"Billy Jack" the Movie

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Just got around to watching the "Billy Jack" movie I got from my sister for Christmas.

I remember going to the movies to see it sometime in the early 70s (it was first released in 1971 but bombed. It did much better on its re-release in 1973). This was the second movie with Tom Laughlin in the role of Billy Jack. The first movie was called "Born Losers" and Billy Jack was going up against a motorcycle gang led by a friend he grew up with. (And BTW, those gang members would be eaten alive by today's Hell's Angels or Outlaws!)

Watching it tonight was from two different perspectives:

The first was remembering the times, and the attitudes in the late 60s/early 70s about hippies, free love, pot, the Viet Nam war, and the injustice and inequality regarding the different races ("Billy Jack" was about Native Americans and other races on an Indian reservation school).

The second perspective was watching it with today's attitudes, feelings, ideas, etc. Which have certainly changed since then.

The first time I saw the movie I thought it was absolutely great. I talked my brother into going. He didn't want to at first - he had just returned from Viet Nam and didn't know what the story was really about, other than from the previews showing Billy Jack kicking ass. But after the first time, he/we had to go back and see it again.

But after watching it this time, I realized not only how cheesy and corny the dialog was, and what bad actors some of the cast members were, but how inflammatory and biased the movie really was. It pushed every button it could about how bigoted most white men (and women) were when it came to accepting the new and different ideas, concepts, beliefs and lifestyles of the younger generation.

But looking at it from the 1960s/1970s perspective, it was pretty accurate about The Establishment and The Man. (If you don't know what that means, ask your grandparents.)

Was it a good movie? Not really, from an acting/dialog/editing point of view.

Was it an important movie? For the 70s, trying to expose the injustice and inequality of the white established authority, and the attitudes of the older generation, then I'd have to say yes. (Not that it showed anything that people didn't already know.)

There were a few familiar faces, but the only one I can put a name to is Howard Hessman (Johnny Fever on the old "WKRP" series, "Head of the Class" and tons of guest-starring roles). Don't recall ever seeing any of the younger cast members in anything else.

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