Billy Jack (1971)

Cast:

Tom Laughlin is Billy Jack
Delores Taylor is Jean Roberts
Clark Howat is Sheriff Cole
Julie Webb is Barbara
Stan Rice is Martin
David Roya is Bernard Posner

What the box says:

He's a warrior, a mystic, a martyr, capturing the heart and soul of a generation. Embodying all these and more, Billy Jack quickly became one of the most unorthodox and magnetic movie heroes of all time.

Tom Laughlin charasmatically plays the tilte character, a half-breed Native American and ex-Green Beret returning to live in solitude on an Arizona reservation. He is drawn to the progressive Freedom School - and the idealistic woman (Delores Taylor) who runs it. But when tensions flare between the students and the narrow-minded local bigots, Billy Jack becomes the school's protector. Once again, violence finds him.

First released with little fanfare and dismissed by most critics, the film's gut honesty struck a chord with audiences, who later made it a box-office giant - and a landmark film of its era.

Plot:

Sheriff Cole goes to tell his deputy that his daughter, Barbara, was found after running away. The deputy rather goes off to go mustang hunting with Posner. Let the rednecks drive a herd of mustangs into a corral to sell them for dog food.

The truth revealed behind the sniper that killed Bambi's mother... Posner is going to let his son, Bernard, start shooting but he refuses to do. Billy Jack rides up and forces them to let the mustangs free.
Bruce Campbell never was inspired by this for his boomsick speech.

Deputy learns that Barbara is pregnant and slaps her around for it.

Billy Jack finds Barbara outside and takes her to the hospital. The doctor recommends she be taken to the Progressive School on the reservation. Barbara is shown the school. Jean, head of the school, is worried about the kids going to town.

At town, the rednecks and Bernard starts trying to pick up some girl who shoots him down to a blaze of lousiness. In the ice cream store, the server refuses to sell anything to the school kids. Bernard and his goons come in and pour some flour on one of the girls.

The 1970s still didn't start having the goth look. Billy Jack walks in. He's had enough time but decides the time to layeth the smack down. Billy Jack Kung Fuin' Bernard and the goons ensues.

Heading into the court square, Billy Jack takes his shoes off to fight some more of these guys.

I'm about to go Jet Li all over you rednecks.

Back at the school, the deputy searches looking for Barbara and can't find her. The kids start protest-fu song.

Here's a touching song I wrote...'Take me down to the Paradise City...' Billy Jack has snuck Barbara off to a pueblo.

The town council wants to limit the number of kids to coming into town on Saturday. Let the political debating ensue.

The school offers to let the council see what's going on in the school. The truly nightmarish improv role-playing begins. However, the couple of council members are impressed by it.

Billy Jack heads off for the snake ceremony where he's bitten by a rattlesnake to have a vision to show him the purpose of his life. Entranced Billy Jack speaking endures and leads the tribe into a spirit dance.

The school decides to take their improv act to the town streets. How improv robbery is heart-warming to the townsfolk is a great question?

Bernard grabs one of the teen school girls and tries to force her to revealing Barbara. However, Billy Jack drives up and with the "whole, I'd hate beating you but I can" speech, offers to not beat Bernard if he drives his Corvette into the lake.

Bernard and his goon are roaming around and spot Jean taking a swim. He ties her to the ground and rapes her. Afterwards, Jean doesn't want to tell Billy Jack about it.

MORE IMPOV ENSUES (thank me for the time you didn't watch of this).

Role playing improv should be banned as cruel and unusual punishment..

Goons grab Martin, kid from the school. The goons are caught when Cindy lets Martin loose. Billy Jack rides up, and the Deputy holds Cindy as a hostage at first. Billy Jack takes off with Cindy.

At this time, Bernard has been hunting down Martin who was found dead in the lake.

Billy Jack wants to get Bernard. Jean tries to talk him out of it. He easily finds Bernard and dispatches him with one chop to the neck.

The police want to find Barbara, who has run off with Billy Jack. In the shootout, Billy Jack shoots the Deputy. Taking hold in an old church, Jean heads in trying to talk Billy Jack into surrendering. The police try another shootout. In the melee, Barbara gets hit in the leg. She even tries talking him into not getting killed.

The next morning, the doctor, sheriff, and Jean hear Billy Jack's conditions: Jean runs the school for 10 years and be appointed Barbara's guardian. The government agrees, and Billy Jack turns over to the Sheriff. The school kids stand alongside the road with the Black Panther fist salute as the police car drives past.

What I say:

Every B-movie reviewer has lines that must be crossed whether we're trying to gain any geeky B-movie cred for enduring awful movies or proudly proclaiming to have a box-set of Street Fighter movies and explaining to our friends that they have nothing to do with Jean Claude Van-Damme...SideOrderOfNinjas has written about sci-fi, horror, action, kung fu, etc...One thing, I've not gone near before was the 1970s message movie. Unil now...I'm not meaning the afterschool special or the made-for-TV message movies. The 1970s message movie beats you over the head with a profound "message" about how you're WRONG and grabs you by the collar to point you to see the giant illuminated sign stating how WRONG you are. Yes, basically to quote a song title from "Weird Al" Yankovic "Everything You Know is Wrong".

Billy Jack had his 4 movies. Born Losers was the late 1960s biker style movie about a rampaging biker gang stopped in a small town by Billy Jack. Billy Jack, the reviewable of current time. Tom Laughlin was able to take Billy Jack which bombed in 1971. He was able to get it re-released to theaters in 1973 to a different reaction. Yes, it actually was something of a hit. He took the profits and invested them in his other movies. The Other Billy Jack movies and Master Gunfighter. The next 2 movies have tormented far more entertaining B-movie reviewers than I. Trial of Billy Jack. and Billy Jack Goes to Washington which is a loose remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Well, somehow, the Return of Billy Jack and 2008's Billy Jack For President were never made.

This movie is 114 minutes and could have been so much less dragging if it hadn't included Improv roleplaying....Maybe consciousness and sobriety are natural enemies of seeing people roam around pretending things when they're involved with Howard Hesseman. The scene where they had a guy act to rob someone and continually changing their motivations was painful. The idea to calm the townsfolk by the school demonstrating what they did is one thing. However, random improv roleplaying wouldn't get anyone in a small town into thinking that those were just normal school kids.

Wondering where the WRONG gets tossed around like a chainsaw by a juggler. For a school supposed to be protected from the evil townsfolk, a lot of the kids pitch such fits that nobody would want to help them. The town council meeting had both sides screaming bloody murder and accusing each of other of every possible crime imaginable...The screaming and protest songs aren't going to be that inspiring to the townsfolk except by the power of the IMPROV. (*shudders*)

Everyone in the movie seems to fall down into the evil group or those that believe in the Freedom school (mainly oppressed hippies...) The villains are the rich guy in the town, his son, and all the goons including the corrupt deputy. Basically, imagine the guy who acts like he owns the small town in A-Team or Knight Rider and put them into a 1970s movie and you've got these villains. The only thing that was lacking was the law running Billy Jack out of town. Typically, these movies, have the all the police as against the hero. This time, the sheriff is trying to keep things from getting out of hand. However, the deputy could only be more evil if he were able to drown sack of kittens for fun.

The hapkido fighting for its time was far more than the typical William Shatner stuntman beatdown style fighting. Even B-movies hadn't really had the Bruce Lee explosion of the early 1970s or the big Kung Fu explosions from the late 1970s. The BIFF-POW comic book style fist fighting may have been slowly retiring at this point but was still somewhat the main movie fighting style..

Rather than the Rambo in First Blood who ran around the county and launched a guerilla style campaign against the sheriff and his deputies, Billy Jack became the defender of the laws on the reservation. Billy Jack is a half-(Native American/white) Green Beret who returned from Vietnam full of discontentment. Tom Laughlin portrays Billy Jack almost as completely without any emotions.

Even with as hard as it may be believable, I try to be prepared. In fact, Billy Jack has been sitting on a reviewable pile of movies until it wouldn't play and then it got moved to my dead letter pile of movies. However, eventually I broke down and joined the 21st Century by getting a DVD player that was more than a DVD-Rom on my computer. Finally, for the week of Thanksgiving, I'm seeing if this is truly as turkeytastic as it seems to be...

Even the legacy of Tom Laughlin keeps popping up. Steven Segal with On Deadly Ground looked like a Tom Laughlin version of an environmental action movie. The fight where Billy Jack talks about how tough he is and how no one can stand up to him is similar to the Steven Segal bar fight. Finally, after watching years of Chuck Norris Walker: Texas Ranger, I think I've seen where the Native Amercian ceremonies came from.

Quotable Dialogue
"We're all out of cones."
"The savagery of this idiotic moment of yours... I just go BERSERK! "
"You think the Green Beret karate tricks will do you any good?"
"It'll either kil him or make him a blood brother to the snake."
"That's not a bad thought for a pacifist."
"This council sucks."
"I said shoot her."
Morals of the Story
Bad men love to hunt wild mustangs.
The 1970s had horse meat sold for dog food.
Ice cream store owners refuse the right to serve anyone.
Improv robbery performances are emotional.
Improv robbery performances are crowd pleasing.
Binoculars can be used to spot people miles away.
Turning oneself into the law allows you to get your conditions granted.