Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

agostino-dallas I am a movie goer and I go a lot. I have seen many, many people embodying real people on the big screen but nothing like this. The Oscar is little compared to what she did. The movie is also sharply directed and you don't doubt for a second she is Bettie Page. I am a big fun of pin up girls. I can't help it. I see those 50's and 60's housewives and I am like a kid in a candy store. Bettie might have made some stuff who some people could have found inappropriate but it wasn't sure not pervert, not evil, but she was terribly criticized and probably felt so bad about herself. Men took advantage of her, for a change. Does it ring a bell? Gretchen you're great! So is Bettie.

Dex Bracewell Pretty interesting dive into the life and career of Bettie Page. Even though I'm gay myself, I think she is one of my favourite people from the 50s, and I am just as saddened that she has had mental health issues in the past, if not famous for memory, but not now. But religion overshadows any mental health issues in this film. Of course, I understand that she was born again, and I'll admit there are lots of films that focus more on other people's mental health that would be more helpful, (this film does focus on the photo shoots and the controversy surrounding her S&M films) but you CANNOT just end a film without her fame haunting her afterwards. I think it should be impossible to ignore completely, even if brief, but surprisingly, this HBO film doesn't seem to have any acknowledgement of what happened or even the state of her at the time. Somehow charming and sexy in showcasing her beauty and the range of the work she was in, but way way too fluffy to appreciate as a successful adaptation. Deary me!

Mr-Fusion Bettie Page was the most photographed woman of the '50s, and a look at both her life and the nature of sexuality in America at that time would make for a pretty solid biopic. But at 90 minutes, there's no hope of examining everything. That said, THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE does cover the broad strokes. It's very nicely photographed, in both black and white and a blast of chroma during the Miami period. I loved David Strathairn's bit part as Joseph McCarthy, a nice joke on his Edward R. Murrow performance. And the animated magazine covers was a novel touch; this is a well-produced little movie. But it's the nail-on-the-head casting of Gretchen Mol in the titular role that's the real reason to watch this. Mol is perfect; she's gorgeous and seems to imbue that almost innocent quality of the real-life Page, a woman who wasn't inhibited because she didn't see the harm in taking pictures in less (or no) clothing. I was already a fan of the actress, but to her immense credit, she brings the role to life on the screen. Her work here is top-notch. 7/10

Dave from Ottawa Bettie Page, pin-up queen, was perhaps the most photographed woman of the 1950s, posing for professional and amateur photographers alike and appearing in men's magazines of all sorts from the mainstream to Playboy and bondage fetish books. The latter brought her to the attention of crusading Sen. Kefauver's committee on pornography, putting an end to her modeling career and her aspirations as an actress. The movie starts with her being called to testify and flashing back through her early years, where we see her as a free spirit who lived to pose for cameras. Despite a religious upbringing, she saw nothing wrong with what she was doing and was consequently puzzled by the strong reactions of those who did. Since this is the central issue of the movie a somewhat deeper probing of her character would seem necessary to reconcile the conflict, but we just don't get it. Despite being front and center in just about every shot in the movie, Bettie emerges simply as a sweet woman who was a little ahead of her time, and not much more.The movie has a nice period look, though, and creates an unusual portrait of professional pornographers as being something other than exploiters. Here they just like to play dress up in fetish costumes and take pictures. The implication, of course, is that the purchasers of such material, not the makers, are the perverts.