Ode to Billy Joe is a 1976 American drama film, directed and produced by Max Baer Jr., with a screenplay by Herman Raucher, and starring Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor.

[citation needed] Gentry's song recounts the day when Billie Joe McAllister committed suicide by jumping off the Tallahatchie Bridge on Choctaw Ridge, Mississippi.

When Gentry discussed the screenplay with Raucher, she explained she did not know why the real person who inspired the character of Billie Joe had killed himself.

He then returns, and Bobbie Lee finally submits to her passions at a secluded spot near the bridge and encourages him to make love to her.

[3][4] In the film, as in the novel, the object thrown from the bridge is Bobbie Lee's ragdoll, symbolizing throwing away her childhood and innocence and becoming an adult.

He initially holds fast to his desire to confess, but Bobbie Lee calmly stresses that the news would further devastate Billy Joe's family and leave Barksdale himself subject to criminal prosecution.

Finally agreeing with the girl's logic, he offers Bobbie Lee a ride to the bus station, which she graciously accepts.

The June 12, 1975 issue of The Hollywood Reporter announced the completion of a $3.5 million deal between Max Baer, Jr. and Warner Bros. Pictures for a film based on Bobbie Gentry's hit song, “Ode To Billie Joe.” Baer offered Gentry and her publisher a large percentage of the film's receipts, and paid Herman Raucher $250,000 and a share of the profits to write the screenplay.

Baer had intended to cast unknown actors in the lead roles of “Bobbie Lee Hartley” and “Billy Joe McAllister,” eventually picking Glynnis O'Connor and Robby Benson, who had previously starred together in the teen film Jeremy.

The July 2, 1975, issue of Variety announced that the locations for the film would include Gentry's hometown of Greenwood, Mississippi, along with other local communities.

[9] Ode to Billy Joe (Sound Track from Max Baer's Motion Picture) is the soundtrack album to the film.