In this (based on a true story) movie, Brooke, who was 11 years old at the time, played a 12-year-old girl who lives in a New Orleans bordello with her prostitute mother, played by Susan Sarandon. Throughout the movie, she falls in love with a man who took N-de pictures of her mother and moves in with him and they start a romantic relationship after she was sold to prostitution and lost her innocence.
The plot alone gives me the creeps but, for me, the execution is much worse. Throughout the movie we see men flirt with her, caress her and we even see her lose her innocence when she is sold. And to add insult to injury the N-dity wasn't implied and Brooke had to show her whole body in front of the cameras.
I understand that this was made in the 70s and that back then things were different. I also understand that this movie helped create laws that protect children from having this happen again, but it baffles me how this was even possible.
Hundreds of people worked in this film and no one noticed how wrong this was or how Brooke's mother was obviously exploiting her even before accepting this role? The adult actors that had to get intimate with her didn't say anything about what they were doing? Nor did the rest of the cast or the hundreds of people involved in the project that were present as those scenes were being filmed?
It truly disgusts me that this film is still in circulation today, but I'm glad that no other movie like it will ever be made.
