Billie

I feel like this post is going to start off as another N.A meeting...Netflix Anonymous. My name is Carolyn, and I am addicted to Netflix....

So, yesterday my TV was broken, again, and since I had been uber productive during the day & was going to give myself the night off to knit {current project...adorable right?} & binge eat & watch TV - this was going to be a problem. So, what does Netflix suggest for me?

Patty Duke: "Billie"

Amazing. Seriously - put it in your queue now. It came out in 1965, & most definitely could not be released today due to rather sexist lines {we'll get to that later} unless it was sacastic or campy. The movie follows Patty Duke {mother of Sean Astin of Lord of the Rings & Rudy fame...btw} as Billie, a sort of tomboy {but only because a girl could not be athletic & a girl, apparently} who is a whiz at track & field due to The Beat -a jazzy sort of rhythm she plays in her head and to go faster she plays it faster {genius}. Billie's father is running for mayor, originally on the platform that girls should not compete with boys because it makes us sad, but quickly changes his tune when he sees how awesome his daughter {who he refers to as his "son" a few times} is at track and how proud he is of her for doing what she wants instead of what society wants for her. Billie's mother, Agnes, seems to be a pseudo-feminist -in that she is annoyed by people who think girls can only be one thing, but she never really comes out & says this - it only occurs in side-eyes & witty one-liners {much appreciated, but we'll get to that later}. Billie also has a sister, Jeannie, who has come back home from college in the East -much to her father's happiness, to tell her parents a little something they might not take so well -it's juicy, well for a movie from 1965, anyways. Billie triumphs & says her peace, many times over about equality, etc, etc. It's pretty great -campy & quirky - & an incredibly straightforward argument for equality of the sexes if I ever heard one. Oh, there is also an adorable pup in it that I more or less wanted to steal the whole film {which is less than 90 minutes long, btw}.

Now, for the good stuff! Besides the plot, by far the best thing about this movie was the hilarious dialogue & one-liners. Here's a few quotes I just had to write down:

• "It's a shame that girls have gone from parasols in the garden to bikinis on the beach" {Billie's dad}
• "Billie is gonna make our school famous. Yah, we'll be the only school in the country with a built in dyke." {boys locker room conversation}
• "At least she isn't playing a contact sport with boys, I could see people having a problem with that" "Why, men & women have been playing contact sports for centuries & nothing bad has come of it, just a little fun" {Billie's sister & mother's response}
• "Well no one ever explained to me what you were majoring in in college, but someone should have told me it was sex. I don't know why I sent her away and spent all that money when she could have stayed right here and done the same thing for much cheaper." {Billie's father to her sister Jeannie}

{Lots of puppy snuggling & wrestling went on in the movie...I loved it}

{Good thing for Nike, Adidas, etc - otherwise we would still be wearing underwear as running shorts & knit sweaters for t-shirts...not too cool}

{Lots of dance sequences - obviously - this is where all the hip boys & girls learn the ways of The Beat}

{Oh hey, knits as running shirts, boys got the good stuff. I should have captured stills from Billie's makeshift locker room - clearly before Title IX}

{Ah, the quandries of a 15-year old girl...perfume or track shoes... girl or boy?}

{The puppy was a big part of the film...he's certainly a looker!}

The embedding for the trailer is removed, so here's the link. Enjoy the inane dancing clip below, clearly if you want to be any good at running you should start working on that choreography: