Why did Bille Joe jump off the Tallahasse Bridge? I never saw the movie but the song implies some sort of hanky-panky, maybe some body dumping and good ole fashioned religion.
I don’t think the song reveals the reason, but if I remember correctly, Billy Joe had a homosexual encounter with an older man; I want to say the owner of the sawmill or somesuch. He basically throws himself off the bridge out of shame.
It’s not explained in the song, and doesn’t need to be.
That’s just not true. There was a whole movie about it I’m sure the whole movie wasn’t a Florida family eating dinner and shooting the breeze.
Here is a pretty detailed exploration of the song and the differences from the subsequent movie.
<<More likely, as is often the case, she was given a writing credit as a matter of form, as the bare bones of the song’s story were used in the film. The screenwriter then expanded the story into feature film length adding sub-plots, additional characters etc. The film version ads another dimension to the story not found in the song. Billie Joe in the film is a repressed homosexual. He confesses his love for The Girl (called Bobby Lee in the film), only to cover his growing fear that he may be homosexual. After a sexual encounter with an unnamed man, he is unable to live with his guilt, and jumps off the Tallahatchie Bridge. None of this story line is evident in the original song, and it is unclear if this was Gentry’s original vision, or just the work of a professional scriptwriter trying to film up 100 minutes of movie time.>>
No, no, Biggirl , **Reality Chuck ** has spoken :rolleyes:
Huh? What did Chuck say that was wrong? The entire point of the song was that nobody paid any attention to the girl or her feelings, and that she couldn’t even get her family to care about Billie Joe except in a vague tsk-tsking way. They would only learn the real reason if they noticed and cared. Not finding out the truth is utterly mandatory to the song’s power.
Making the movie and adding a plot lacking in the original may have padded a song out to movie length but it was artistic rape. Why should we applaud that? It was not necessary. It shouldn’t have even been a choice .
Wasn’t there an unwanted pregnancy/still-birth angle some applied to the song? I am trying to recall from past discussions…
Because I asked, that’s why. I asked because I wanted to know about the song and the movie.
Holy shit, ask a simple question about the plot of a song and movie and get berated for applauding rape. Talk about taking things a mite too seriously!
Plus, and, also, furthermore. . .Bobbie Gentry didn’t feel “artistically raped” by the movie seeing as how she re-recorded her 1967 hit especially for the 1976 movie.
Ah yes. Because I always thought she said Tallahassee in the song.
Because it was a dismissive and arrogant response.
As far as artistic rape, without knowing how Bobbi Gentry felt about the movie or if she contributed to it, I can’t really agree.
Why should we applaud it? Well, I applauded it when it first came out. Of course, I was a preteen girl with a crush on Robby Benson, so it may not hold up for me today, but I and all the people in the theater liked it at the time.
What work of art is necessary? And who gets to decide?
All. Everyone.
Not really. The point is that there isn’t any need to explain everything in a work of art. Some things, like the song, are meant to be evocative, and trying to find an answer is just pointless – as well as misses the point. What she threw off was completely unimportant; the fact that she threw something off is.
Basically, any “explanation” of the song is really for people who can’t understand this concept. I find that sort of thinking pretty sad.
Aw, I’ve touched RealityChuck’s sad bone. Perhaps he’d brighten up if he could explain the plot of the movie. That way he won’t feel so bad about contributing to the decline of my artistic soul.
Unless asking about a plot of a movie I’ve never seen will sadden you just as much. I don’t want you to suffer too much for me. But if you do explain, please do it slowly. You know how us people don’t understand the concept of art are.
I agree, for the most part, but it’s not as if she’s th first person to wonder about this particular song. There have been lots of discussions about it over the years. To me, It’s kind of like people wondering who Carly Simon is singing about in “You’re So Vain”.
Also, I took it that **Biggirl ** might not be that familiar with the song, and so might think there was an actual story behind it. If one only heard it a couple of times and only caught snips of the lyrics, it’s not so unreasonable to think it might be based on a true story or at least have a backstory to it. I just son’t see why you consider it to be such an absurd question.
The lyrics of the song present a pretty clear implication, to me, that Billie Joe and the narrator had a baby that was (best case) stillborn, and Billie Joel’s unable to live with this. It’s not spelled out in so many words, but I think that’s the intended subtext.
This is what I pictured also. I wondered how the movie compared to what I thought. But it doesn’t, apparently.
Has anyone seen the movie?
Ratchet it back a bit, will ya’? Tear apart the work of art all you want, but play nicely with the other posters. (Or take it to the Pit… if you must. Just keep it outta here.)