Ode to Billy Joe

The song and the movie complement each other. The song doesn't go into a lot of explanation about what happen to Billy Joe and the movie offers one detailed possibility based on the title and characters in the song. I don't think the producers are trying to portray the movie as being the actual account of Billy Joe's death (assuming Ms. Gentry's song is based on a real event).

I disagree with some of the points in the review by "gft", especially the part about Billy Joe being black. "Gft" suggests in the song that a interracial love conflict is what leads to Billy Joe's apparent suicide. If Ms. Gentry's song is based on a true event, Billy Joe was not likely black. According to the song Billy Joe, a guy named Tom, and the brother of the girl in the song put a frog down her back at a "picture show". Blacks and whites did not sit in the same sections in movie theaters in those days. Also the song implies that Billy Joe and the girl's family went to the same church. Blacks and whites would not have attended the same church in the south in those days and rarely do so even today.

If you want to see a good movie about teen love and the old south, "Ode to Billy Joe" is for you. I hope there will be a DVD version soon, maybe with producer/actor commentary.