Time of retribution
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Time of retribution |
| Original title | The Legend of Billie Jean |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1985 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Matthew Robbins |
| script |
Lawrence Konner , Mark Rosenthal |
| production | Rob Cohen for TriStar Pictures |
| music | Craig Safan |
| camera | Jeffrey L. Kimball |
| cut | Cynthia Scheider |
| occupation | |
| |
Time of Retribution (Original title: The Legend of Billie Jean ) is an American feature film from 1985 . Directed by Matthew Robbins and written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal .
The action- oriented drama premiered on July 19, 1985 in the United States. It is about a group of teenagers in Texas who have to run away from the police due to a misunderstanding. In their struggle for justice, they become media stars and role models of their generation.
action
The High School -Schülerin Billie Jean Davy and her younger brother Binx live with her mother on a campsite in Corpus Christi . After the death of their father, a newly acquired motor scooter is the pride of the siblings. In their free time, they drive along the Texan coast and dream of a carefree life in the far-away state of Vermont . On the way to a bathing area, they run into a group of teenagers, led by the well-off Hubie Pyatt, who are molesting Billie Jean. Immediately afterwards, Hubie stole the scooter out of vindictiveness. Although the siblings file a complaint, Detective Ringwald does not take the incident seriously. Binx manages to get his property back on his own. In the inevitable brawl, he is beaten up by the physically superior opponent and the scooter is damaged. When Billie Jean later confronts Hubie's dad, who owns a beach shop, and demands the estimated repair cost of $ 608, she barely escapes rape. In an attempt to defend his sister, Binx accidentally shoots Mr. Pyatt and injures his shoulder. Together with two friends, the younger cheeky putter and the grown-up Ophelia, the two of them go on the run in Ophelia's father's car because, due to their origins, they see little chance of convincing the police of the truth.
On the odyssey through Texas, the "Billie Jean Gang" is stylized into stars by the media. While the local radio station and young people from all parts of the country celebrate the runaways like idols and help them to continue their escape, the police are trying to track down the “outlaws”. After his initial skepticism, Detective Ringwald increasingly developed an understanding of the group's motives and tried to persuade them to give up. Convinced of the futility of her actions, Billie Jean intends to face the police in a mall. In return, she obliges Mr. Pyatt, who has meanwhile made a profit from the media hype by selling T-shirts and other fan merchandise , to pay the damage again. Since Pyatt does not stick to the agreements, the money transfer fails. Before driving on, Binx keeps Detective Ringwald at bay with a stolen toy gun.
During a stopover in a supposedly uninhabited house, the group meets the amateur filmmaker Lloyd Muldaur. When Billie Jean sees a film about the French national heroine Jeanne d'Arc on television , she simply takes on her shape. With a short haircut and flashy clothing as a sign of rebellion against the authoritarian adult world, she spreads a video message with Lloyd's help, in which she emphasizes her demand for justice with the slogan “fair is fair”. To strengthen her negotiating position with the police, she also fakes Lloyd's kidnapping. She learns too late that his influential father, as a public prosecutor, insists on compliance with law and order and that the alleged kidnapping confirms his intransigent attitude.
After further negotiations, an exchange of the "hostage" for the repaired scooter on the beach should lead to a final solution to the conflict. Still convinced that his son is in real danger, prosecutor Muldaur orders snipers to be made available on his own initiative and against the will of Detective Ringwald. With his toy gun pointed at Lloyd, Binx, disguised as Billie Jean, walks towards the agreed delivery point. In a confusing situation, Binx is shot by the police. His sister, who is also on site, finally forces Mr. Pyatt to admit the rape attempt in front of an assembled audience. When a fire breaks out at Pyatt's stand and symbolically destroys the star cult, people throw all their idol's fan articles into the flames. In the end, Billie Jean and Binx, who has since been released from the hospital, hitchhike through the Vermont winter landscape.
background
The plot shows parallels to the novella Michael Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist , published in 1810 . The story, set in the middle of the 16th century, is about a horse dealer who takes vigilante justice against an injustice he has suffered and demands satisfaction. In the modernized version, the battered horses were replaced by the damaged scooter. In contrast to the literary model, both the subsequent campaign of revenge and the end of the film are less dramatic.
Based on the slogan used by Billie Jean Davy in the film, the original US title was originally intended to be Fair is fair instead of The Legend of Billie Jean . The source of inspiration for the transformation of Billie Jean into a fighter based on the model of the French national heroine Jeanne d'Arc was the historical film Saint Joan from 1957 with Jean Seberg in the leading role. The film ran on television after Billie Jean's group met Lloyd Muldaur at his father's house. In the credits of Time of Retribution , a Beverly Hills hairdresser is mentioned for the short haircut of the main character, known as the "Billie Jean Cut".
Due to the sometimes uncultivated youth language, the film was initially rated R (restricted) by the Motion Picture Association of America and later downgraded to PG-13 (parents strongly cautioned) .
The roles of Christian Slater, who made his debut as a film actor, and Helen Slater subsequently led to the assumption that they would also be siblings in real life. Despite the matching last name, there is no relationship.
production
Filming
The film was shot for the most part in the Texan coastal city of Corpus Christi and in the neighboring district of Flour Bluff from late summer to winter 1984 . Other locations include Kingsville City and Padre Island .
The fictitious campsite Breeze Haven was on Texas State Highway 35 Aransas Pass settled . The motorized race at the beginning of the film led, among other things, past the Corpus Christi Truck Stop with the tank farms in the immediate vicinity to a former fast-food restaurant on South Padre Island Drive in Flour Bluff . The bathing scenes by the water were shot on private property near Rockport .
The Sunrise Mall in Corpus Christi with the artificial water stair served as a backdrop for the action sequence in the shopping center . The parking garage with an attached skyway , from which the escape by car after the unsuccessful money transfer is continued, belongs to a bank in the city center, about ten kilometers north of the Sunrise Mall .
The abandoned miniature golf course , which in the meantime served as a hiding place and overnight stay, was provisionally built on the site of the Texas State Aquarium , which opened in 1990, at the northern end of the Harbor Bridge . Towards the end of the film, the former Magic Isles amusement park on Flour Bluff Drive can also be seen. The Funtrackers leisure center opened in the same location in 2000 .
The villa of Muldaurs with swimming pool and water slide is located at the corner of Ocean Drive and Doddrige Street a few meters from the shore of Corpus Christi Bay away .
The house where Billie Jean rescues a boy from a predicament in the presence of his abusive father in front of her supporters is on Naples Street . Shortly afterwards, a man interested in the reward offered shoots the escape vehicle. During the chase that followed, he lost control of his pickup at a construction site near the intersection of Carrol Lane and South Padre Island Drive and rolled over .
After Billie Jean announced their whereabouts to the police out of concern for the safety of their two friends, Putter and Ophelia are woken up by Detective Ringwald in a parking lot below the John F. Kennedy Memorial Causeway on Padre Island . The beach where the final "hostage handover" is to take place in the presence of the assembled crowd is on Bob Hall Pier on South Padre Island . Mr. Pyatt's business was actually the Dockside Surf Shop on Flour Bluff . On the opposite parking lot there was also the sales booth with fan articles, which later went up in flames.
Further shots were taken at the entrance and on the golf course of the Corpus Christi Country Club , in South Alameda Street and at a gas station on US Highway 181 .
The Kleberg County Courthouse in Kingsville was the setting for the headquarters of the local police force around Detective Ringwald .
The location of the final scene was not Vermont, but a gas station in Summit County , Colorado .
The siblings' scooter was a Honda Elite 125 (built in 1984), while Hubie Pyatt's youngsters sat in a Dodge Challenger Convertible (1970). The escape of the four protagonists took place in a Ford LTD Wagon (1973). The radio station KNCN C-101 in Corpus Christi, which can be heard several times in the background, exists to the present day.
Film music
The officially unreleased soundtrack includes synth-pop- style instrumentals by Craig Safan and some better-known works by other artists. The theme song Invincible , sung by Pat Benatar , reached number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in September 1985 . The song Rebel Yell by Billy Idol was re-released as a single a year and a half after its first release and rose to number six in the British singles chart in October 1985 .
- Invincible (Theme from The Legend of Billie Jean), Pat Benatar
- Closing in, Mark Safan
- Boys in Town, Divinyls
- Heart Telegraph, Divinyls
- Rebel Yell, Billy Idol
- It's My Life, Wendy O. Williams
- Time to Explain, Bruce Witkin & The Kids
- Self Defense, Chas Sanford
reception
The film grossed approximately $ 3.1 million in United States cinemas, making it a commercial failure.
Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times on July 19, 1985 that Time of Retribution was "yet another unfortunate 1980s-style film about a petty person who becomes special." He was "done competently and offers appealing representations in places - especially those by Peter Coyote". However, it is "difficult to imagine that filmmakers and viewers should believe a cute and selfless heroine who unintentionally rises to a superstar".
Jay Boyar described the film in the Orlando Sentinel as a better B-movie , which has "parallels with its speed to the early Sugarland Express " by director Steven Spielberg from 1974. He also praises the portrayal of Helen Slater as Billie Jean, who manages the difficult balancing act with "the clear eyes of a dreamer and the tenacity of a winner".
Filmdienst judged that the film was “not itself free from those tendencies that glorify youth that it wants to criticize; The aesthetics of the staging (a lot of music, pictures in the style of a video clip) basically follows the marketing mechanisms that the story is about. The interesting topic is largely given away ".
Cinema magazine criticized the plot as a "banal story from the depths of the 80s".
In retrospect, as a typical work of the 1980s, the film enjoys a certain cult status among film fans , not least because of its poor availability for years .
In June 2011, the Cavern Club Celebrity Theater in Los Angeles held several performances of a stage adaptation of the work entitled Invincible, The Legend of Billie Jean! with Willam Belli and Sam Pancake in the lead roles. In 2009 a parody of the play was shown in the Open Circle Theater in Seattle .
Publications
The film was released by Columbia Pictures in May 2009 as a European PAL version in Spanish on DVD under the title La Leyenda de Billie Jean (approx. 92 minutes, image format 1.85: 1, sound formats Dolby Digital Mono English and Spanish). A remastered DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in NTSC format followed in early November 2011 with audio commentary by Helen Slater and Yeardley Smith. In July 2014, Mill Creek Entertainment released a special 'Fair is Fair' edition on DVD and Blu-ray. There is also an older German VHS edition.
Web links
- The Legend of Billie in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Time of retribution in the online film database
- The Legend of Billie at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- The Legend of Billie at Facebook (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Youth in Revolt: The Legend of Billie Jean. WordPress.com, November 20, 2009, accessed October 8, 2011 .
- ↑ a b Jay Boyar: 'Billy Jean' Is A Pretty Good B-plus . In: Orlando Sentinel , July 25, 1985, accessed July 30, 2011.
- ↑ Trivia for Time of Retribution. IMDb.com, accessed July 29, 2011 .
- ^ A b The Legend of Billie Jean Trivia. Fast-Rewind.com, accessed July 29, 2011 .
- ↑ Biography for Helen Slater. IMDb.com, accessed July 29, 2011 .
- ↑ Filming locations for Time of Retribution. IMDb.com, accessed November 5, 2008 .
- ↑ a b The Legend of Billie Jean - photos. facebook.com, accessed September 3, 2011 .
- ↑ a b c d e The Legend of Billie Jean Filming Locations. Fast-Rewind.com, accessed July 29, 2011 .
- ^ Movies Filmed in Colorado. Film in Colorado, accessed January 13, 2016 .
- ↑ The Legend of Billie Jean, 1985: Cars, Bikes, Trucks and Other Vehicles. IMCDb.org, accessed August 16, 2011 .
- ↑ The English-language article contains two audio samples of the film music, which for licensing reasons cannot be included in the German-language article.
- ↑ Pat Benatar - Chart history. Billboard, accessed January 23, 2014 .
- ^ Rebel Yell. The Official UK Charts Company 2015, accessed January 13, 2016 .
- ↑ Budget and box office earnings for Time of Retribution. IMDb.com, accessed November 5, 2008 .
- ↑ Janet Maslin : Screen: 'The Legend of Billie Jean' opens . In: The New York Times , July 19, 1985, accessed November 5, 2008.
- ↑ Time of Retribution. Two thousand and one shipping service, accessed November 5, 2008 .
- ↑ Time of Retribution. CINEMA Verlag, accessed November 5, 2008 .
- ↑ The Legend of Billie Jean was first released on November 1, 2011 for the US market in NTSC format on DVD.
- ↑ Mike Pingel: Invincible, The Legend of Billie Jean Live - Opens Friday - Fair is Fair. Examiner.com, June 2, 2011, accessed August 1, 2011 .
- ^ Adrian Ryan: Billie Jean: The Legend: The Creamy Crème de le Crème of Good-Bad Theater . In: The Stranger , September 22, 2009, accessed August 4, 2011.