It's interesting that most reviewers of this film seem to want to resolve one way or another the question of whether Billy Joe was gay or not. Music buffs prize the song for its ambiguities, but IMDb reviewers want the film to explain everything. Actually the film is all the better for leaving things unresolved. The passionate way that Billy Joe talks to and kisses his girlfriend Bobbie Lee might be interpreted as a genuine manifestation of desire, or it might be his desperate attempt to convince himself that he's heterosexual. Similarly, it's not clear whether Billy Joe was raped by the older man, or whether he slept with him willingly. My own interpretation is that Billy Joe is probably unsure of his own sexuality. After he confesses that he has slept with a man, Bobbie Lee tries to comfort him by saying, "I know you're not a man like that - I couldn't be wrong about you"; Billy Joe responds, "Well, you are wrong." It's not really relevant whether the character is gay or not; the important thing is that, at this stage, one sexual encounter with a man has led him to believe that he must be gay. As for whether he slept with the guy willingly, he says, "I knew what was happening". Also, it's unlikely that Bobbie Lee would let the other man go free, as she does in the final scene on the bridge, if she thought he had raped and caused the death of her boyfriend. If she thinks that Billy Joe went with him willingly, this scene makes more sense. But again, this doesn't necessary mean that he was gay. It could be that the conservative attitudes of 1950s Mississippi made it difficult for young people to feel comfortable with any sexuality at all - Billy Joe wants to have sex with his girlfriend, but that's taboo, and she is reluctant to go all the way, so he jumps at the first chance he sees for real sex, even if that means sleeping with a man. In either case, the film works as a satire on the small-minded attitudes of rural America, and the assumption, fuelled by Christianity, that sex is dirty and sinful. The tragedy of the film is that Billy Joe's society can't accept the idea that sex, whether straight or gay, is a natural urge. Since Billy Joe has internalised these attitudes, they destroy him.
Review of Ode to Billy Joe
