to be politically correct and dares to show the awful truth about the sin du jour of the current generation.

The film was shot in the heart of Mississippi and runs 105 minutes.

GRADE: A

Had not seen this movie since its theatrical release in 1976 or 77. Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor were considered upcoming stars and were also romantically linked. Anyway...

The film holds up extremely well considering it was made 35 years ago. If I'd never seen it and told it was made two years ago -- I'd easily believe it.

It's easy to fall in love with Robby Benson's Billy Joe. That is key to understanding this film. The extremely sensitive, yet sturdy teen, might be a bit overplayed by Benson, but Billy Joe's eccentricities is what brings Glynnis' 15-year old, Bobbie Lee character to sexual fruition, and almost always, frustration. We are left to guess Bobby Joe's age, but the character can't be much older than 17 (going on 13).

While their love affair is brief; it is played out in memorable and sensitive scenes. The moonlit pond scene is funny, true and uncannily tender considering the expected romantic (sexual) gesturing never occurs. The school-bus scene with Bobby Joe forcibly boards to find Billie Lee is comedic as it is romantic.

Billy Joe's confusion regarding his sexuality is uncomfortably confirmed when he realizes he is different. Perhaps because the film was made in 1975, and teen-age homosexuality was considered near pornographic, or just the writer and director's vision of keeping Billy Joe as mysterious as possible, the audience never views any sexual tensions between other male characters, let alone an encounter scene between the male partners. It would've made the picture and the character more believable especially when Bobby Joe tells Billie Lee about the encounter, which she casually dismisses as a drunken episode.

It leaves the audience wondering. Why did Bobby Joe commit suicide when Billie Lee was so willing to accept him? Is the overlay of southern views of homosexuality in the late 50's that drove him to his death? Or, was it just Bobby Joe's extreme (yet sturdy), impulsive, sensitivities that he refused to accept himself -- or even try.

6/10 as the film holds so well after 35 years, and Robby Benson's overwhelming portrayal. Of course, the story itself, and the mysteries that are never explained.

With a script by the author of SUMMER OF '42 and direction by Jethro Clampett and released in a rush after SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, near BUSTER AND BILLIE but before HOOPER, the 'Deep South' and it's boy-germ emotions get fried like green tomatoes on the hot planks of the Tallahatche bridge.... as the song goes, anyway. Interestingly, we are actually in pre-Brokeback Mountain territory here with Billy Joe's haystack roll becoming his unraveling. Robby Benson was an interesting and sensitive teen actor who made slight roles about nervous and realistic emotions in youths acceptable. This film is one that works well, and is particularly effective and evocative of the time and place and of clearly hothouse emotional conflict. Part of a mid 70s series of 'South' dramas and fights within.....films like those mentioned above and other Jan Michael Vincent tearjerkers (with biff) eg: BABY BLUE MARINE. He seems to have passed his Burt Reynolds years with silent aplomb and entered the world of cartoon voice-overs with greater success. He was widely liked at the time of this film (see ONE ON ONE) and well remembered. Then he met Burt, mentoring followed and disappeared. He would be 50 this year 2006. The Brokeback Mountain theme of this film is a 30 year old preview of all this year's fuss. However, nobody minded in '76.

I saw this film when I was 12. I liked the southern fried look and attitude of the film. But I liked the theme song most of all. It is not a great film but the story is ahead of it's time. It is worth a look especially if you like quirky films of the 70's.

Something about the times I think made Bobbie Gentry's Old To Billie Joe a real stand out even today in our popular music and culture. The assassinations, the Vietnam War, post civil rights era and finally that spark of revolution from Stonewall. The last when a movie was made of Bobbie Gentry's narrative song it was given a gay theme.

Even in 2017 I can see this same story being played out exactly the same. This awkward kid Billy Joe McAllister kind of likes Bobby Lee Hartley. But one night getting totally plastered he gives into a man who has his way with him.

The overwhelming guilt that Robby Benson feels is that he liked it. But according to the mores of his bible belt community this is the worst thing possible. Then he has trouble with Glynis O'Connor playing Bobby Lee. Liked with a guy, couldn't perform with a girl, he felt he had no reason to live. In some of our communities that attitude holds sway still. Possibly Benson might have taken some snake oil conversion therapy and hope for a cure. Nothing worse than being gay except being gay in the bible belt.

At the end we learn it was his employer James Best who seduced him and Best and O'Connor decide what to do. Some might scoff but I think what O'Connor does is simple and sweet in her own way. One thing is certain, she certainly knows how the minds of her neighbors work.

A wonderful film inspired by a great ballad.

This comment is provoked by one made earlier by someone who seemed to feel the film unsalvageable. It might not be a masterpiece, or even particularly memorable, but this Southern boy had little trouble identifying with a boy trying to cope with his deepening feelings for a lovely young lady in the arch-conservative South, and of the young lady whose family opposed the union with the appalling callous intolerance and ignorance that seems epidemic in deep rural South. It's worth the rental fee if you find it at the video store.