Synopsis
At last, we're given the answers to the questions raised by the haunting 1967 Bobbie Gentry song of the same title. Eighteen- year-old Billy Joe McAllister is in love with Bobbie Lee, but her father refuses to allow her to receive gentlemen callers before she's sixteen. In the Mississippi Delta, in a time before the boondocks had seen television and indoor plumbing, a young man's fancy turns constantly to thoughts of love. Billy Joe is no different in this regard and his persistence is making it difficult for Bobbie Lee to maintain her virtue (the dog-earred issues of "Torrid Romance" don't help either). Perhaps an indictment of the artificial conventions of society, the film demonstrates the tragic consequences of a young couple's first awkward grapplings with love and sex. As Bobbie Lee says shortly after Billy Joe's lifeless body is dragged from the Tallahatchie River, "What do I know of love... I'm only a child." Yet, there seems little doubt that what she feels for the dead boy ...
Sections & Films
ODE TO BILLY JOE
| Original Title | ODE TO BILLY JOE |
| Italian Title | ODE A BILLY JOE |
| Category | Official Competition |
| Section | Official Competition |
| Tipology | Feature Film |
| Duration | 105' |
| Production Year | 1976 |
| Nationality | USA |
| Directed by | Max Baer Jr. |
| Screenplay | Herman Raucher |
| Main cast | Robby Benson, Glynnis O'Connor, Joan Hotchkis |
MAX BAER JR.
Maximilian Adalbert Baer Jr. (born December 4, 1937) is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, and director. He is best known for playing Jethro Bodine, the dimwitted nephew of Jed Clampett (played by Buddy Ebsen) on The Beverly Hillbillies. Baer was born Maximilian Adalbert Baer Jr. in Oakland, California, in 1937, the son of boxing champion Max Baer and his wife Mary Ellen Sullivan. His father was of German, Jewish, and Scots-Irish descent. His brother and sister are James Manny Baer (1941–2009) and Maude Baer (b. 1943). His uncle was boxer and actor Buddy Baer.
He attended Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento, where he earned letters in four sports and twice won the junior title at the Sacramento Open golf tournament. (Playing with Charlie Sifford, he later won the pro-am tournament at the 1968 Andy Williams - San Diego Open.)
Baer earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Santa Clara University, with a minor in philosophy.