A few days ago I walked to my mailbox and there it was: The BILLY JACK 35th ANNIVERSARY ULTIMATE COLLECTION 5 DVD set. I already own the Billy Jack boxed set that came out a few years ago, but I was disappointed because:
* 3 of the movies were in full frame format (the only widescreen movie was BILLY JACK GOES TO WASHINGTON)
* The quality of the video and audio transfers were only about as good as VHS tapes
So, I decided to upgrade to the 35th anniversary set, which includes:
* Widescreen versions of all 4 movies: THE BORN LOSERS, BILLY JACK, THE TRIAL OF BILLY JACK, and BILLY JACK GOES TO WASHINGTON
* New transfers from the original negatives
* Digitally remastered 5.1 surround sound
* A special features disc
So far, I have watched the first 3 movies and the special features disc. Here are my comments:
* The video and audio quality are far superior to the original boxed set that came out a few years ago
* The special features disc is okay, but not great. The best part is that it includes footage of the fight scene in the park from BILLY JACK. If you have DVD capabilities on your computer, you can edit the fight scene footage any way you want. In fact, they are sponsoring a "Cut-Your-Own-Version Fight Scene" contest.
* Here is where things start to get annoying: ALL OF THE MOVIES AND EVERY MINUTE OF THE BONUS FEATURES ARE NOTHING BUT POLITICAL STATEMENTS AND EGO TRIPS FROM TOM LAUGHLIN AND HIS FAMILY. Anyone who has seen these movies knows what I'm talking about. However, the special features REALLY emphasize Laughlin's ego. There is a short documentary (no "on camera" interviews or anything, it's more of a montage of images with narration by Tom Laughlin). He brags about how he and his wife went to California to make movies that would "make a difference." He talks about how he invented TV advertising for movies and how TV advertising caused the big-budget movie boom that we are seeing today. He says that all of the highly paid actors owe him a debt of gratitude. He also throws around some statistics "proving" that BILLY JACK is REALLY the #1 movie of all time (it sold 50 million tickets in the U.S. when there were 50 million fewer citizens than there are today, yadda-yadda-yadda). He also says that THE BORN LOSERS is something like the 16th most successful movie of all time if you adjust how much money it made to account for changing economic conditions.
* The movies themselves are in-your-face political statements about how the federal government is evil, state governments are evil, local governments are evil, the military is evil, police officers are evil, advertising agencies are evil, etc., etc., etc. The only GOOD people are Tom Laughlin, his family, and his friends (who all get to appear in his movies . . . even his bratty daughter who keeps showing up to sing "meaningful" folk songs about Vietnam, love, death, the evil government, etc.) Okay, so Tom Laughlin a right to make movies that contain important messages, BUT DOES HE NEED TO RAM THOSE MESSAGES DOWN THE AUDIENCE'S THROAT IN EVERY SCENE OF EVERY MOVIE HE MAKES? Some of the dialogue doesn't even seem like dialogue at all - - it is more like a political speech where the actor simply stands there reading facts and figures about government swindles, cover-ups, murders of innocent people by the National Guard, etc.
So, you may ask, why the hell did I buy these movies TWICE on DVD? And why have I seen each one of them 5, 10, maybe even 15 times? Because, like it or not, BILLY JACK was one of the biggest icons of the early 70s and a couple of Laughlin's movies WERE huge box-office hits (largely because of his saturation advertising campaigns). The movies are fun to watch (especially when Billy is kicking someone's red-neck ass), but you will need to block out the endless stream of political and socio-economic messages or you might just go insane! Especially when you watch THE TRIAL OF BILLY JACK, which has a running time of close to 3 hours!
Hey, can't we all just stop fighting and love one another?
If he's Tom's the one that started the whole advertising in movies deal, then HE DIES NOW!
For about a year I've wanted to see the Billy Jack movies, I'm even curious about the bizarrness of The third movie ever since reading Jabootu's review.
Is he still going to do another movie? There was a topic here while back about him doing another.
He started filming THE RETURN OF BILLY JACK about 20 years ago, but he never finished it. I doubt he will make another one. About a year ago, I thought I heard that he had cancer. And, anyway, he's 74 years old and very fat now, so I don't think he'd be a convincing hero (although, Charles Bronson kept kicking ass after age 70).
I'm aware he's old but I thought someone posted an articale here that he was going to do another. Oh well. I was thinking it could have been like "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns"
I think his website (billyjack.com) recently mentioned something about another movie, but I don't take too much of what he says seriously. Check out his website and you'll see what I mean. It looks like he's still stuck in the hippie commune days of the late 60s and early 70s.