Billy the Kid - an Aspergian movie you should see

I’d like to tell you about a new movie – Billy the Kid. It’s a documentary about the life of Billy, a teenage misfit in a small town in Maine. They don’t say anything about his condition in the film, but to me it was obvious that Billy is a young Aspergian, one with many similarities to me as a kid.

The first time I watched it, I didn’t enjoy Billy the Kid, but upon reflection, the reasons I didn’t enjoy it are reasons many of you (parents and educators) should watch this film. There’s a lot of real stuff here that people who raise Aspergians should see and ponder.

Before I begin, though, I’ll describe a few key differences between Billy and me, at age fifteen:

1 I was better looking. He has more zits.

2 He wears a bicycle helmet. I never did.

3 He cut his hair with a rat tail. I wore mine long.

4 He wears Truck Stops of America shirts. I liked sports cars, not big trucks.


OK, having spelled out the differences, let’s move on to the similarities. I don’t like films that cause me to relive bad experiences from my own past. And this one did.

First of all, he’s a total dork. Even now, a day later, I still can’t decide who was the bigger dork in high school – me or him? The realization that I can’t decide, and the degree of dorkiness shown – it’s very troubling. I sure wish someone had been there to tell me how I looked. Billy’s mother tried to do that at many points in the film, and I think she helped and guided him a lot. Seeing her, I wish I’d had more of that parenting.

Billy has a good mom. And he might have better kids in his school, but I doubt it. I just suspect they minded their manners because they didn’t want the humiliation of being caught on camera doing something reprehensible.

Do you all remember how teachers told me I’d end up as a serial killer or sociopath?

{If answer = NO, go buy Look Me in the Eye, read, continue}
{If answer = YES, continue}

Well, he must feel the same way, because he checked out Serial Killers in History and the librarian called his mother. Yes. Watchful librarians. I remember them well. Billy is wary and nervous all the time, as he should be. Seeing him, I remembered the degree to which I was always on guard, and the level of relaxation I exhibit today is in comparison truly remarkable.

Like me, he wants to understand people like that, to decide if he’s one, and if he’s not, how to identify and avoid such people. Recognizing, of course, that most of the world is out to get us, too. And that is the reason he’s a karate expert. I too learned self defense at an early age. He and I were the same . . . wanting to be peaceful, but prepared to resist attackers at any moment.

Billy’s got the same love of music I had back then, and the same lack of talent playing a guitar. Why the lack of talent? He’s probably not coordinated enough (like me.) Watching him walk, he’s got the same clumsy gait as me and other Aspergians I’ve observed.

One thing I did not see in the movie was his special talents. What are they? Either Billy hid them, or he has not yet found them. He’d better get going . . . he’s fifteen, the age I was when I was developing my own talents. That made me wonder . . . would any of you, watching a film of me at fifteen, foresee anything I subsequently accomplished? I doubt it. I wonder what Billy will do.

Billy and I shared a few other things . . . we both had drunk and violent fathers which left us with personal aversions to violence and drugs, and a resolve to do better with our own kids. Hopefully, Billy will follow my own example in that regard, as he gets older.

There’s only one point in the movie when Billy looks truly relaxed and happy. That’s when he’s standing in snow covered woods, talking to the camera, and shaking snow off a dead pine tree. That moment of relaxation lasts perhaps ten seconds. Every other moment of this film he’s anxious and on guard. It’s sad, but it’s real. I lived that too.

You can just see it in Billy. Wanting to fit in, and have fun. Wanting to have friends. But always on guard because and attack could come from any quarter, at any moment. For me, having lived it, it’s a very real film. No one could have made this up.

Some of you may squirm too, reading my description. Why should you go see this movie? I’ll tell you. Billy the Kid is a real first person account what it’s like to be an Aspergian teenager. Just as my book is described as a groundbreaking work, this is a groundbreaking movie. Parents and teachers – it will worry you, and make you squirm. But that’s what it’s really like for us. And you parents with more autistic kids . . . you may watch it and say, “I wish my son had it that good.” But let me assure you, having lived it: It does not generally feel good, being an Aspergian teenager.

That is why I go out to deliver my message of tolerance and understanding today.

The director – Jennifer Venditti - and crew deserve praise for making this movie. I was particularly impressed with the way they were able to blend into the background and film ordinary life without people "hamming it up." I saw a few instances of people playing for the film but mostly they (the camera operators) were just there, unobtrusive. That's commendable. Billy and his mom . . . they deserve to get a little older and get better lives. A good husband for the mom, and a good life for Billy. Will it happen? Look in again in 20 years.

I wonder what the broader public will say about this movie. Will they understand Billy?

Look here for more info and locations: http://www.billythekiddocumentary.com/