Film Review: The Legend of Billie Jean (1985)

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Helen Slater is an actress whose filmography, despite her good looks and talent, left much to be desired. On one rare occasion she managed to elevate a bad film into something watchable. That was The Legend of Billie Jean, 1985 teen action drama directed by Matthew Robbins.

Slater in this film plays Billie Jean Davy, teenager from Corpus Christi, Texas, who lives in trailer park with her younger brother Binx (played by Christian Slater). For Binx his most treasured possession is Honda Elite Scooter, which gets trashed after the altercation with gang of rowdy teens led by Hubie Pyatt (played by Barry Tubb). Billie Jean, accompanied with Binx and two friends, goes to beach owned by Hubie’s father (played by Richard Bradford), in order to seek financial compensation. Mr. Pyatt, however, sees that as an opportunity for sexual advances on beautiful teen girl, which leads to another altercation in which Binx accidentally shoots Mr. Byatt. The gang decides to flee and takes temporary shelter in seemingly abandoned home in rich part of the city. There they stumble onto Lloyd Muldaur (played by Keith Gordon), owners’ son and aspiring film maker who immediately takes liking to Billie Jean and her cause. He makes videotapes that would be sent to media and tell her side of the story, while Billie Jean, inspired by Saint Joan, old film about Joan of Arc, cuts her hair and demand justice in her manifesto. This inspires many young people in the area to sympathise with her, while police Lieutenant David Ringwald (played by Peter Coyote) wants to arrest her before whole situation ends in bloodshed.

Matthew Robbins is veteran of New Hollywood who has worked with Steven Spielberg in his early film The Sugarland Express. Many critics saw similarities between two films, namely in female protagonist from Texas who, faced with injustice, becomes hunted by police and object of media frenzy. Script by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, however, alters that concept in order to make this film accessible to teen audience and, as a result, The Legend of Billie Jean is significantly lighter in tone and, unlike Spielberg’s film, has rather predictable happy ending. Despite occasionally drifting to darker territory with depictions of violence and attempted rape, as well as some mild social criticism, main focus of film is light comedy. Although there are couple of funny scenes, script at times unconvincingly introduces events and characters that are too convenient. Character of District Attorney Muldaur, who just happens to be Lloyd’s father, is one such example that doesn’t do anything than to waste talent of Dean Stockwell. To a lesser degree same can be said of Peter Coyote as sympathetic but ultimately inept policeman. Helen Slater, on the other hand, successfully carries films on her shoulders, playing character whose great looks (explicitly referenced many times in the film) create much of the mayhem and who later quite convincingly transforms into icon for rebellious youth. Young Christian Slater makes rather impressive big screen role despite potentially thankless role that forced him to dye his hair blonde (and was later responsible for myth about him and Helen Slater being siblings in real life). Veteran character actor Richard Bradford is also quite effective in the role of one of the slimiest characters in 1980s cinema. Yeardley Smith, actress best known for voicing Lisa on The Simpsons, makes good job as Billie Jean’s 14-year old friend. On the other hand, a lot of good work in this film was compromised with too much pandering to teen audience, which included overuse of 1980s style soundtrack which might be a little bit too annoying to today’s viewers who don’t feel nostalgia towards the period.

RATING: 5/10 (++)