I liked it better than I would have once I realized that it was actually written by a film student I knew. This formerly devout, still a sweetheart guy was talking big with a typical male swagger of the mid-60s, but when I watched it with my eyes open to a certain character conflict, I could see that Billie, who in a sense is given nothing, is actually given quite a bit as a character. After the rape, she is not blissful about being raped as much as she's "imprinted", her first opportunity to fall in love. She sort of is undecided about whether she's been raped or not; she thinks so, and can't even get her father to care. She makes them pay attention by roping them in together: that's a statement they ought to pay attention to!'and they do. Since I knew the guy, I began to realize the conflicts were his own. He was caught between the expectations of the macho world and his own desire to see it go better than that, to show more love and respect for a woman. He was kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. Male society was unforgiving, not only of gay tendencies but of serious heterosexual tendencies, such as love. This guy was a secret lover of slow love songs: death to a macho reputation. I remember how they used to talk. Anyway, when I'd watch it with a little mercy on the guy, I'd see things in it that you can't say are successfully conveyed since they are so hidden in the cold-blooded bravado and bluster, but they are there if you look for them, understanding what guys were up against then.
I hated rape, and I still do. As a believer in Jesus Christ, if I had been inclined to say it was OK, I'd know that it was sin, and certainly not doing unto the other as you would have them do unto you. If it makes you feel better, the guy got his own panties in a twist in a terrible, unjust situation in the latter part of the decade! So, there you go. He should have not made a movie that was even ambiguous about something so destructive to another person. But in making Billie fall in love with him, he dignifies her sort of under the typical hard-boiled movie's radar. It is not my favorite movie, but the actual screenwriter will always be one of my favorite people.
I hated rape, and I still do. As a believer in Jesus Christ, if I had been inclined to say it was OK, I'd know that it was sin, and certainly not doing unto the other as you would have them do unto you. If it makes you feel better, the guy got his own panties in a twist in a terrible, unjust situation in the latter part of the decade! So, there you go. He should have not made a movie that was even ambiguous about something so destructive to another person. But in making Billie fall in love with him, he dignifies her sort of under the typical hard-boiled movie's radar. It is not my favorite movie, but the actual screenwriter will always be one of my favorite people.