BUSTER and BILLIE ahead of its time

I remember my eldest sister telling me and our fellow siblings about this movie when she and some friends saw it at a drive-in. Years later I saw it for myself on television and years after that on VHS. It still brings sorrow to mind when I think about the movie.

Buster and Billie pre-dated all the romance and chick flicks of the early 2000s. Even in its time it was an obscure doomed romance flick and largely forgotten, which is sad because it was a gem of a quality movie. Today the movie has something in common with ATONEMENT, another doomed romance movie.

BUSTER and BILLIE was perhaps Jan Michael Vincent's most memorable and best drama acting of his entire career, ironic that it occurred at the beginning of his film career. Vincent never did replicate the depth of the emotional drama he portrayed in B & B.

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Jan Michael Vincent as BUSTER was a totally likeable young guy. He was the sort of quality dude in high school you wished you had for a close friend. Buster was one of the top, 'cool' senior dudes in high school, yet was very mature for his age, probably the result of a proper upbringing by his farmer parents and the responsibilities he carried working on his parents' farm. Yet his parents were not overly strict or overbearing because Buster was allowed to spend time at the bar drinking and playing pool with his high school chums as long as the farm chores were finished first. Buster shows his emotional maturity and strength of character by befriending outcast student Whitey, played by of all people, Robert Englund, the future Freddy Krueger, insane revenant of the horror flicks. Because of his friendship with such a cool guy, Whitey eventually finds acceptance at the high school among the guys.

Just to show you how strange and unpredictable love can be and how fickle CUPID can be, Jan Michael Vincent falls in love with BILLIE, after a night of carnal pleasure with her. Despite what other reviewers may have written about BILLIE, she was no one-dimensional stereotypical, loose-morals girl. BILLIE was a much deeper character in the movie than what people would have you believe. I do not believe BILLIE was dimwitted or slow. She suffered painfully from shyness and it was insinuated, possibly abusive father and neglectful mother. Therefore Billie suffered from emotional trauma and psychological fragility which only made her seem slow-minded. But she was for all intents and purposes, a mentally normal, but very lonely, troubled girl desperately seeking affection that she never received from her parents through carnal relations with the high school boys.

BUSTER is complex and precocious enough to be perceptive of the real BILLIE and perhaps this emotional fragility is what attracts him to her. She's such a genuine, delicate flower, an newborn fawn, a gentle soul that matches the gentleness of his own. Buster's night of sexual intercourse with Billie leads him to fall deeply in love with her and the love is reciprocated. For a time Buster and Billie are LOVE's great winners, two matching souls extremely fortunate to have met each other.

But like any doomed romance novel, external factors cut their promise of a lifetime of love tragically and violently short. Having sought and found the love and affection she so desperately needed from BUSTER, Billie no longer requires the, um, 'services' of the high school senior boys. Of course this does not sit well with the boys at having their 'supply' cut off. Tragically, a botched attempt at forced sexual intercourse with one of the boys ends with Billie being accidentally beaten to death.

The gentleness of BUSTER's own soul cannot contain the pain of such an devastating emotional loss and forces a release in a spasm of rage and violence culminating in the killing of two of the boys most responsible for Billie's death. In the moments of terrible vengeance, Buster's erstwhile friend, Whitey attempts to restrain Buster and ends up being thrown on a pool table, almost knocking him unconscious. It's easy to feel anger at Whitey for turning on his benefactor Buster, but kids at that high school age are easily frightened and disconcerted when someone starts acting out of the norm and Whitey like everyone else, felt confusion, bewilderment, and dismay at Buster's inexplicable love for someone of 'disrepute' as Billie.

The movie was set in post-World War II Louisiana or some other southeastern U.S. state. It's truly a timeless movie and can be watched and appreciated today in 2008 as much as it was in 1971. Some movies never receive the credit and acclaim they deserve and Buster and Billie is near the top of the list as one of those little-known gems.