E! True Hollywood Story (TV Series) From Pinup to Sex Queen: Bettie Page (1997) User Reviews

Great and Thorough and Heartbreaking

[mark-2740 · 27 April 2006]

A story of longing that so many have had to be famous, to be a star, to be in movies. This story is particularly heartbreaking and shocking. It is shocking in the sensitivity it shows to it's subject matter. It does not attempt to simply lure us with soft porn images and tell us about some supposed depth of decadence and immorality as these things often do. It treats it's subject matter and the their context with depth and sensitivity. Great pains are taken by the filmmakers to put the people and images into the culture of the time. It presents not only a compelling history of Betty Page but also the struggle of free speech and sexual expression and its suppression by government forces. Obviously painstakingly researched. This documentary also has something very rare for documentaries- a surprise ending.