Billy Jack

Well, Billy Jack was not at all what I had expected. I had heard of the movie and thought it was some kind of kung fu cult movie, but really didn't know what to expect. The movie blew me away! OK, so the acting can be a little cheesy at times, but how many movies from that era are not cheesy in some way? At any rate, Billy Jack is a true American hero. What I love about the movie is that it is focused on very important subject matter, but portrays it in such an unconventional and unique way. Billy Jack is a character of all characters. His mannerisms are hysterical. He shows such intense frustration when he knows he's going to have to kick someone's butt, and that makes his character what it is. He's an ex-green beret and he can surely kick some serious bad guy butt if he has to, but he is also a man with a big heart and his life's mission is to protect the native Americans and hippies who are either too weak or too peaceful to fight for themselves. And he loves Jean, loves her with all his heart and knows that he is the only one who can protect her and protect what is important to her. His character is portrayed in such a way that you can see the internal struggle in his eyes and hear it in his voice when he is faced with a situation where some biggot butts need kickin'. Billy Jack is a true classic and a movie that will stick with me for the rest of my life.

The movie's theme song "One Tin Soldier" was covered by Coven from the original 1970 tune by Original Caste. In it, the valley people covet supposed riches of the mountain kingdom. The latter wish to share, but the valley people, wanting it all, attack and slay their neighbors. But they find no riches. One tin soldier rides away, the legend of Billy Jack.

Billy Jack (Tom McLaughlin) martial arts expert and ex-Green Beret, is a "half-breed" who has authority to uphold the law on an Indian reservation in Arizona or New Mexico. Billy Jack's girl is a strong- willed woman, a pacifist, Jean Roberts (Delores Taylor, his wife in real life) who runs the Freedom School. This progressive reservation school for troubled young folks welcomes all youth regardless of ethnicity; it is a rainbow. There are three main rules: (1) no drugs, (2) everyone must pull his/her own weight, and (3) a student must create something, like a painting about his/her heritage, weaving a blanket, creating a film, etc. One may surmise that the Indian reservation and school represent the mountain people of the song.

In contrast to the school is the nearby town outside the reservation. The folks who live and work there are hostile to the reservation school as they cannot relate to its unorthodox teaching methods. As they consider the kids to be outcasts, they make no attempt to hide their various prejudices. In reality the deck is stacked: all of the virtues belong to the school population with the exception of one or two oddballs. By contrast, all of the negative qualities are possessed by the narrow-minded townsfolk nearly without exception. They do not like "long-haired weirdos." Chief among the town-folk are the Posners, businessman father and purposeless son. The former, Stuart Posner (Bert Freed), is plain rotten; the latter, Bernard (David Roya), is a disdainful rich kid. At the beginning Stuart Posner thinks there is nothing wrong about illegally rounding up wild mustangs on Indian land and slaughtering them for profit. Although Bernard initially seems to stand up to his father, he later shows his vile side as he degenerates into murder, rape, and even near-pedophilia. Although Sheriff Cole (Clark Howat) is decent enough, his deputy Mike (Ken Tobey) is a snake. One may surmise that the town represents the valley people of the song.

As pacifist Jean tells Billy, he needs to control his violent temper. In turn, Billy feels he needs to use violence to get justice for his people. An example relates to a group of Freedom School teens who take the school bus to town for shopping. At an ice cream store they suffer an intolerable injustice that goes beyond the owner not serving them. By the way, if a store-owner wants to make money, why does he not sell to everybody? This attitude has always seemed self-defeating. Anyway Billy Jack throws the biggest bully ("Dinosaur") through a plate glass window. Pow! The store owner merely stands by and watches. After that someone tampers with Billy's jeep. Then Billy Jack is outnumbered 12 to one in fight with some townsmen. In the course of the film, tensions will escalate until the inevitable conclusion of the struggle between the townsfolk and the school (Billy Jack).

Although Tom McLaughlin is heavy-handed, his screen presence is huge. Reserved and athletic, he represents the ideal Caucasian-Indian hero: tough, unshakable, and aware of his Indian roots. He is at ease whether on horseback or motorcycle. Delores Taylor, slender and with long hair, but also sad-eyed and plain-faced, is appropriate as the school administrator. Although her acting is uneven, she is a central figure of the story in many ways. For it is she who began the school and both encourages and relates to the young people. It is she who helps Billy Jack come to his senses at the end. The independent film could have used experienced editing, especially for the school skits, and the script could have been tighter. The singing and guitar-playing are sometimes difficult to take. And it is understandable that Stan Rice, the actor who plays the Indian Martin, has no other silver screen credits. The movie running time is too long, and some of the dialogue and attitudes are outlandish. For instance, at the board meeting the young girl credits the "law and order" quote to Adolf Hitler. Thus the inferred message is that anyone who supports upholding our laws extols that dictator. Despite amateurish acting, the film does display a charm of its own. White-booted Susan Foster (Cindy/"Up Yours") is very attractive. Always beautiful are southwestern USA shots. The Paiute Wovoka friendship dance is colorful, while the Shoshone Indian snake ceremony is most unusual. The Billy Jack story line does maintain interest and the theme song is well done.

By the way, note the yellow-colored Dr. Pepper poster advertisement on the ice cream store door when Billy Jack enters. It illustrates the upcoming school football schedule for 1969, the year when filming began. "Billy Jack" was released in 1971 and again in 1973. A movie costing under a million dollars to create grossed many times that number. This popular cult film even resulted in two sequels; its predecessor was "Born Losers" (1967).

I recall seeing this movie at the theater. At the time I was a teenager ripe for the anti-establishment theme (and thrilled with the "cool " violence in the movie). I thought it was the greatest movie ever made. On re-viewing it recently, I couldn't believe how stupid I was. This movie is so bad it is laughable. You can almost feel the characters straining to get their point across. The plot is simplistic and the acting is. Of course, things have changed in nearly 30 years. My taste in movies is one of them.

"Billy Jack," eponymously titled for the lead character, is an entertaining movie, but without much substance -- that is what you get when you have caricatures -- a peace-loving, basically American Indian "Freedom School" versus the conservative redneck bad guys.

Billy Jack is played by Tom Laughlin, who does not look much like a half Indian. Also, altho he has martial arts fluidity against the villains, he is quite rigid in posture, the white man that he is. Like his split background, I thought his acting performance was uneven -- at times good, at times wooden. Let me comment that he was not impressive in the final scene, which was not moving to me. Jean Roberts (Delores Taylor), sort of Billy's love interest, runs the Freedom School. She is the passionate figure of the movie, but certainly only platonically.

One curiousity is what the director is trying to do with the character of Sheriff Cole, a compromising personality, but who overall seems to be presented favorably. A good man rather than bad like the rest of the town, he is unable and unwilling to mount an effective resistance to the bad guys tho he serves as a go-between, helps Billy and the Freedom Schoolers behind the scenes, and yes, once, rescues Billy, by, sort of, standing up against the beaters. Like Billy, he is totally outnumbered by pretty much an entirely bad white community, like the prosecutor in the Mississippi civil rights murder cases trying to convince the jury. But I say, his is a refreshing role to me, because he is, well, the most normal person.

So, American Indians have been mistreated? We all know that, but what does this movie tell us about it, the background, the problem as it exists today (OK, 30 years ago), the solution? So we have peace-loving hippies and Indians, whining, whining, directed at the bad guys, nothing else. So?

What was the Freedom School all about? Well, it opposes the establishment. We know. But what does it do, what do you learn, what do you accomplish, what are you prepared for? Well, we hear diatribes, but where are we going? Maybe inherently nowhere.

Thus, "Billy Jack" mainly functions for its superficial visual (and audio) images, spirit of the '60s. But the storyline still captures the viewer. There are the abusive bad guys, we are worked up against them, the guy in the white hat (sort of) comes to the rescue. And if we don't totally understand what the Freedom School is all about, we at least know some of its political stances, and something of its style, even if the way the movie presents them is silly.

This all adds up to an annoying sanctimoniousness that serves as a turnoff. Tho the conservative characters are stereotyped, they are developed better than the Freedom Schoolers, who are poorly acted, cheesy, and certainly not compelling.

The true irony of "Billy Jack" is that the pacifist Freedom School contradicts what made people go see the movie. How many went, or would go, to see it, and how many went to see the fight scenes? Anyway, the score is quite good.

Seeing this film back in '71 when it first came out did very much to change my attitudes and commentaries. Only in the old days would a movie like this create such a great change in a persons psyche. I'm very glad I discovered this film when I did and even though the production and acting qualities are pretty 'low' this movie definitely is a 'must see' for everyone. Enjoy.