I have seen this movie over and over again. Not only on VHS, but I still watch it when it comes on other cable stations. Tonight it was on Lifetime, and of course I watched it once again. The movie was made in 1990, and the two leading stars are Brad Pitt, and Juliette Lewis. I think Brad and Juliette done a fantastic job in this movie. The movie was full of emotions, and drama and suspense.
Plot The movie begins with Amanda Sue ( Lewis) waking up on Christmas morning. Her mother and step father are having a fight, and her mom tells Amanda she has to cook her own breakfast cause her step-father was drunk and she had to leave for work. Amanda Sue didn’t get anything for Christmas, but her mom did buy her some candy covered chocolate M&M’s that was inside a stocking. When she went out to get her stocking her step father followed her back to her bedroom and then began to rape her. This wasn’t the first time that Amanda had been raped by him. When her mom came home she told her mother what had happened and told her that it has been going on for several months. Her mother said to her that She had to of been asking for it cause a man doesn’t stray from his wife after only being married for 1 year. She told Amanda she was done with her and she was now on her own. Amanda ends up getting married at the age of 13 to her 18 year old boyfriend. He promised to love her forever, but after 3 months of being married things went wrong and he left her to join the service. She was devastated, and went looking for her husband.
When she finds herself in a bowling alley she runs into a man named Billy (Brad Pitt). He tells her that he can get her a job and a place to live if she would just trust him. Since Amanda was only 14 now she didn’t know what to do so she said ok to Billy. She ended up being a stripper, taking her cloths off for money, and then Billy would have his way with her. He got her hooked on drugs. Then one day a Military man was in the strip bar and seen her, he didn’t like what he seen. He couldn’t believe that a young girl like her was stripping so he took her to his home and told her he would help her and that she didn’t need to live that way. She ended up falling in love with this man and his children. Soon they started to sleep together, until the military found out she was a minor and told him she had to go.
Once again Amanda Sue was betrayed and abandoned by someone she loved and trusted. Finally Amanda Sue couldn’t take it anymore. She ended back up with Billy the drug addict. From that moment forward her life began to get worse then it had been. She and Billy decided they would pay old Mike (the military man who threw her away) a visit and show him that he couldn’t just treat her that way. I wont tell you what happens after this because I would destroy the story for you, but I have to say that this was a great movie. It made me really think about how children are treated in some family’s and how kids are left to defend for themselves, and how they sometimes can turn out to be killers, rapists and other bad kinds of people. I felt sorry for Amanda Sue cause of the pain she went through and she was only 15 at the end of this movie. All she ever wanted was someone to love her and not leave her. She was tired of the disappointments in her life, and the men who betrayed her. Lewis done a fantastic job portraying a young woman who was being sent to prison for murder, she really knew how to grab your attention and keep you glued to the seat.
As for Brad, he done a great job too. I didn’t care to see him in this role as such a bad person, but he sure did pull the role off. The directors done a fantastic job with this movie, and I think it could help others (kids) who find themselves in the same situation as Amanda was, and to learn from her mistake. After I watched this movie I just wanted to hug my children and tell them that I loved them. I couldn’t imagine having one of my children turn out to be like Amanda Sue. I can’t even imagine any parent who would treat their child the way her mother did. So I would suggest you watch this movie, but I warn you now make sure you have some tissues for your tears!