Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields, ’80s icon and household name, was a child model before she came to prominence in Louis Malle’s controversial film "Pretty Baby" at age 12. With a series of provocative Calvin Klein jeans ads and leading roles in 1980s teensploitation hits "The Blue Lagoon" and "Endless Love," Shields’ early career was defined by a sexuality that she could neither claim nor comprehend.
- Released: 2023-01-20
- Runtime: 136 minutes
- Genre: Documentaries
- Stars: Brooke Shields, Greg Butler
- Director: Lana Wilson
Comments
- thejdrage - 7 May 2023
I was there - Get ready to think
One reviewer said they remembered it all - so do I. And that they now understand what was behind it all. Again, I found that interesting because it affected all women and people of less power.
Another reviewer was unhappy that she didn't name the rapist. I wish she had too, but that's a massive legal problem that she didn't want to take on - and we don't have to pay for. But, I'm betting we all know who it was.
The one question that woke me up and that I am ashamed of myself for not asking is: Where the hell was her father in all of this? Why didn't he take the reins away from mom once in a while and protect her from some of the flagrant missteps of mom?
It's all hindsight, and this was a really good documentary because it seems to have made a lot of us actually think! - lhollan - 10 April 2023
The panic in Brooke Shields' eyes.
Brooke Shields was a stranger in her own life...a life she lived for her mother, then subsequently for Agassi. It's clear her mother peddled her in ways that are objectionable and damaging to a young woman's core self. This explains why I have always seen an nearly imperceptible look of panic in Shields' eyes. Look, you will see it. This documentary is eye opening as it exposes the way Brooke was offered up as a youth sex symbol by uncaring and greedy movie producers who birthed the 70's era of child sex symbols in film--something we are smart enough to reject today. But this bought fame and fortune to young Brooke while the price she paid was personality dissociation. She separated her instinct and feelings from her big celebrity ambitions--it was survival. Somehow, I'm not completely buying the victimization of her narrative, particularly when she defends her role in Pretty Baby to her daughters. Give it up, Brooke. Your mother made you do things that you would never ask your daughters to do.
The industry devours the willing for a pot of gold, even when that will is fabricated. The good part is that Shields has survived her wounds and has self-actualized. That's always a good ending.
