Billy Jack Movies

[pacman000]

This site has been around since at least 1998: https://web.archive.org/web/19981205040018/http://www.badmovies.org/

I found this site before 2010, probably when I was looking up Star Wars Ripoffs. There were a bunch of other similar sites, but almost all of them are gone now. Most of the survivors, like StompTokyo & The Bad Movie Report, are abandoned.

Probably 1st registered in 2012, but I've deleted & recreated my account a few times since then. Always used the same name tho.

And now the topic at hand:

I've tried watching the Billy Jack movies a few times, when they come on TV, but I can't get into them. Filmaking style's too late 60's/early 70's.  There was an episode  of Airwolf which seemed to spoof Billy Jack, "Where Have All the Children Gone?" That was kinda fun.

[zelmo73]

I read Robert Altman said Laughlin was a pain in the ass to work with and I can believe it. I’m curious how the franchise could have worked with some more installments. He definitely tapped into something with how successful two of the films were. When you look at the highest grossing films of the 1970s this franchise sticks out as an anomaly.

I had always dreamed of Steven Seagal doing a remake of one of the Billy Jack movies because that is who Tom Laughlin reminds me of the most. They both have that same monotone personality and screen presence. I know that it would be terrible, like On Deadly Ground (1994) terrible. That's why I had wished that Seagal would do a movie like that. 

[dcj2112]

This site has been around since at least 1998: https://web.archive.org/web/19981205040018/http://www.badmovies.org/

I found this site before 2010, probably when I was looking up Star Wars Ripoffs. There were a bunch of other similar sites, but almost all of them are gone now. Most of the survivors, like StompTokyo & The Bad Movie Report, are abandoned.

Probably 1st registered in 2012, but I've deleted & recreated my account a few times since then. Always used the same name tho.

And now the topic at hand:

I've tried watching the Billy Jack movies a few times, when they come on TV, but I can't get into them. Filmaking style's too late 60's/early 70's.  There was an episode  of Airwolf which seemed to spoof Billy Jack, "Where Have All the Children Gone?" That was kinda fun.

I like the late 60’s/early 70’s filmmaking style, but completely get what you mean. I think Billy Jack is really a movie you either have to watch on video or DVD/Blu-ray. I couldn’t imagine young folks watched it all in one sitting when they were playing it a lot, but imagine you could watch segments and pick up the gist of the story. Maybe old timers who like Westerns could hang in there. These films can certainly drag. With commercials when they would play Billy Jack and the Trial of Billy Jack back to back, in the 1990s I could see it being 6 hours of programming. 2.5 for Billy Jack and 3.5 for Trial of Billy Jack. I may even be underestimating the length 

With our YouTube, Vine, etc. culture decreasing all of our attention spans Billy Jack on cable can be a tough watch. The Trial of Billy Jack even tougher!

[pennywise37]

i don't know you don't give the younger generation enough credit there are no doubt plenty of young folks out there that do love this type of thing. i started to love film i mean really love it when i think i think it was in my teens. my brother introduced me to a good number of films, as did his than GF who got me into Hitch
but than so did TCM as well. it was a good number of things pretty much,  there is a good portion that yes will just ignore anything from the 60's. but i think it sometimes depends on what they grow up with as well like if they have a parent who loves various kinds of movies like we do here they may give it a chance,

all my life i had heard of the Marx brothers but had never seen any of their films until one day/night whatever time it was they had a Marathon on TCM and my dad was watching i want to say it was "At The Circus  (1939) and he was telling me a bit about them and i think i was in my 20's.  and pretty much cause i didn't have anything else to do i watched some with him and fell in love with the guys. but by than i loved old movies from the 30's anyways as i used to hate Black & White movies too growing up as well. for me it really wasn't until i started to want to see all of Mickey Rooney films as The TV Show "The Black Stallion (1990-1993)

introduced me to him and than TCM was playing his older stuff he did as a kid and on a lark i taped the Andy Hardy films and fell in love with those films plus Hitch and that's how i got into them.

no doubt i'm not the only one. at some point i do plan on seeing these but WOW they are some long movies

[dcj2112]

i don't know you don't give the younger generation enough credit there are no doubt plenty of young folks out there that do love this type of thing. i started to love film i mean really love it when i think i think it was in my teens. my brother introduced me to a good number of films, as did his than GF who got me into Hitch
but than so did TCM as well. it was a good number of things pretty much,  there is a good portion that yes will just ignore anything from the 60's. but i think it sometimes depends on what they grow up with as well like if they have a parent who loves various kinds of movies like we do here they may give it a chance,

all my life i had heard of the Marx brothers but had never seen any of their films until one day/night whatever time it was they had a Marathon on TCM and my dad was watching i want to say it was "At The Circus  (1939) and he was telling me a bit about them and i think i was in my 20's.  and pretty much cause i didn't have anything else to do i watched some with him and fell in love with the guys. but by than i loved old movies from the 30's anyways as i used to hate Black & White movies too growing up as well. for me it really wasn't until i started to want to see all of Mickey Rooney films as The TV Show "The Black Stallion (1990-1993)

introduced me to him and than TCM was playing his older stuff he did as a kid and on a lark i taped the Andy Hardy films and fell in love with those films plus Hitch and that's how i got into them.

no doubt i'm not the only one. at some point i do plan on seeing these but WOW they are some long movies

Haha if anything I’m giving old timers who like Westerns too much credit. Try to watch just The Trial of Billy Jack with commercials and then get back to me 

[pennywise37]

well i at some point will try and watch at least one of these films, well there are a lot of good westerns out there but that's really never been my favorite Genre

[dcj2112]

well i at some point will try and watch at least one of these films, well there are a lot of good westerns out there but that's really never been my favorite Genre

I'd recommend watching it in chronological order if you try. As a bad movie fan, The Born Losers really hits a lot of the sweet spots so much of us seek. That one has less Western/conventional drama elements and more exploitation stuff. IIRC its the only Billy Jack film that has a Nazi biker gang. Certainly, the only one where they're the main baddies.

The Born Losers also has the best action to drama ratio. Billy Jack is rarely promoted as a pure action franchise and if someone went into it expecting an action movie they'd be very disappointed. That said The Born Losers features a few moments of very violent and exciting scenes, certainly by 1967 standards. Unfortunately, each movie this ratio gets more out of whack and shifts from any action to LONG preachy speeches. By the Trial of Billy Jack you have little more than a three hour sermon. And that's not even the last one!

[pacman000]

This site has been around since at least 1998: https://web.archive.org/web/19981205040018/http://www.badmovies.org/

I found this site before 2010, probably when I was looking up Star Wars Ripoffs. There were a bunch of other similar sites, but almost all of them are gone now. Most of the survivors, like StompTokyo & The Bad Movie Report, are abandoned.

Probably 1st registered in 2012, but I've deleted & recreated my account a few times since then. Always used the same name tho.

And now the topic at hand:

I've tried watching the Billy Jack movies a few times, when they come on TV, but I can't get into them. Filmaking style's too late 60's/early 70's.  There was an episode  of Airwolf which seemed to spoof Billy Jack, "Where Have All the Children Gone?" That was kinda fun.

I like the late 60’s/early 70’s filmmaking style, but completely get what you mean. I think Billy Jack is really a movie you either have to watch on video or DVD/Blu-ray. I couldn’t imagine young folks watched it all in one sitting when they were playing it a lot, but imagine you could watch segments and pick up the gist of the story. Maybe old timers who like Westerns could hang in there. These films can certainly drag. With commercials when they would play Billy Jack and the Trial of Billy Jack back to back, in the 1990s I could see it being 6 hours of programming. 2.5 for Billy Jack and 3.5 for Trial of Billy Jack. I may even be underestimating the length 

With our YouTube, Vine, etc. culture decreasing all of our attention spans Billy Jack on cable can be a tough watch. The Trial of Billy Jack even tougher!

Weirdly I enjoy old westerns, serials, 50's sci-fi, etc.

[pennywise37]

oh i always prefer to watch a film series with the 1st film rather than the 3rd even if it's a series i love. though at times i do switch it around at times depending of the series of course. but normally ones i've seen a lot though