Bobbie Gentry has never revealed the mystery of what the girl and Billy Joe threw off the Tallahatchie bridge or why Billy Joe later jumped to his death. The story as revealed in the movie was the invention of a screenwriter years after the song was released and had nothing to do with what was on Gentry's mind when she wrote the song. The point behind the song was the fact that a young man died and the girl's family show a stupendous amount of indifference about it. The meaning behind the song is really up to the individual interpretation of the listener, as it was meant to be. The ridiculous movie pretty much ruined the legacy of the song. Its rumored that Bobby Gentry dropped out of the public eye after the movie came out never to return, because of her disgust with what Hollywood did with her song. My interpretation of the song is that they didn't throw anything off the bridge of any importance. It could have been just a rock so they can watch the splash, something that young people did where I grew up. Her and Billy Joe may not have even been lovers. Maybe it was a case of mistaken identity who the girl was that was seen throwing something off the bridge with Billy Joe. The girl telling the story in the song ends up throwing flowers off the bridge simply because no one else in the town seems to have cared about Billy Joe's death because he hadn't a lick of sense anyhow. He could have been practically a stranger to her but she still would have felt some compassion where others did not. Not every book or song should have a movie made from them and this movie is a good reason why. Preserving the mystery behind the song would have been better than ruining it with a movie that came up with a completely fabricated reason that had nothing to do behind why the song was even written.
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