Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		1.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Legend of Billie Jean Blu-ray Movie Review

Fair Is Fair, Sony—and This Isn't!

Reviewed by Michael Reuben July 22, 2014

The Legend of Billie Jean built its cult following the old-fashioned way: on cable TV and VHS. Sony, which holds the rights, never even released the film on DVD until 2011, when it issued Billie Jean as a "made on demand" (or "MOD") product (their equivalent of the Warner Archive program). In the newly recorded commentary accompanying that release, co-star Yeardley Smith commented how people still come up to her, twenty-five years after the film's release, and quote some of her most memorable lines as the 13-going-on-40-year-old Putter, who suffers the indignity of getting her first period (discreetly) on camera. ("Gross!" says young Binx Davy, played by a 15-year-old Christian Slater, in his first film role.)

Pat Benatar's theme song, "Invincible", was the only part of Billie Jean to enjoy any success when the film was released in 1985, helped no doubt by constant play of the accompanying video on MTV. The film itself quickly disappeared from theaters, despite an appealing cast and a classic scenario of misunderstood youth standing up for themselves against adult cruelty. Billie Jean may have suffered for being ahead of its time in using a female protagonist. Billie Jean Davy's troubles begin with her brother's motorscooter, but the event that makes her an outlaw is an attempted sexual assault anticipating the one that, six years later, would send Thelma and Louise on their famous crime spree. But Thelma and Louise were adults. It would be a few more years before the culture at large was ready to embrace a truly tough, sexually mature young woman fighting back and saying no.

Sony has never seemed to appreciate the value of Billie Jean or the loyalty of its audience. Having delayed the DVD release, it has now handed off the rights to Mill Creek, resulting in a Blu-ray that should have fans joining with the title character's legion of supporters in raising both arms and protesting: "Fair is fair!" Unfortunately, Sony probably won't listen any better than the adults in the film.

Billie Jean Davy (Helen Slater) and her younger brother, Binx (Christian Slater, no relation to Helen, despite much confusion because they played siblings), live with their widowed mother (Mona Lee Fultz) in a trailer park in Corpus Christi, Texas. They are very aware that everyone else considers them "trailer trash", especially Hubie Pyatt (Barry Tubb, Wolfman in Top Gun), who is the son of a local shopkeeper at the beachfront (Richard Bradford). In an escalating series of pranks and taunts, Hubie steals Binx's prized Honda and wrecks it, despite Billie Jean's plea for help to the local police in the person of Det. Ringwald (Peter Coyote). When Billie Jean marches into Mr. Pyatt's store demanding compensation, the sleazy snake lures her into a private area of the store with a promise to pay, then assaults her. As Billie Jean struggles to get away, Binx comes to her rescue with a pistol he's found in the cash register. Mr. Pyatt is wounded, and the kids flee the scene with their friend, Ophelia (Martha Gehman), who gave them a ride to the store.

As the terrified kids leave town, along with their neighbor, Putter (Smith), who thinks the whole thing is one grand adventure, director Matthew Robbins (who scripted Steven Spielberg's tragi-comic chase film, The Sugarland Express) straddles a fine line between comedy and peril. As outlaws, Billie Jean's "crew" is among the most inept imaginable. Today they'd be caught immediately, but this was an era before cell phones, GPS and traffic cams. Also, they gain unexpected allies, as media coverage (and Billie Jean's pretty face on the front page and evening news) turn them into pop culture heroes. When the savvy rebel is inspired to put herself on TV (via videotape) and plead her own case, a spontaneous wave of supporters rises up to provide assistance—but also a few bounty hunters taking pot shots, thanks to the $10,000 reward offered by District Attorney Muldaur (Dean Stockwell), an ambitious politician angling for higher office. And, oh yes, the D.A.'s son, Lloyd (Keith Gordon, Christine ), just happens to have joined the outlaws as a volunteer "hostage".

That Billie Jean is inspired in her quest for justice by Joan of Arc, and that her acquaintance with the Maid of Orleans comes by way of watching Jean Seberg's portrayal in Otto Preminger's Saint Joan at Lloyd's house, suggests that there's more under the surface of Billie Jean than the cheesy Eighties teen flick beyond which critics couldn't see when the film was first released. As Helen Slater reveals in the commentary, the original script was penned by blacklisted writer Walter Bernstein (The Front), whose literacy and righteous outrage could still be felt after multiple rewrites in the shooting script credited to Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal (Mona Lisa Smile). The film's climax, in which Billie Jean confronts Mr. Pyatt (on camera, of course) in front of a huge display of merchandise featuring her likeness, from which Pyatt is cynically reaping the financial rewards of her sudden fame, is a classic statement about notoriety and greed, but the scene's conclusion is something else altogether. I won't spoil it for new viewers, but the imagery is almost mythic—and Joan of Arc would understand.

The Legend of Billie Jean Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Legend of Billie Jean was shot by cinematographer Jeffrey L. Kimball, whose next film, Top Gun, would bring him acclaim for its innovative aerial camera work and lead to a thriving career filming action spectacles, including Mission: Impossible II and The Expendables. Kimball's lighting on Billie Jean was designed to capture the intense heat of the Texas summer, using filters and diffusion. (On the commentary, Helen Slater and Yeardley Smith recall that the actors were constantly being sprayed with glycerin solution to simulate perspiration.)

I have seen references to the transfer on Mill Creek's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray as an "old master", but since the film wasn't released on DVD until a few years ago, "old" is a relative term. In well-lit scenes, the Blu-ray image features pleasing sharpness, superior detail and a vibrant but naturalistic palette that sometimes has the colors washed out by the haze or brightness, an effect I believe to be deliberate. Night scenes can be more problematic, with heavier grain and somewhat less detail, but again I believe this is inherent in the original photography. Overall, the film's grain pattern looks natural and undisturbed by filtering or digital manipulation. The black levels vary between solid black and a skew towards gray in the brightest scenes, where the entire frame is brightened. Since this is specific to individual shots (and, to my recollection, the film has always looked like this), it appears to be part of the intended "hot" look.

With no extras other than a commentary, Mill Creek has achieved an average bitrate of 25.00 Mbps, which isn't the highest I've seen but is certainly very good for a film with minimal action sequences.

The Legend of Billie Jean Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Billie Jean was released to theaters in Dolby Stereo. If there's one critical component to the soundtrack besides the dialogue, it's the music, which, in addition to the title song, "Invincible", in both instrumental and vocal renditions, also includes Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell" (which became a hit on re-release after the film), several cuts by the Divinyls and a synthpop score by Craig Safan (Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins). The music should help propel the story and intensify its emotions, but on the Blu-ray's languid Dolby Digital 2.0 track, encoded at the bit-starved DVD-standard rate of 192 kbps, it barely makes a dent. The dialogue is clear enough, but the entire track sounds thin and compressed, without the full dynamic range that would give the songs the requisite punch and impact. The track has also been encoded at an unusually low volume.

I am far from a lossless purist, but there is no reason why the low-resolution DVD standard of 192 kbps should be used on Blu-ray, unless the source is of such low quality that it can withstand so much compression without meaningful sacrifice, which is certainly not the case here. At the very least, DD 2.0 should be encoded at 448 kbps, for which there is ample room on this BD-25, where several GB remain unused. It appears that Sony simply sent the DVD track to Mill Creek rather than provide the uncompressed masters for re-encoding. The result is a shoddy presentation and the lowest audio score I have ever given.

The Legend of Billie Jean Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The sole extra is the commentary by Helen Slater and Yeardley Smith, which first appeared on Sony's MOD DVD of the film released in 2011. As the actresses note, they are recording their comments twenty-five years after making the film, but with each other's prompting, they are able to recall a remarkable amount about the experience of shooting on location in Corpus Christi. They also comment on the film's long "afterlife". An interesting aside is that Slater's daughter, who would have been 15 at the time, had no interest in watching the film.

The Legend of Billie Jean Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fans of cult films frequently have to make do with less than perfect releases, and the Mill Creek Blu-ray of The Legend of Billie Jean is one of those times. Sony's lack of interest in the title is well-established, and Mill Creek can only release what they are given. At least the video presentation is above average. The movie itself remains as fresh and lively as when it was first released. Recommended, with the caveat that you'll need to turn up the volume to get anything listenable out of the anemic soundtrack.