The Legend of a movie
In Chapter 16 of Mix Tapes and Stuff, Orville’s mother throws out Orville’s things as punishment. One of the things she tosses is Orville’s copy of “The Legend of Billie Jean” on VHS tape.
On a future blog, I’ll go into the history of VHS and the tapes used as part a slew of blogs on technology that we don’t use anymore. For the time being, VHS was the DVR of it’s time. A recorded show was stored on a tape that you could keep and play later. They sold movies on these tapes as well.
Back to the book. Orville’s sister claims ownership of the movie and runs off with it.
The Legend of Billie Jean was a movie released in 1985.
It starred Helen Slater in her second starring role after playing Supergirl in 1984. According to IMDB, she was born in Massapequa, NY in 1963. Supergirl was her first movie. It made money, but at the time was not seen as a success. Times change because she would later write a special edition of a Supergirl comic. She would go on to star in other big 1980’s movies like The Secret of My Success and Ruthless People. Today, she has 63 acting credits on IMDB. She also is a musician.
Christian Slater had a television background when he was cast as her younger brother. According to IMDB, he was born in 1969 in New York City, NY. Billie Jean would be his first movie. He has been in several big movies over the years as well as television. He has 112 acting credits on IMDB.
The movie is about a girl from Texas that takes a stand against local bullies and is in turn bullied by the people that were supposed to help her. She is harassed by older men with power in the community. Her brother Binx, played by Slater, is beat up by locals.
They pretend to kidnap a guy that is really in on it to bring attention to their story. They find that they actually get support from local people that are also harassed by the powerful in their town until things go wrong for all parties.
The movie got big support from the soundtrack that had a huge Pat Benetar song, Invincible. The music video had clips of the movie, which brought interest in the movie.
These are links to see the movie and get more information: