Billy Jack

[Joe]

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 !!!!

[Jolynn]

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.

[1@peace]

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.  

[Swamprat]

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.

[Crow Ravenheart (Yes its Real)]

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!

[Swamprat]

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...

[sam]

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.

[Deej]

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!

[Filmlover]

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.

[Mike]

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

[bill]

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.

[pist_white_male]

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.

[Brother Ragnarok]

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.

[Billy Jack Caused me to disrespect my good parents]

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.