Badmovies.org Forum

lets just say that the movie has not stood the test of time. or as BJ would say (deadpan in a monotone) the wind mumble mumble trees mumble mumble indian spirts mumble mumble nature mumble mumble white devils mumble mumble healing ..and so on for a few more minutes.

I saw Billy Jack when I was 12 years old--it was back to back with 'The Wild Bunch'. We sat thru both movies twice in one afternoon. Billy Jack was the coolest thing to hit the screen.  I had a poster of him in my bedroom--right next to my David Cassidy poster. The next day it seemed like David and Billy were replaced with Alice Cooper and Queen (I'm telling my age.)  What a great time and great memories.  C'mon guys--it's classic entertainment from another time--the Wonder Years.  

You know a movie's really bad when you smoke the rough equivalent of British Columbia's yearly cannibis output before watching it and you're still saying, "Oh, GOD, this sucks!"  Not that I would know from personal experience, mind you.  And I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought Steven Seagal was channeling this movie big time!

Disliking a movie is hardly the grounds for being a "racist."  How in the heck do you come up with the idea that "us guys" are racist a**holes?  Look, just because you have issues is no reason to throw an emotional tantrum.  And it is a tantrum.

None of us discount the fact that Billy Jack might well have a Native American heritage.  What was pointed out is that, at least for myself and <U>every other person I have ever asked</U>, we cannot figure out how every racist in town sees him and immediately thinks "Indian."

Correction of fact:  The two FBI agents were killed at Pine Ridge in 1975.  The events that led to that (and the killing of many activists besides) is an ugly story.  I would hope most of the parties involved are not proud of what transpired, though the end result does appear just.

"Billy Jack" dealt with the struggles of a soldier coming back from Vietnam about the same amount as "Snow White" did.  The story deals with racism and social bigotry.  If you are looking for Billy Jack to talk about Vietnam then watch "Born Losers."  By the way, in that film the antagonist element is a motorcycle gang.

At no point can I find ANY hint of racism in either my review or the reader comments.  One would hope you noticed that I pointed out Sheriff Cole's inaction was the main reason the situation developed into people shooting each other. In fact, the review agrees with most of what Tom Laughlin was trying to say - it is the movie's execution that didn't work for me.

Here's part of a paper I'm writing on depictions of Native veterans in fiction. Let me know what you think people.

OH, BTW, I think it likely that those two "Indians" who made comments earlier on were white New Agers. "Playing Indian" is pretty common, and Billy Jack was one of the most popular examples of that. So I wouldn't worry about what they think. Most Indians CANT STAND Billy Jack.

---------


New Age Follies: Billy Jack and Star Trek: Voyager

   John Pope AKA “Rolling Thunder” was a retired white railroad worker who spent the latter part of his life posing as an “intertribal medicine man.” Pope claimed he was part Cherokee and that was allegedly teaching Seneca beliefs. This he did, not among either the Cherokee or Seneca, but almost entirely among the white hippie counterculture. Pope proselytized among hippies for the remainder of his life, telling them they were “Thunderpeople” who would change the world. According to Pope’s own family, his former followers have mercilessly exploited Pope’s name for money beyond all bounds of decency, creating a number of New Age cults in the process.
   Pope played a central role in Billy Jack. The movie was very loosely based on what Pope claimed had happened in his own life, and Pope briefly appeared in the films as "Thunder Mountain." Where Pope claimed to have taken part in the Yaqui Wars in Mexico (the last Yaqui War ended in 1928, when he would have been from six to ten years old), Billy Jack was remade into a Vietnam veteran and ex-Green Beret. Where Pope claimed to be a part-Cherokee “intertribal medicine man” who taught allegedly Seneca beliefs to white hippies, Billy Jack was an “Indian half-breed” and medicine man-in-training of an unnamed Indian tribe who was taught by a young blonde white woman in the films what Indian beliefs “truly” were. Pope’s own beliefs were rather eccentric, to put it mildly. He claimed Cherokees came from Atlantis and that they once had technology far superior to anything in modern times. The “Indian” beliefs (again, no tribe is ever specified) in Billy Jack are a bizarre amalgam of hippie platitudes about pacifism and Christian fundamentalist Holy Roller snake handling.
   Pope and the film’s author, director, and star Tom Laughlin were a perfect match for each other. Laughlin fancied himself a great spiritual thinker, and even today sells seminars in spirituality. Laughlin claims that his movie was preordained by what he believes were Indian prophecies and other supernatural events. (In less dramatic terms, he saw owls near the movie set.) Laughlin and Pope shared an apocalyptic and paranoid worldview. Laughlin attributed the spectacular failure of his two sequels to Billy Jack to nothing less than a conspiracy by “The Man,” the federal government. But what made the first one a success was its blatant attempt to capitalize on both martial arts and blaxploitation films like Shaft by giving the public a pseudo-Indian version of them, one played by a white eccentric and based on the life of a white imposter. In all likelihood, the later films flopped because of their preachiness, failure to include martial arts, and Native protests against the films.
   Billy Jack’s status as a veteran tells us nothing about what Native veterans went through. Billy Jack (both the character and the film overall) pose as both Native and a veteran as merely convenient tropes for the film’s author and audience to invent a fantasy (often quite bizarre at that) of what they wish Indians were like, one which bears no reality at all to actual Native beliefs, cultures, or history. Billy Jack is easily one of the absolute worst films ever made about Natives, and quite possibly one of the worst films ever made. It fails on virtually every level, from its aesthetic to its technical aspects (see if you do not laugh when you see a smaller and darker Asian man clumsily inserted as the stunt double for Laughlin in martial arts scenes) to its utter lack of social responsibility towards Native sensibilities. Too offensive to even be camp, at best the film is a revealing look at the extremes a white filmmaker will go to in order to misrepresent Native cultures. It also is quite revealing of some truly troubling mindsets among some whites and the counterculture. Who would have expected allegedly peace-loving hippies and New Age people to wallow in as much gratuitous violence as there is in Billy Jack?

Reportedly, Master Bang Soo Hahn (Kentucky Fried Movie and Force Five) doubled for Laughlin in the fight scenes.

You mean.... Billy Jack WASN'T an Indian?

I... I feel so disillusioned...

This movie epitomised everything I despised about the whole 60s/70s hippy era. To be fair though I should point out I also thought Easy Rider had a happy ending

I thought that Billy Jack's character was supposed to be HALF-INDIAN, which would explain why he looks caucasian. Though it's been a long time since I've watched the movie. (And it might have been in the previous BJ movie, "Born Losers", where Billy Jack's background was explained.)

This film is also important because it's the movie Steven Seagal continually tried to replicate during the short period where he had content control over his movies (roughly from On Deadly Ground to The Patriot).  This fact explains why the period where he had content control over his movies was short.

In fact, the central scene of BJ, with the Indian girl having flour poured on her to make her 'white,' was ripped-off directly in On Deadly Ground, only with an Eskimo and some beer.

And Andrew, how could you *not* mention One Tin Soldier?!  Dude!!

Boy, does this review bring back memories.... Billy Jack played in my hometown for over a year to sold out shows, and everyone there was outraged that Tom L. was not nominated for any Academy Awards for the various hats he wore in the making of this "classic".  I personally saw this mess in the theater and at a drive-in, as well as on TV; it never made much sense to me then, and it makes less sense to me now.

BTW: Mad Magazine had a DEAD ON parody of this in an issue long ago - I think they called it Billy Jerk.  That feature made more sense than the movie.  

BTW II:  Gee, Ken, Thanks for mentioning "One Tin Soldier"; it took me ten years to get that damn song out of my head, and now its back with a vengence!!!!  AAAIIIEEE!!!!

As bad as this slimy buttchunk is, it does not hold a candle to the sequel Andrew mentioned, "The Trial of Billy Jack," which might provoke you to tear off your own arm in "a fit of pique." (See it and you'll understand.) Self-worshipping monstrosity Laughlin made another one--"Billy Jack Goes To Washington"--which was simply unavailable for ages until recently, and with good reason. The creep threatened to make "Billy Jack IV" a few years ago--in which BJ would have wiped out a schoolful of child-molesting teachers (!!!)--but it never came to be. And that is how I know there is a God.

"...one tin soldier rides awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay"

I take it back. There is no God.

http://www.billyjack.com

"Learn how you can invest in a brand-new Billy Jack film! Jungian Psychology! Proof that movies cause violence!"

...and streaming video of Laughin begging for your money.

for those of us who live in prescot where the movie was shot, the best part is seeing how nice downtown looked before all those gottdamn tourist and california starfish [starfish=a***ole] moved in and turned the town into a small phoenix.
as for the freedom school, we got one it's called prescott college and they pump out park ranger types, so most of the coffie houses are town are full of neo-hippies. God save us all.

Billy Jack...definetly one of the best movies ever made!!  I mean...any time the guy takes his boots of to fight is incredible!!!  This movie had some of the best quotes ever!!
Billy Jack...the ex-green beret with a bad temper, is definetly one of the greatest fighters ever put onto film!!

Billy Jack is a great example of what late 60's/early 70s cinema was all about. I suggest a triple feature of BILLY JACK, WOODSTOCK and EASY RIDER. It's a great way to spend a Saturday evening.

I thought the best scene of the whole movie was when the rich bad man Posner and his big crowd of bad guys finally got ahold of Billy Jack! Billy really paid for kicking the old guy on the face like that, didnt he?  lol!  
 The way they worked him over, all of them taking turns one after the other was really something! They really put the boots to him! I'll bet Billy and Jean didnt have any fun in bed for a while after that, huh?  lol !!!!

I guess the reason that I liked the movie when it came out was that it spoke to a lot of the issues that were going on at the time. The Vietnam War and all of the racial tensions were taking a real toll on people; this movie seemed be a way to live vicariously through the hero and release their own emotional stuff; especially those of us who were young teens.  Hey, the acting was bad, the songs were sappy; but in its time it served its purpose.  For that, a generation is grateful.

for all to watch and try not to understand the meaning that it always takes one to stand against all to set things right, and for the ones who choose not to fight one must seek that demon within, control him and use him to ones advantage, even though it might make him to be the bad guy.  

When I was young and stupid, this film was a message masterpiece. Now I'm middle-aged and stupid. This movie almost makes me puke quicker than eating Captain Crunch with a Peach Wine Cooler instead of milk. Anyone who was there at the time and could see those times in such simplistic terms and turn this cheesey film into a sort of life-philosophy, needed therapy to start with. We had people coming to school dressed like Tom Laughlin. People pretending to be white people pretending to be Indians, and preaching the "Great Spirit and Brotherhood" way. Few of us put up an argument at the time...we figured if they were already this nuts they might be crazy enough to actually try to kick us in the teeth to try to make a point. Billy Jack was a social soap opera. A bad one. Period. But age has shown me that desperate times call for likewise measures. I think Billy Jack was a sincere attempt to point out what was wrong at the moment, to get it across to a wide public mainstream. It did, but with it's "dramatic" approach, simplified good guys verses bad guys plotting, and hokey "message of brotherhood" preaching, the only ones who got "it" were the idiots who were the major cause of most of the problems of the time to begin with. Most people went to see it for the famous fight scenes anyway! "You gotta see it! He kicks the hell outta the bad guys! Twelve atta time!" I saw the thing a half a dozen times when I was kid. Now I can't sit through it once. I feel like I was fooled...taken for an idiot. I can see myself walking up to my nextdoor neighbor and saying, "Peace to you, my brother." Then kicking him in the groin as wild horses run a muck through his backyard. Knowing that Mr. Laughlin later went into politics makes the message of brotherhood preaching of the character even harder to swallow now. Watch the opening scenes of South Pacific...you'll catch "Billy Jack" flying the plane that's delivering the Marine Officer to the Island for his secret mission. He smokes a cigar and chucks beer bottles out the window while flying over Japanese held islands. Now I ask you...is that a tasteful act of brotherhood? The only way I recommend this movie is to show younger people just how easy it is to fool the general American public. "Yes, many people found some great meaning in this movie...even I was taken in for awhile...but it just turned out to be a movie, and not even a very good movie at that. But keep watching, he's gonna leap over that jeep parked there and kick hell outta 36 rednecks with one foot and his elbow." Make's me wish he really was an Indian.

Half you guys are racist a***oles that dont get it do you? The reason for the Native American theme was because we were becoming unrully at that time. Remember when we nail the two feds in 72. As for the charecter Billy Jack, he was half Nishnobie (thats an "injun" for you ignorant f**ks). It was also a movie dealing with the struggles of a soldier coming back from vietnam. Nothing like getting spit on for doing a job yu either did or get locked up. So f**k YOU ALL!

Even I have to admit...I still love his hat...and I too, wear a lot of denim. As much as I laugh at the movie now...the guy did have groovy fashion sense. As far as the Nameless Poster's remark about the military IQ levels go...Soldiers are young...hopefully they live to grow older. All I've know over the years (Several in my own family) grow wiser and calm down. I have several combat vets in my bloodline, they all say the same thing. "Young=Stupid=Brave"...This is not a put down, it's just the way the tired old world works and has, sadly, for generations. We need the willing soldier...a sad but true fact...One of the ugliest aspects of films like Billy Jack is how the fact that the character is a vet is stressed...So what? Racism has little to do with little personal facts like this...Racism is a huge swipe across the canvas, it already covers everything and everybody...Pointing out that the character is a native AND a p**sed off Nam vet just cheapens the price any man pays for going to war for whatever cause he either belives in, or as was the case in Vietnam for many, was forced to be cannon fodder for. I'm thankfull for the Green Beret...and if I were an Apachie I'd be damned sure everyone would know it too...But calm down young friend, and have a good laugh with the rest of us...I hope you're old and stiff someday, sitting on a porch with a grandson or two, trying to convince them that at one time you were able to jump into the air and kick bad guys in the teeth without breaking a sweat...Billy Jack was just a character in a bad-funny movie and he wasn't even a real "Indian"...Grandad was the real thing. Peace...

For your information, Tom in real life is white and his wife (Jean) is the real halfbreed.  I don't understand the 60's and 70's either but the idea of BJ being a real hero is awsome, not like these fake heros they have now in movies.  Also their daughter Teresa Kelly in the movie made some real good points.

The key to watching this movie is to have the remote handy, finger poised above fast forward. Skip all the hippy bits. and stop only to watch the nasty bits of violence. Billy reminds me of the Fonz gone mad. He does say some pretty cool crap though! If you can suspend disbelief and discernment and use the fast forward feature often, this is actually quite a good movie. And, using my method, it's only about 30 mins long! The only thing that absolutely bugs me about this flick...black hat....brown boots...HOW GAUCHE!

Mr Billy Jack (  AKA Tom Laughlin...Spell???  ) is ill with throat cancer. Lets hope he is doing OK and will beat his illness.  Get well Tom...Best to you.

I too enjoyed the movie when I was a younger man.  For some reason that song periodically gets in my head and the other night I sang it to my 9 and 10 year old at bed time.  They want me to sing it every night now and last night my 10 year old asked me what was meant by the one tin soldier?  Who is he and how did he get away?

I actually searched the net for some reasonable answer to her question and the best I could find was this thread on this site.  So, what do you know about the mediphore of meaning of the one tin soldier rides away.

Thanks

I think the movie was made by the man to make the hip culture of the day look idiotic and help it to collapse in on itself.  Which it eventually did due to self idolization, drugs, and assimilation into the establishment in order to buy VCR's to play movies like BJ.  But I cannot tolerate watching the movie (and I was part of the 60's/70's sub-culture) because of the total disrespectful nature of the school toward society.  Now, granted many kids did feel that way, but to think that a school actually encouraged children to harbor and feed such feelings is outrageously ridiculous.

Oh for the love of CHEESE!!  The Billy Jack movies are delightfully cheesy with a pretty good dose of macaroni, too.

The fight scenes are fun (abeit that ALL of the action was performed by Hapkido Master Bong Soo Han- check it out on DVD and stop the action- our halfbreed injun turns full breed Korean when he fights- most unusual).

The sex scenes are laughably gratuitous.  Was that girl with the nice nekkid ass really only thirteen?  Amazing.

They waste a s**tload of ordance in the big gunfight, then the big heartfelt pouring out of souls, then our hero rides off into the sunset, in a cop car.

WISCONSIN would be proud of this cheese.

Do people really have so little to do that they must surf the internet actively looking for things that offend them so they can b***h and whine at the people who enjoy them to feel superior?  Grow up, people.  We don't fight wars so we can write reviews like this, we write reviews like this so we don't have to think about the wars we're fighting all the time.
For the most part, people who enjoy watching and enjoy reviewing and making fun of b-movies are very intelligent people and are certainly not ignorant racists.  This is our entertainment, our form of escapism.  Any disparaging remarks made about these movies and their themes, characters, or anything else about them are made with tongue firmly planted in cheek.  Have you ever seen an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000?  Most of the comments they make can be shouted down or explained away if you stop and look at them, but we don't want to do that because these things are what make us laugh.
So take your childish "violent short temper" and run along so you can be a big tough Green Beret and berate some other group of people who are having a harmless good time and bothering no one but those who choose to seek them out and be bothered by them.
Us "smart ones" have heard this all before, and it makes you look just as stupid and petty as it did the first time we heard it.

Hey, according to PBS (Billy Jack kindred spirits), the wild horses were almost gone before us evil white people arrived in America in droves. Who hunted these pretty horses to extinction? Our fellow humans - those who came to America first. Why do large groups of racist people still keep referring to other people's skin color as if that matters (usually Democrats exploiting race, sex, age - whatever - to keep people voting for their soul-less party)?As Clint Eastwood says in 'The Unforgiven' "We All Have it Coming" - or, if you're a Christian, we are ALL sinners. Love your neighbor. What a concept. And to think that Jesus said this 2000 years before there was ever a Billy Jack or Rob Reiner.

Even as a kid when I saw this one in the theatres it made me want to conceal my budding liberal tendancies.

Easy Rider was cool.  Billy Jack was, well, how do I put this... a stupid idiot.

I wish this one tin soldier would've ridden into the sunset and then found true inner peace by beating up Trent Lott while he was in the larval stage.  But no... Tom Laughlin had to go and make several more silly movies. "The Trial of Billy Jack"... "Billy Jack Makes a Sandwich"... "Billy Jack
Lights His Farts to Commune With the Great Stinky Father".

I don't mean to be sacrilegious.  Okay,  me speak with forked tongue.  I do mean to be sacrilegious.  It's just that trying to preach peace while beating up everyone in
sight sends a confused message.  Kinda like compassionate conservatism.

The perfect counterpart to this liberal failure is the equally bad conservative epic "The Green Berets"... you know, where the sun sets on the wrong side of the planet.

Here's an idea.  Tom Laughlin vs. John Wayne.  Oh yeah baby!
I'd pay to see that ... "one tin pilgim rides away."

I knew this was a bad film when I was about nine when I saw it, when my idiot older brother thought it was deep and heavy.  It's only value is the neat scene where Laughlin
hits that old fat dude in the side of the head with his foot.  

Of course, back in 1972 if he'd done that in the town square of my little conservative berg,  his balls would've been hanging from the marquee of the Princess Theatre where
something like "Ben Hur" would've still been playing that very Saturday night.

It was tough being a young liberal in my little town. "Billy Jerk" didn't help.

Tom Laughlin versis the Duke? Yukyukyuk...I've always said "Chuck John Wayne and Clint Eastwwod in a locked closet with one baseball bat...and I know who's gonna come out..." You could chuck Tom in there too, just for a little seasoning...to bring in the hip younger crowd. Ol' Clint's gonna swagger out and ask everyone..."What the hell you lookin' at?" Yeah, Clint made a few clinkers, but never has he ever shown his political ass in the process. I never miss "The Green Berets" when it's on, being a survivour of that era myself I love a good hard laugh as much as the next cynical bastard. Easy Rider WAS cool...but Hopper and Fonda would't make it outta the closet either...Clint wouldn't have needed the fancy Kung-Fu to whip ass on the town  boss and his thugs...he'd have spit once, squinted, checked the angle of the sun, then pulled John Wayne's  freshly extracted thigh bone from behind his back and proceeded to beat the whole town to death with it. While Laughlin and the Duke were busy making this dishonest tripe, Clint was just making movies. Most of his films at this time would become considered as minor classics...(We're not gonna mention Paint Your Wagon...anyone who has seen it will know why.) One point I'd like to make is this...All politics are dishonest, therefore all films with a decidedly political angle are dishonest...some call it propaganda...I just call it bulls**t...I think Clint would look great in Billy Jack's hat. It doesn't really matter, he'd still kick major movie ass wearing a sun bonnet and a diaper...The Duke's personna was an overblown right-wing pro-American myth. Tom-Billy Jack-Laughlin's was leaning to the left. Clint was the Man-With-No-Name who took no sides but his own...just like real "heroes" must do, for better or worse. And in the end, what the Hell? It's all just MOVIES! The Duke sucked in just about every film he made except for the action-comedies and a handfull of the westerns...I don't even consider Tom Laughlin as a player in the movieworld big league...he was just a flash in the pan...but Clint, like The-Man-With-No-Name, never wavers. One Tin Soldier would limp away, if he was lucky enough to get away at all after an encounter with the Pale Rider.

Billy Jack has hit the nail right on the head! I am full-blood Cherokee and I feel a lot of what Billy Jack said hits home on a personal level.  The government HAS stolen a great deal from the American Indian, and I wish there really was a way we could get back our rightful heritage. My Grandmother was on the Trail of Tears, and my father told me some of the things that happened back then. I wish I knew how to get hold of Tom Laughlin. I would like to speak with him about his beliefs and views on this subject. Does he really believe and feel this way?

Personally, I liked the movie(s)...all of them.  There was a message there...still is.  For those who can't see that, I truly feel sorry for you.  For those who can't see beyond what you term "bad acting & actors", and "plot", I suppose you've never seen movies like; "True Lies" or newer yet, "The Matrix".  Those truly leave something to be desired...what, I don't know.  Everyone's taste in movies differ as do opinions of each movie you see.  Me, I like the more believable, that's my "taste" and my "opinion".  Perhaps I should have made no comments at all concerning the Billy Jack movies...I just felt compelled to "defend" Tom and Delores in their efforts and commitment to bring a movie to the big screen on a shoe-string budget ($400,000.00), and believing in it so strongly that they mortgaged their home and belongings to do so, not with the help of a "hollywood" budget.  That my friends, is believing in yourself and what you have to offer.  Thank you Tom and Delores...you delivered a lot to many...to more than the handful who choose to down-play your efforts and movies in this "review".  By the way Tom...notice how after over 30 years, YOUR movie(s) are still a controversial subject for many people...those who understand and those who don't!!  Amazing.  I wonder how much recognition will be made to Arnold and Keaneu after the next 30 years pass??

For those of you who have chuckled and stated that BillyJack doesn't "look Indian"...I ask this:  What does an Indian look like?  You people are warped into life on the screen....he doesn't fit the Hollyweird image of an Indian...the image you think is sacrosanct!! So therefor he isn't an Indian!  In reality, his blonde wife is part First Nations, he is not.  She also, doesn't "look Indian" by Hollyweird standards.

The acting was amateur, the scenery beautiful, the music full of important thought provoking lyrics, the singing was like a junior high school glee club, but for all of the foibles, the message was clear.  Sometimes it takes a two by four on the head to make a mule move.

The gimme kids of today, those who will shoot up a school if they've been picked on...could use a dose of the message in the BillyJack movies.  Seems that the parents could too.  When the youth of America had BillyJack as a cult hero...how many school kids came to class and murdered their classmates.........that only happened after the multitudes dismissed the heros of old and adopted the "I am entitled" attitude and ignored the "let's work together" lifestyle embraced by this and other movies of the times.

Just my opinion...

This review is great, hillarious.

I saw the original movie in a drive in, it should only be seen in a drive in.

My job was "bouncer" making exit entries and mean people go away.

BillyJack was so bad, so weird, the main female lead so ugly, it was treasured for satire,

amazingly it created a great deal of humor as best workable nonsense shamelessly bad movie of the era.

Again, Your review here is brilliant.

So I got one more laugh out of Billy Jack.

Thank You, but what do English majors use for allusion to bad film in college now?

Two topics-One that nobody has mentioned yet.  Mr. tom introduced a marketing strategy that was used for years to make a lot of money with a third or forth rate film. It worked like this. You sell your movie to several theatersin an area. In a real small market it would probably be only one. You saturate the area with TV radio and print adds. Remember local adds arn't that expensive.  This blitz style of advertising would result in long lines at the theaters for serveral days before word of mouth would have time to kill it. Then you move on to the next town and do it again. Your primary sourse of advertising money would come from the last gig.  I think the public finally wised up to this ploy. Because I haven't seen it used in the last twenty years or so. But it was common for a long time.  I understand that BJ was the first movie to be marketed that way.  Thank Mr. tom.  Second topic-An earlier writer asks about the song One Tin Solger.  Iv'e read the lyrics to that song and they do not make any sence.  You can not follow any logical progression in that song. It is just a series of platitudes strung together in no particuler order.  Maybie Mr. tom wrote them.

I saw this movie in the theaters when it first came out. Makes me feel old. Anyway.  I didn't like this film because everybody is a victim. And they all play the self pity, I'm a victim role pretty well. Who's the bad guy? The white man!(racist,sexist) hating anyone and everyone who is in anyway different.  You don't even need to look diffent for the white man to hate you. Somebody just needs to say you've got some Indian blood in you and POW! You too can be a victim.  And what do all the victims do. They sit around and cry until some great hero comes along to save them. Somebody who's like them. Somebody not like the mean, racist, sexist white man.  But it's just a movie and it made alot of money on a low budget.

Apropos of none of the above:

On a rural road near the tiny town of West College Corner, Indiana (I lived there briefly some 10 years ago), there was a place where the road went over a culvert and the shoulder on the right side of the road just disappeared. There was a old, rusted, yellow warning side as you approached it that read, "ONE THIN SHOULDER."

I swear I'm not making this up, but it looks preposterous now that I've written it down.

Perhaps the Union County Highway Department had an employee with a wicked way with puns. Anyway, every time I'd drive down that road, I'd roll down the window, stick my fist out, and sing "Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend!" at the top of my lungs.

Billy Jack was a good idea for a cool character... too bad he had to be in these movies.  Woulda made a better Rambo than Stallone.  These movies totally suck, and BJ's girlfriend is butt ugly.

Can you actually believe their is a new generation of hippies? Jesus, no wonder people vote Republican. Parents, take my advice, let your children watch this movie, then ask them, "now what do you think about peace and love?"

Billy Jack should have spawned a generation of films. Instead, people watch crap. Greatest country in the world filled to the brim with nitwits. Makes me sad.

By the way hippies, my father wanted me to thank you for spitting on him and calling him a baby killer when he got back home from the war in 1970. Such an understanding group...

Real hippies didn't involve themselves in political activities or education or jobs or anything else with our culture. They were totally removed from it as they saw it as corrupt and insane. Those who spit on vets were jacked- up-longhaired-wannabee-dudes who in one instance, were cheerfully beaten by my friend Clay who just returned from 'Nam. There is a movie in there somewhere- "Billie Jack Beats College" or something. I did see the flick with my wife and we thought it was a total rip off. I had more enjoyment when BJ took off his boots cause the theater went nuts with anticipation- "whoo boy, watch this".
Interesting how this film generates a lot of animosity all these years later.

I was really amused by this review. I know it sounds crazy, but when I saw this movie in 1971 it made total sense. It was first made in 1969 and ran until 1971. It was the 60's and early 70's....Ya just had to have been there.

Billy Jack was one of the most important films of our time.  Because Tom Laughlin was and is the only person that ever believed in a cause, was willing to fight for it, and put the message in his movies.  At first Born Losers was just a movie, the Motorcycle gang against Billy Jack and the young girls they victimized and raped.  Billy Jack was the original Rambo, but this guy was more then people ever knew.  He really believed in everything he stood for.  This especially came true after the surprise success of Billy Jack (the second BJ movie).  It became the greatest Independent film of all time, and sparked the most explosive sequel ever known (next to the Godfather movies).  I remember when the Trial Of Billy Jack came out, it played in 3 theatres (the first movie to ever to so).  In that movie you can start to see the political side come out more, with references to Nixon, Indian rights, child abuse, and police brutality (and the college masacres) which the whole movie was based upon. This movie reflected all real life stuff, everything you see in The Trial Of Billy Jack was not just some writers imagination.  The Laughlins really believed in all this stuff and poured their message into the films with raw emotion that has never been seen in film and hasnt been seen since.  They werent just acting, what they stood for in this movie, what they felt was based on the events of real life and what went on in the world.  Remember the final famous scene in the church where they sang Give Piece a Chance?  This scene was emotional not just for the audience that seen it, but for every actor who experienced it, the photographers, and the director.  Tell me a movie where that has ever been the case?  That is why it was so powerful, and only in a movie like Titanic has audiences been struck with such emotion again because the Titanic was real life (it happened) and James Cameron brought in into reality like no other has before.  Then finally Billy jack Goes To Washington, which was the most revealing film of all time about the corruption of Washington and the way that Congress is run, the way laws are passed, how payoffs, and special interests buy politicians into office and how they control the country.  We all know, the one who pays for the campaign funds, the elections, are the ones that buy the politicians into office.  How little envelopes with money are passed around, and bills are passed or denyed based upon the highest bidder.  No film ever before revealed clearly exactly the way Washington was run and still runs today.  How far does one go to protect their rights or what they believe in, or when does one let it go?  Tom laughlin (just as he does on his website today) brought everything into light in his movies.  His beliefs and convictions were the most important thing to him, not being famous, staying rich, or seeing how long he could keep a great career.  But by integrity in what he believed in.  We would have never seen those movies had it not been for that.  Billy Jack Goes To Washington was not even allowed to be released.  Tom laughlin and his entire cast were almost thrown out of Washington and arrested for filming it there.  USA is suppose to be a country where free expression is allowed,  but they would not allow that movie to be released and everything in it was true.  Billy Jack was much more then a movie, it was about someone who stood their ground, and stood up for what they believed in, and said it like it was.  Tom Laughin is still trying to change the world, even as a guy in his 70's he is planning to make a movie about his own election campaign (another independent film).  Check out the web site, and you dont have to agree with everything he says.  But Billy Jack stood for more then you'll ever know!  It was a movement, about people who wanted to stand up and change things.

Bought this flick for $5.55 at a Walmart in southern California. Saw it first in the 70s but not again until New Year's 2004.
I remember how everybody back then wanted to be like Billy Jack. (hat and all). What I didn't remember was how blatantly political this movie was --and how much the politics take away from the movie itself, which could have been a classic in the right hands.
It's one of the few movies Hollywood can't co-opt with a remake either, as the noble savages now run money-making casinos from coast-to-coast. Native Americans are the real-life bossess in small southwestern towns from Ruidoso to Parker and Temecula. There are sure some great lines though and doubtless this movie had influences many movie makers (beyond Steven Segal)

I really wanted to like this movie when it came out but it was  simple, predictable and stupid...

I think "The Trial of Billy Jack" is where the fake Hitler "law and order" quote came from that hippies use to get people to admit they're Nazis.
"'Something about law and order being good'. Do you agree with this statement?"
"Yeah, sure."
"That was an verbatim statement from Hitler!!!!!"
"Wow, I just crapped my pants. I guess I just have to admit I'm a Nazi now."

I saw "Billy Jack" during its original theatrical release and thought it was amazing and hip and cool.  I was 14 at the time, and I don't remember how I managed to get into an R rated movie.

Hadn't seen it since, and recently the husband and I were out shopping and found "BJ" in the bargain bin.  I raved about it, told him how cool it was, so we dropped $4.99 and bought it.  Mind you, my husband is eight years younger than me, so he missed out on a lot of the peace/love thang of the 1970s.  Anyway, we watched "BJ" and even I had to laugh.  "I guess this movie isn't as timeless as I thought," I said as one embarrassing scene after another unfolded.  I mean, sheesh, Freedom School?  Some of those "students" were obviously in their 30s and balding.  And what does one do with a diploma from the Freedom School?  Can you see yourself at a job interview..."no, I have no computer skills, but I get high on creating things...."

   Obviously, many of the people who have seen this movie under-appreciate the Jungian neo-Classicism of the underlying mythos.  Plato's Myth of the Cave would not be an unrealistic metaphor to apply to this majestic film.  Billy, as Socrates, aids us in our understanding of life above the cave. . a life beyond shadow.  The town represents Hobbes idea of life as "Brutish, Nasty, and Short."  Billy--and Jean--lead us to a path of enlightened thought.  This film should be a must-see for anyone interested in what heights the human species is capable reaching.

I was born in 1961. I am German, Irish, Cherokee, Lakota, Cheyenne ( white skin ). This was the first movie I saw where Native Americans were shown as humans....and where the greed and selfishness of whites was highlighted for contrast with Native American environmentalism and spirituality.

Billy Jack was my hero...and the lines about there being no law, just a fight for survival when policemen break the law AND that we don't put the controls on our guns that we put on our cars and pets...are still valid, significant statements.

 I think the people ripping Billy Jack on this site probably watch Fox "News" and actually believe they are watching news. They only accept what fits nicely in their narrow, agenda. This skin allows me to live among white people, and I'm here to tell you...Billy Jack portrayed white folks PERFECTLY....a race with a long history of almost no spirituality or morals of any kind ....and that, in my opinion, is why most on this site don't care for the film. I think Billy Jack was a great message movie.

The film is totally honest...and real honesty among white people is a rare happening, long since replaced by greed and hating in the name of Jesus.

Because of the message, the movie is timeless

Hi, great site. This film was banned in South Africa (along with "Born Losers" and "The Trial of Billy Jack"). We really had the most wonderful :( censorship system in the world!

Billy Jack was and is a great movie. For those that despised the "hippy" era of love, creative living and foresight, you despise yourself for your own life's failures and like the beef-witted miscreant that you are, you broadcast your self-hate across the Internet. Never fooling anyone but other cow-people who also loathe themselves, verily it is so.

I AM A RED MAN
ijostl

I too thought this movie was SO cool when I saw it, I was only 10 years old.  I watched it again bout 5 years ago & the stupidity, cheesiness, bad acting, directing, everything about it made me cringe. Which makes me believe that if this movie really only appealed to an average 10 year old, HOW did it ever get released at all.  The Trial was, if possible, even worse.
    Oh, BTW, people that want to internalize rants about this God-awful movie into a personal racist attack should hurry to their nearest Jungian psychotherapist to be cured immediately of their insight-lacking, paranoid proselytzing. Now LAUGH already!!

Billy Jack is the man.  They should have focused more on his kicking heads in insyead of the lame Freedom School sub-plot.
Oh well, we'll always have Born Losers to fall back on (Tom Laughlin's white-exploitation/Biker opus).  Now that's a movie for true Billy Jack fans.  Nothing but bbone crunching fights, hardcore characters, snappy dialogue and sleaze bby the truck load.  He really went over board when he made Trial of Billy
Jack.  A movie that's nothing more than a celluloid self-pleasuring act.  Three hours long!!!

Sure the movie sucks, but it has that mysterious thing that makes us talk about it, way more than "Yentl" or "Bugsy Malone". I just like looking at it, the park and the signs and the goddamn hippies.

 I remember watching BJ when i was a boy & loving the movie then , Yesterday i bought the hole collection of BJ movies & watched them all & all i can say is that nothing has changed at all , i still love watching them . THANKS TOM LAUGHLIN .

I usually dont post comments to message boards, but I am seriously disturbed by some of the things I am reading here.  Obviously you know nothing about the Vietnam Conflict or else you could restrain yourself from calling the pacifist movement 'crap.'  Also, these types of movies were not ment to be entertaining, but educational and inspiring.  If you cannot grasp the message in this movie then you dont deserve fingers.

Thanks for the opportunity to talk about something so near and dear to my heart. This movie gave me HOPE when I was a teenager in the 70's. I am of mixed descent, with some Native American, and I don't really look it, except for the eyes.  I am proud of who I am, but at that time I had no home life to speak of, no one to talk to about things and no one to look up to. When I saw "Billy Jack" the first time, I was hooked. I learned that there are people out there who care, I mean REALLY care about KIDS. Even if it was just a movie, It gave me something to look forward to when I grew up. I learned that I wanted to be a "good" person and to help people. I also learned that I could turn the other cheek, but also to fight for what I believed in. For once I had something to believe in. I thought Teresa was so lucky to have parents like Tom and Delores Laughlin. I wanted to be her. I bought the soundtrack and learned all the songs. I cut out pictures that showed that this movie was playing at our local drive-in and glued them to cardboard so they would last longer and not get "dog-eared". Lastly, I went when I was old enough and on my own... and learned karate.
Make fun of it all you want and say it's a bad movie, but it inspired me as a young person and gave me the will to go on.
I'm proud of who I was, who I wasn't and who I am.
Tom Laughlin is my hero, and I now have his picture as my wall paper on my pc. I have the vhs, dvd's and soundtrack. It inspired me then, and still does today. I wish Tom a healthy future, I know he had been ill. I love you Tom, you're in my prayers...
"You know me, and you know my meaning..."
Bless-ed Be

I used to be a fan of these movies. I saw the Trial of BJ while in my senior year of high school and included pieces of it in a psychology project. During this time of my life, I was learning about the school shootings and some of the war horrors from Vietnam. These movies helped bring interest to some issues.

What do I think now? Well, I am not so sure as I haven't watched the movies in a long time. They most likely wouldn't mean now what they did as a teen years ago.

No one has mentioned the "Master Gunfighter", another film of Tom's that didn't make it. I believe it was made after the Trial film. Years later I recall seeing it on television and wasn't impressed.

A few years back I'd heard during a show with Tom Snyder that Tom was working on another film & I guess that failed to come to pass. Now we hear of yet another Billy Jack movie which I guess will also fail to come to pass.

I took a brief look at his web site. Hmmm. When I saw him selling autographed pictures between starting at $50, I was greatly taken aback. Years ago when he was at his peak in popularity I got one for free.

I can't help thinking that Tom Laughlin wrote the role that Chuck Norris should have had.  Chuck would have been perfect as Billy Jack: he could have carried out the fight scene in the park (the one redeeming quality of this film) flawlessly without resorting to a Korean stunt double.  He's a much better actor than Laughlin (although neither one will be bringing home an Academy Award in the near future).  He's even legitimately part Indian!  So why not make a remake of Billy Jack, with our man Chuck in the lead (and hopefully a less hokey script)???

We need to remember the BILLY JACK was a product of its time. "Indian" was not a perjorative, but merely a word. "Everyone" was a singular that required the use of "he", not "they." Yes, Virginia, there was air conditioning in the 70's--even in the 50's in homes. The boomers were becoming hippies. Now they are approaching retirement.

"Peace" and "love" in the 70's were slogans providing the thinnest veneer over the anger and intolerance roiling beneath, just like the pleasantness of PLEASANTVILLE.

I also noticed that those who expressed their love and understanding in terms like "f**king a***ole racist" and similar endearments for those who didn't get the message of the film never were specific about exactly what said message like, was, you know?

As many of the other postings here pointed out, the target audience of BILLY JACK has grown up. How many are now grandparents?

I really doubt that Tom Laughlin will be able to recapture the glorious days of 35 years ago. Maybe this is why he's trying to exploit the unpopularity of the Iraq war to solicit funds for some project or other.

Shalom, y'all.

This movie had a profound effect on me because I was very disillusioned by the Vietnam War, and by Religion at the time. The film spoke to me so much that I went out a few months after seeing the film and taught Indians in the Bush of Canada for the next two years. I even bought a motorcycle...a dirtbike that was red...just like his in the movie. This movie was live-changing for me.
     I also felt that the rape scene was one of the most realistic and ugly scenes I have ever witnessed.

The 70's were a dark time culturally.  Best to let them rest in peace.  Billy Jack included.

I forgot to mention:

Some here complained that "They" would not not let the 4th movie of the saga, BILLY JACK GOES TO WASHINGTON, be released or shown. Just who this They was/were never got specified. It guess it was the ubiquitous, omniscient, omnipresent, and totaly anonymous They who retain/s tight control over mores, actions, and speech, under threat of well-known, severe, and unspecified punishment. ("You can't do that! What would They say? Don't you know that They will get you for that?")

Yes, there is Freedom of Speech, a precious right in the USA.

But Freedom of Speech does NOT carry with it the concomitant Obligation to Listen by others.

Furthermore, the right toFreedom of Speech does not protect one from the consequences of saying untrue, unpopular, or offensive things.

In practical terms, you p**s off the Hollywood Movie Establishment once, you don't get your next flick distributed or shown.

BTW--Did anyone but me notice the cameraman and later on microphone plainly visible in the rape scene?

Well, I spent the afternoon watching the very move that the omnipotent They would not allow to be shown or distributed: Billy Jack Goes to Washington.

It's a very poor imitation of the Frank Capra classic MR SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON.

E. G. Marshall's performance brightens up the movie just as flowers brighten up a sickroom.

Question: If BJ had wound up owning these 400 acres originally intended for a nuclear power plant (i/o a camp), by that very fact they used forged documents to give it to him he could has simply STOPPED the building o the nuke plant! Nobody but me noticed this inconsistency.

No, this movie is just another platform for Laughlin to agitate for laws passed in an extra-Constitutional manner--in the movie by national initiatives and referenda (which would mean ZILCH at law, even this may be a good idea), or now (according to his site) having "televised citizens' hearings" to impeach Bush and Cheney (even though the Constitution is VERY specific about such impeachments must originate in the House before they are tried by the Senate).

But hey! It's just the US Constitution. What does that matter to the Laughlins?

All I can say is that this is the best swewering of Billy Jack since Mad magazine took Tom Laughlin to task with their parody "Billy Jerk"

Does anyone rememeber the magazine parody?  

As a film the movie is laughably bad with some of the worst music ever and what's worse is that like Jabootu points out it inspired On Deadly Ground.  The gift that never stops giving,  i'm waiting now for Vin Diesel to preach about hippy bullcrap.

Tom Laughlin's caring, self sacrifice and contributions to the enlightenment of this country's people through his 'Billy Jack' series of movies is just staggering in my humble opinion. As relevant today in 2006, as it was back in the seventies.

I personally felt as if a bolt of lightening had just hit me in the head (and heart) as I walked out of that theatre after my first 'Billy Jack' experience so long ago.  This young sophmore kid in high school determined to go out into the world and be an example myself, to try to make a personal and positive difference henceforth, no matter how large or small.  And, all those ticket sales verifying the 'Billy Jack' movie(s) popularity....just can't be wrong! To date, the number one selling independant movie of all time!  

While I'm no expert on the workings and goings on of Hollywood, CA nor Washington D.C., I have no doubt that he (and his wife Delores Taylor) hit the nail on the head when they created these films.

I bought the (new in 2005)DVD set and can't say enough great things about these movies AND their creators, Tom Laughlin & Delores Taylor. What wonderful people they were then and are now! They took the chances most people are afraid to take and stood up for what they believed in and I am so grateful to them for that. And grateful for the lessons they have taught me which are as valuable as any I've ever learned in my life.
When the singer sings the song 'Golden Lady' and the line "you are my teacher" at the end of 'Trial of Billy Jack' I surely can relate!
Back in the 70's these movies literally enlightened and changed my life! And after watching them all over again (including the 'Billy Jack Goes to Washington' which never got released) I have to say I think they are changing things yet again in my life, in ways I never imagined.

I get upset with all the negative comments I read regarding the karate scenes (there are only 2 karate scenes in each movie, 'Billy Jack' & 'Trial of B.J.') probably less than 5-6 minutes of the total movie, yet people seem to ONLY remember those scenes and not all the PEACE & LOVE demonstrated throughout the movies.

I'd recommend this set to anyone today and feel it's as current now (yes, just listen to the current daily news!) as it was in the 70's.
I think all kids in high school should see this also, as a lesson. Just look at what the government was up to then, as it is now and you may agree.
I truly do hope Tom Laughlin can pull off another movie about the issues currently raging in this country....we all could use it!  PEACE & LOVE....that was the overall message then, as it should still be today!
GOOD LUCK MR. LAUGHLIN!!!!

I was fascinated to see Al Caroll's comments above about John Pope, aka "Rolling Thunder".  Everything he says is correct, but the reason that I was tickled to see it is that I spent lengthy periods in the late 70's and in 1980 visiting Rolling Thunder (called "RT" by all of us visitors who knew him), and staying at the camp he set up on private land a few miles outside Carlin, Nevada.

The camp was called Meta-Tantay, which I was told means "Walk In Peace" (presumably in Shoshone).  I don't know if that's correct, but that's what I was told.

I went there in '77 for a couple of reasons.  

1. I was crazy about anything that had to do with Native Americans.  Always have been since toddlerhood, although I am white, racially speaking.  Let's put it this way...when I was a little kid my heroes weren't the cowboys and the cavalry, they were Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Cochise, Gall, Red Cloud, and so on.  Why?  I love underdogs.  I detest the John Wayne mainstream kind of thing.

2. I went there because I had read an article about RT in a magazine, got interested, and read Doug Boyd's quite well written book about RT.  Doug Boyd had visited RT in the early 70's and written a book which you can still find called "Rolling Thunder".  The book blew my mind.  I read it in one day, and immediately decided to go to Nevada and see RT.

What happened when I got there?  Well, for a kid who was crazy about Native Americans (whom I called "Indians" at the time)...and so did THEY, by the way..."Native American" had not become the only politically correct term to call them by YET.  No siree.  Listen to Buffy Sainte-Marie, the great Cree folksinger, sing "He's An Indian Cowboy In The Rodeo" and "your great great grandfather from Indian blood sprang"...and you'll see that only a few decades ago Native Americans quite often happily referred to themselves as "Indians" and did not consider it a pejorative or racist term at all.  My, how times have changed!  You can get in total s**t with various terribly earnest people for saying that word "Indian" now, unless you mean someone from Inda.
 
Sorry...got carried away there...well, when I got there I discovered right away that RT was a VERY charismatic character, a born showman.  He knew how to impress and entertain a receptive audience, no doubt about it.  By the same token, I'm sure some of the not so receptive hated his guts, because he was always railing against rednecks, the white middle class and rich people, the government, the CIA, the US military, etc, etc...

That man just loved taking on major opposition.  He lived to fight with people about stuff.  ;-)  Al is entirely correct that he had a paranoid worldview.  More about that later.

Anyway, I was impressed.  Hell, yeah!  He was saying everything I had dreamed of.  So I went out and stayed at the camp for nine months.  There I met a lot of people who became among my dearest friends for some years.  Yeah, they were almost all white hippies (or "freaks", as we called ourselves at the time), although there were a few NA's too (I'm SICK of typing out "Native American", so it's NA from here on).

I always wondered if RT was really NA at all, because he looked white to me.  He claimed to be Cherokee.  Well, his wife was clearly NA.  Her name was Spotted Faun, and she had pretty typical Shoshone features.  His son, Mala, had the same basic Shoshone features, as did RT's older son, Buffalo Horse.  Mala was the camp leader.  Another NA was the number 2 man and his name was...and I kid you not..."Running Bear"...and he was a hell of a nice guy, from California, I think.  We called him "RB" normally.  Then there were a lot of white kids, a couple of blacks, some mixed-blood people, but Al Carrol is basically right when he says that RT worked mainly with white hippy types.  Not exclusively, but mainly.

Now...a word or two on the movie, Billy Jack.  I saw it in '71.  It made a huge impression on me.  It was the perfect time for that movie, because the counterculture kids were in exactly the right mood for it at the time.  This explains its huge success.  There was tremendous anger and cynicism about the Vietnam War, the US government, the straight society, the rednecks...a tremendous sense of all us young people being brothers and sisters together in a struggle against massive oppression by the government and the right wing forces in America.  So the movie hit a nerve all right!  I walked out of the theatre afterwards feeling like I was on fire.  Never was a movie more perfectly timed to suit its youthful audience.

In retrospect, many years later, I'd have to say that it's an embarrassing film in a number of respects.  The extremely sanctimonious, martyr-like, whiny attitude of the kids at the Freedom School can curdle your gut now, watching it.  But we just didn't see ourselves like that at the time.  We believed in our cause 100%.

Many of the ideals that Laughlin espoused, I still support, but I do not see the world in such blatantly black and white dichotomies of good and evil as I did in my early 20's.  It's not that simple.  And I do not see us "freaks" through the rosy glasses of idealism as back then.  We were far too sure of our own moral superiority, let me tell you!  I mean, what ARROGANCE!  What presumption!  My God, it's amazing what you can be like when you're young, passionate, and you think you know everything.  We thought we were going to save the world somehow, and we thought that all those who opposed us were totally, iredeemably evil and stupid.  It must be something to be that innocent.

Well, RT hung out a lot with Tom Laughlin in the early 70's, so I heard, and helped with the movies.  He can be seen in a couple of short scenes here and there, specially in The Trial of Billy Jack, which is in my opinion a terribly badly scripted film...I mean, like a 1.5 out of 10!  Buffalo Horse also appears in one of those scenes, yelling about blowing people up or shooting them or something (a perfect scene for him to do...he was a very aggressive, macho character in real life).

Tom Laughlin had donated a medium sized truck to the camp, with his famous funky hat logo on the doors.  It was called the "Billy Jack" truck, and is no doubt in the junkyard by now, but at the time it was one of our best vehicles.

Life at the camp was wonderful in '77 because the shared idealism there was phenomenal.  It was almost the only place I've ever lived where everyone was united in mind and purpose, where you could trust everyone to tell the truth...it was true brotherhood.  You had to be there to know it.  Better than that danged Freedom School in the movie, lemme tell you!  ;-)  

I was there for 9 months and it utterly changed my life.  I have to thank RT for making that possible.  I don't even care if he was a "fake", he did something remarkable there.

Went back in '78 and again in 1980, but by 1980 a lot of the people first there had come and gone, and new people came in, and the spirit of the place was souring in a way that was hard to pin down.  To make a long story short, it broke my heart how the place had gone down.  I believe some people's egos simply got way out of hand.  They got very competitive in trying to outdo each other or something as "super-Medicine Way Indians" or "Thunder People" or whatever the hell you would call it...and they got awfully arrogant toward newcomers and outsiders and anyone who wasn't in the in-group (which was a handful of people).  There wasn't the good-humoured openness and heart that had been there before.  My God, it was sad.  I suffered in it for about 6 months, couldn't take it anymore, and left.  I think the camp shut down a couple of years after that and everyone scattered in all directions.  Some people settled nearby, like in Elko (Smokestack Steve, for one).  Others went here there and everywhere.

I visited RT again in '87, just passing through, stayed about a week at his house.  He wasn't well, and I doubt that he lived much longer after that.  I am not aware as to when he passed away.

RT was an unusual man.  He was a consummate showman.  If he was playing phony "medicine man" (and perhaps so) then he did it with real style.  He affected a lot of people profoundly.  So did the Billy Jack movie.

The really weird thing is this:  Take all the reviews written above about Billy Jack.  ALL of them.  Take the reviews of people who love the movie.  Take the reviews of people who downright hate it.

Just about EVERYTHING they all say is true.  The good stuff and the bad stuff is true.  That's what's amazing about people, they all perceive their own part of the Truth...the sad thing is how little tolerance they have for anyone else's part, if it doesn't match their own.

It was the perfect movie for 1971.  If you want to know what the psychology of the long-haired freaks was, right at that tiny moment in history...it's in that movie.

We were inspired.  We were self-indulgent fools.  We were full of youthful idealism.  We were self-important and pompous and inexperienced.  We were dead serious about it.  We demanded respect of straight society, but detested it in return.  We were intense in our love for the counterculture and our hatred for the System.  We were laughably naive.  We were soft-hearted and hopeful.  We were full of love.  We were arrogant as hell.  We were every good and bad thing you can imagine.

It's all true, people.  All of it.  But if you deny 95% of a truth for only the 5% you personally like and feel comfortable with...what good will that do after all this time has passed?

Yes, Billy Jack is dated and preachy and slow...but...it has some classic dialogue quotes and that amazing fight scene in the park. The leadup to the fight is brilliant ("I'm going to take this foot and kick you on that side of your face...").

Master Bong Soo Han doubles him for the tricky kicks in the park fight (including the amazing kick to the face at the start - camera angle cuts to looking down from overhead). Full contact kicks to heads and bodies!

He doesn't use Judo or Karate. It is Hapkido.

BTW there is an amazing fight with Bong Soo Han and Tom vs. several axe wielding opponents in The Trial of Billy Jack.  

In "I Hated Tonto (I Still Do)," Alexie says that Indians worshipped Billy Jack, even though Laughlin is white.  I see some of you disagree.  Is Alexie wrong, then?  Can anyone tell me if there were any protests against or critiques of the film by ndns?

This movie was filmed in my town!

I've lived here my whole life. It's really very neat to see how it was in the 70s.

I loved Billy Jack.  Jean was beautiful.  I always wanted to make a beaded band for a hat that was just like Billy Jack's, but I was never able to find a clear enough picture of it to do that.  Anyone know where I can find one?

What ever happened to Billy Jack's original hat?  Do you think Tom still has it?

To the person asking about it - the original One Tin Soldier was recorded by "The Original Caste" several years before Coven recorded it for the movie.

Billy Jack rules!
To bad he voted for Clinton. I bet he smokes cigars too.
If he wore shoes wouldn't he have been more affective?

This movie also played in Dayton Ohio (a liberal mecca) for over a year.  At the time, liberals were committing suicide, running of to Canada, burning flags, and hating Dick Nixon 24/7 for covering up a 2-bit political crime that he had no knowledge of at the time it happened.  Lots of angst for hippies back in them thar days.    

And as with all things liberal, reality is often replaced with fantasy (most often provided by Hollywood and TV (Primary Colors, The West Wing, etc.) where the villains are all older rich white guys (probably republicans) and the heroes are caring, nurturing (and often troubled) liberals.  

Enter Billy Jack.  Just how much boring, agonizing, inane peace/love/nuture/defiance/hate/revenge/anti-establishment drivel can be jam packed into a 2-hour cinema experience?

Watch the movie and find out.      

A couple of people mentioned a MAD magazine parody, but as well as this a send up titled 'Billy Jerk Goes To Oz' appeared in the 1980 movie 'Loose Shoes' directed by Ira Miller.

The premise is that Billy Jerk is bitten by a snake and  transported to OZ where he teams up with a Munchkin and the Scarecrow.

I agree with the long post that suggested that BOTH points of view are correct.

I was a liberal teen when the movie came out. Basically a pre-teen. But it had a big impact on me from the standpoint that everyone I knew thought it was cool and thus it gave me some good insight on what 'cool' was.

Now ANYTHING that's cool in 1071 is NOT gonna be cool even 2 years later, much less a generation ago (except in either a campy or retro way) so, OF COURSE the movie is dated.

But, if you can extend yourself a little bit  and see the context of the film...if you can understand the rigidity of the times that those teens were rebelling against...it might help you to understand it better.

Plus Billy Jack is a GREAT character... flat out.

If you remember the flour scene in the ice cream shop and can recall how you felt when Billy Jack rode up in his motorcycle after the children were doused, you can appreciate how perfectly Billy Jack creates a scene for his hero to ride in as the avenging hero.

It's drama 101 worked to perfection.

I'm much more conservative now but, in today's day and age, you have to learn how to filter out the liberal noise in most entertainment in order to appreciate it. See The Colbert Report for details. lol!

So, I still like Billy Jack. Even has a born again believer and Ann Coulter Republican. And not just for nostaligic reasons either. The Billy Jack character REALLY is an all time classic archetype.

My choice for the most under rated piece dialogue in this film comes from 'Drive the Corvette into the Water' scene. It's where Billy Jack says:

"C'mon Bernard...You get to choose."

Brilliant!

Well it may have been violent and maybe he wasn't indian, but living near a small reservation, it was the first time they ever saw indians potrayed in a popular light.  Back then being an indian was the same as a dirt word, and he gave them confidence so i wouldn't be so quick to damn the movie.  It really started a revolution here in the Upper Penisula where they could be proud of who they were.

Howdy Everyone, after reading many of the comments I find myself in the minority. I love the movie Billy Jack. I do agree that it runs long on hippies singing and improv theater but I love the way Billy is so calm even in the midst of kicking butt. I also like his philosophy, mostly. When I was a kid Billy Jack was a hero, of course, I was raised on Fort Belknap Indian reservation in Montana so maybe that has something to do with it. I do agree that Billy doesn't look like a half-blood but he does look like a quarter which, on most reservations is as good as a full-blood. Take care all. TJ Swanson (cousin to the mosquito).

Just how many of those sily BILLY JACK movies did they make before they quit?

There were four:
The Born Losers (1967)
Billy Jack (1971)
The Trial of Billy Jack (1974)
Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977)

Billy Jack Goes to Washington was never released theatrically.
I bet Tom Laughlin thought is was because of a governmental conspiracy - and not because it just really sucked...  :smile:

 :smile: :teddyr:

This is actually the review that brought me to this website in the first place ~ I wuz looking for some information on Billy Jack, was directed here and decided to drop anchor with Andrew and his merry band of bad movie lovers. Please note: "I dropped anchor" does not mean that I dropped it on their heads.  :teddyr:

The film was banned in South Africa (as were its' sequels) and this site enabled me to find out more than a little about this famous movie and its' makers, Tom Laughlin and Delores Taylor.

Thanks for the review and the sounds, Andrew!  :cheers:

Apartheid AND no "Billy Jack" movies?!?

BASTARDS!

 :teddyr:

Hes so bad, he's good.  Yes, the singing ... torture - when I hear it... I jusssst goooo bizzzzerk.  Gene appears to be old enough to be his mother, sometimes... so I agree on the hair thing. But.. if there were a billy shop, I'd buy billywear. Billy rules.

I am SICKENED by the "native Americans" who posted praise for this pile of celuoid crap, but THIS one wins the prize!
Hey, runningmountainfawn! (Ooooo, how "indiany" can you get?) The "Trail Of Tears" was in 1838-39 dumbass! How the hell old are you? A hundred? MORE than a hundred?
By the way, I'M a "Native American"! My ancestors came to this country from Ireland in 1750! We built this country and helped make it into something! As for those who were here before us, they TOOK the land from their neighbors who couldn't DEFEND it well! Don't try to tell me that "indians" were the "origonal hippies", buster. I'll sick my CHEROKEE and SEMINOLE relitives on your phony-baloney neohippie asses!  :bouncegiggle:

The movie was for its time. It had to be good, people flocked to it. The acting was not the best, but it did show the ignorance of our culture to generational differences. It was good to see a Vietnam Vet., getting some glory, after fighting in a thankless War. Now I look around, and the hippies, are the yuppies. These hypocrite whiny people, who were against the Vietnam War, are now Republicans, supporting the Bush War. There will probably be a movie made of Iraq war Vets., comming home and kicking all the yuppy asses that said they supported Bush's War, but were to cowardly to fight in it. Billy Jack, was a movie for it's time. Mike :smile:

I saw it when it first came out and I was fifteen.  With the exception of the opening sequence, I thought it was one of the most asinine movies I had ever seen in my life.  Time has not changed that.

SNL did a great parody of the "flour" scene, with Larriane Newman calling out, "If only the colors of man could stay together like the ice cream on that come!"

It said it all

        well if you were smart you would know that chuck is way to old to lift a leg bill would wipe him out.

 I HAVE SEEN THIS MOVIE WAY TO MANY TIMES! A MUST HAVE FOR A COMPLETE 70'S DRIVE-IN COLLECTION. MY BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH THE FLICK [AND THERE ARE SO, SO MANY] IS THE PART WHEN BILLY LEAVES THE GIRL SO SPEICAL TO US THAT WE CALL HER "GODS LITTLE GIFT OF SUNSHINE" [ I'M SURE IT'S JUST "SUNSHINE" TO HER CLOSEST FREINDS]TO WALK ACROSS THE STREET, BARE FOOT, IN ARIZONA, IN THE SUMMER, 116 IN THE SHADE, TO KICK SOME RED STATE BUTT! I THINK THAT ACT IS MUCH MORE IMPRESSIVE THAN GET'N BIT OVER AND OVER BY ARE BROTHER THE SNAKE!

Whites were here first though. Just so you all know. Check out:

www.neara.org

http://community.kennewick-man.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solutrean_hypothesis

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Lagoon/1345/Lovelock.html

http://www.white-history.com/hwr6b.htm

Should we not get back to arguing about movies?

I loved Billy Jack.
I really loved Born Losers.
That girl in the white bikiki, on her little Vespa, YEESH!

Oh, and social injustice, blah, blah, blah...

Interesting that you "learned" BOTH of these things...

 Hitting a woman in the face once will cause her to miscarry. 

 Learning how to ride a horse while you are pregnant is not advised. 

  ... because the second shows that you muffed the first one.  Barbara didn't miscarry when her father hit her once in the face; she miscarried after she fell off the horse.

Otherwise, pretty good review.

Damn, all of you Billy Jack haters are (Born) losers. I loved the Billy Jack movies back in the day. It was my outlet from my father who insisted from the time I was 8 years old that I was a 'communist' because I got a B in Social Studies.

Those movies represented to me the idea that being anti-war and pro-love were not such bad ideas after all. I remember all too well what it was like to grow up in a home where divergent ideas were considered 'communist', to say the least. I experienced the "belt" in some instances, a thing that is NOT tolerated in today's society.

Going to the theater to see "Billly Jack" movies was my one escape from the harsh realities of home. Granted, the situations presented in the movies may have been over the top, the ideals were not. 

I used to work at a video store and there was an older co-worker who raved about this movie. It actually rented out quite a lot as well. Just bad, bad, bad...

I loved this movie. First of all, its Hapkido, not judo. Second, he is only part indian. He tries to emmerse himself in the "Indian" culture to make of up for being a "half-breed".  The villians in this movie, are more realistic to what real life is. They honestly think what they're doing is right and that Billy Jack is the one breaking the law. This film is about one man standing up and doing what is right, despite what happens to him. If we had more people like that in this country, oil co's and greedy wall street brokers, couldn't rob us blind. You obviously have never had to stand up and fight for what you believe in. I bet your parents did.(Thats why they like the movie)

Because we did not absolutely love this movie or the way it presented and then resolved the problems?  Really?  If someone did not love the movie "Schindler's List" does this mean that they would look the other way while a genocide took place?


I have been a U.S. Marine since 1991, and have stood to when it was needed.  Try again.

Just one note on people seeing Billy Jack and seeing him as part-Indian...  That seems to really just be a genre convention of Westerns.  Same thing happens in a lot of older westerns, where they have obviously white actors playing "half-breeds", sometimes even full bloods, and everyone can tell immediately.  Sometimes I think it is commentary about prejudice and assumptions, other times it is just movie short hand, a way of making the storytelling easier when they either couldn't or wouldn't cast an American Indian actor.

I sometimes see much the same thing in Asian film, where they'll call someone a derogatory word they translate as "mixed blood", even though I know the actor is a "full blood", so to speak. 

Billy Jack must be Paul Atredies or something: he keeps on taking off his boots to kick ass all of the time. Most people who know martial arts aren't going to do that; they'll just kick ass! That is what I find so dumb about this movie (among other things in it.)

Andrew: :cheers: :cheers: :thumbup: :thumbup:

The only problem that I have with this movie is that the South African Censor Board chose to ban it in the 1970s and the net result of that banning way back when is that it (and Tom Laughlin's later films) has never been seen here at all.  

I am now pleased to report that I am the proud owner of a R1 DVD of this film ~ I owe Tom Laughlin and this film a heck of a lot as searching for information on this film brought me here.  :thumbup: :teddyr:

Congratulations! I remember seeing BILLY JACK at our town's theater with my older brother and sister. We sat through it twice and went back later that week to see it again! Playing 'BILLY JACK' was a popular activity in our neighborhood for a few weeks.

Thanks, Raffine: a friend of mine in Belgium sent me this in return for a copy of the terrifying South African film The Stick and I was able to see Billy Jack for the first time ever. Very good ~ that horse hunt at the start: wow.  :thumbup:

I remember I saw something about it on VH1's I Love the 70's. They made it look so badass.
...then I watched it.
Thoroughly disappointed. Don't care about the fug pugly hippies and their problems.
I wanna see Billy Jack kick some ass.
He does a little, just not enough to keep me interested.
The moment where he warns the dude about kicking him across the face was the definite highlight and then understood the reference from the movie 'Major Payne' where he does the same thing except hits the guy in the throat first. lol.

Saw Billy Jack in 71, when I was 7 years old watched it twice in a row, then saw it again when it came out again in 73.
I loved it!! Even at a young age I could tell some of the acting was wooden - especially the Indian who was with the girl who miscarried.   
The movie made total sense to me then and the ending was truly inspiring...
Watching it now you can tell it didn't age well - it may be too over the top and corny - don't know if todays generation could relate to it now.
But for its time it was great - that generation needed a hero and Billy Jack was it.
It shouldn't be ridiculed, but taken in the context of what it meant back then - a thought provoking "right against wrong and justice will prevail" film - the innocence of the 50/60's was over and this ushered in the whole 70's and innocence gone era...movies and music was forever changed....
Mike

I was on Ebay and there is a sad listing for Tom Laughlin's entire house contents (at about $2.5 million) as his wife is living with Alzheimer's and had to leave the house to live under care. :bluesad:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tom-Laughlin-Billy-Jack-Delores-Taylor-ENTIRE-HOUSE-Contents-Sale-/221407841780?ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tom-Laughlin-Billy-Jack-Delores-Taylor-ENTIRE-HOUSE-Contents-Sale-/221407841780?ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT)

Very sad: my Dad walked that road for a while. 

This was one of my first posts here  :teddyr:

And, by the way, this is the original me when I was known as "Joe" in the hallowed forums.

One of the dullest and stupidest movies of all time.

Defiance, man! Defiance!


(https://cinematrices.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/vlcsnap-00174.jpg)

The really big problem with BILLY JACK (and all it's sequels) was that Laughlin is a terrible writer, actor and director.  All the "good guys' are pure, innocent and perpetual victims. While everyone else not on the reservation are mustache twiddling villains.  At least Billy Jack is an easy characture  to point and laugh at. While his wife (in the movie and real life) was a whiny, self serving, self righteous, pretentious nagging b***h.  Sadly, the audience back in 1971 gobbled it up then.. and today. 

As for the hippy dippy school, they use an endless stream of exposition on how "successful" their school is - even then, its laughably absurd claims that you're instantly dubious of. But the funniest aspect of this movie is Billy Jack's internal struggle of being peaceful while having to kick ass. A well developed, fully fleshed out 3 dimensional character would have overcome this internal conflict at least early on in the story.. or at least just before.