BUSTER AND BILLIE

US, 1973, 99 minutes, Colour.
Jan- Michael Vincent, Joan Goodfellow, Pamela Sue Martin, Clifton James, Robert Englund.
Directed by Daniel Petrie.

Buster and Billie is a love story and it is not sentimental or cliché-ridden, although the familiar ingredients are there. The advertising said that 'it should have been a love story'. They are alluding to the violence, especially at the end of the film. The film has received an R Certificate here. Probably it is for the final violence, perhaps it is for some snatches of nudity. On the whole, it is a pity that the film has this certificate because it would be of great interest to many adolescents from about sixteen to eighteen.

Buster and Billie is set in Georgia, 1948, which means that it also has the flavour of nostalgia, another popular feature of recent films. The rural Georgia setting gives the film a sense of reality and some credibility to its characters and plot. But the main reason for recommending the film is the presentation of the relationship between Buster, who is a school hero in his final year and expected and expecting to marry the school's sweetheart, and Billie, the poor, shy girl who is the butt of the boys' lewdness and the girls' disdain. The two seem an unlikely pair, but the merit and quality of the film is that the beginnings of the relationship and its gradual transformation into genuine love are most moving and telling. It is in the detail of the relationship that the insight comes. It is one of the best pictures of genuine adolescent love in recent films.

Jan-Michael? Vincent, an average actor, is seen here at his best. Billie is played by newcomer Joan Goodfellow. The film runs just over an hour and a half and so is most useful for some serious discussion about the meaning in life.

1. The appeal of this film and the audience for which it was made? How well did it work within the nostalgia genre? The appeal of the late 'Forties and their interest? Exploiting the themes of the time or presenting them in thematic form? Could this story have been told of any time and place?

2. The appeal of the love story? The basic nature of its appeal, how real was this particular love story, the authentic aspects?

3. The youth orientation of the film? Did it exploit this, explore it well?

4. The opening in 1948 and Georgia: the presentation of the scene in a cinematic way: the cattle, the farms, school, the bus, roads, clothes, the kind of talk, the toilets, the records, down at the creek, the drive ins, Slim Mim's dance, the day at the beach etc? How serious was the attention to detail? What did it contribute to the atmosphere and authenticity of the film?

5. The picture of young men and women in the late 'Forties? The style of manners of the time and the influence on the young people's behaviour for example, to parents, to teachers, to each other, at Church, on dates? Public manners and private manners? Sincerity, consistency, authenticity?

6. The contribution of the music, the local melodies and lyrics? The background music, especially the use of Billie's theme? The pathos at the end?

7. How attractive a hero was Buster? The qualities of Jan- Michael Vincent's performance? The details of his home life, going to school in his truck, his reputation and personality at school.. his good qualities, his faults? His strength of character, relationship with the boys, the detail of his friendship with Whitey, the expected relationship with Margie, love, sexuality? His lack of interest in Billie, change of interest? What was the quality of his response to Billie, The detail of attention to her, the change into love? The impact of his breaking with Margie? Taking Billie to Church and the contrast with Margie? The confrontation with his parents about Billie? The lyrical interludes of their outings, their mutual gifts? The impact of his grief at Billie's death? The credibility of his running amok? The picture of an ordinary boy leading an ordinary life and tested by suffering? Could audiences identify with Buster as a hero?

9. Billie as heroine? The conditions of squalor, her family, her being used down at the creek and her impassivity? Her difficulties of relating, at school? Her shyness in Buster's regard? Her enjoyment of his company, changing into love? The gifts of the bottle and the opener? The going to Church, the going to the drive-in, going to the dance, sunrise? writing his name in the sand? The horror of the gang pursuing her, the violence of the rape and death? The pathos of her death? Was she a credible character?

10. The contrast with Margie as the all-American heroine? The detailed presentation of her life and family at home, her friends at school, Sally, her relationship with Buster and her resistance sexually, her ignorance? Church, the impact of Buster's breaking off the relationship?

11. Whitey and his role at the school, as an albino, as outcast, seeking friendship from everyone? The genuineness of Buster's friendship, the visit to his home. the exhilaration of the day at the seaside, the hat? The credibility of Whitey's going with the group and siding against Buster?

12. The other boys: Warren, Smitty? Their types, youth in the late forties, attitudes to sex, Drink, being daring? The group cohesiveness, the poolroom? Their bravery when together? Their fears? The brutality of the death and their pretence? Did they deserve Buster's violence?

13. The impact of the sexuality, the gang rapes, the responsibility and shirking responsibility, the boys' deaths?

14. The characterization of the parents, Jake, the bus driver? How did they throw light on Buster and Billie?

15. The attitudes of the police in the case, especially with the flowers?

16. The significance of the ending and Buster's going to the cemetery, Billie's theme?

17. How much insight into the quality of life, youth, love, death and the influence of the consequences on life?