- This article is about the 1971 film Billy Jack. For the professional wrestler of a similar name see Billy Jack Haynes.
Billy Jack is the second, and highest grossing, in a series of motion pictures centering on a fictional character of the same name, played by Tom Laughlin. The film was released in 1971.
| Billy Jack | |
|---|---|
| File:BJ DVD cover.jpg | |
| Directed by | Tom Laughlin (as T. C. Frank) |
| Written by | Tom Laughlin (as Frank Christina) Delores Taylor (as Theresa Christina) |
| Produced by | Tom Laughlin (as Mary Rose Solti) |
| Starring | Tom Laughlin Delores Taylor Clark Howat Julie Webb David Roya Kenneth Tobey |
Release date | 1971 |
Running time | 114 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1 million |
Plot
Template:Spoiler Billy Jack is a Native American Green Beret Vietnam War veteran, hapkido master, and gunslinger. The character made his début in The Born Losers (1967), a so-called "biker film" about a motorcycle gang terrorizing a California town; Billy Jack rises to the occasion to defeat the gang by defending from their wrath a college student who has evidence against them for gang rapes. The first film was considered the typical drive-in theater fare of the period, described by Entertainment Insiders reviewer Rusty White as "pure exploitation, but with something extra."[1]
This changes with the second film, Billy Jack, in which the hero must defend the hippie-themed Freedom School and its students from the machinations of racists. The school is organized by Jean Roberts, played by Laughlin's wife, Delores Taylor, who also appears in each subsequent film.
The movies go to some length to explain how the anti-establishment pacifist philosophy of the Freedom School can be reconciled with the martial arts and gunplay featured prominently in the plots of the films. Billy Jack hit on a potent formula with this message in 1971, and the film went on to become one of the highest grossing of its time, and remains among the top 100 when the list is adjusted for inflation.
Billy Jack helped launch the martial arts craze that swept the United States in the 1970s. It was arguably the first American film to feature a non-Asian lead character who used the martial arts as his primary weapon of defeating the villains. The style of martial arts used in the film is the Korean art of Hapkido. Though Laughlin, a Brown Belt in the art, performed many of his own fighting stunts, it was Hapkido Master Bong Soo Han, who performed the advanced techniques.
Two controversial scenes were noted by filmgoers and reviewers. In one, Jean (Taylor) is raped by Bernard (David Roya), the corrupt son of the county's most successful (and ruthless) businessman. The scene includes a wide-angle establishing shot of Jean tied to stakes on the desert floor, nude. In the second scene, as Bernard sits with a woman in his car at a lake, he uses a switchblade to cut her bra and demands she take it "all the way off." Billy and Jean arrive, rescue the woman ("Will you look?" she asks Billy, to which he responds, "Probably."), and force Bernard to drive his Corvette into the lake.
Billy Jack's wardrobe (black T-shirt, blue denim jacket, blue jeans, and a black hat with a beadwork band) would become nearly as iconic as the character. The film's theme song, "One Tin Soldier" by Coven, became a Top 40 hit in 1971, and featured the chorus:
- Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend
- Do it in the name of heaven, you can justify it in the end
- There won't be any trumpets blowin' come the judgment day
- On the bloody morning after, one tin soldier rides away
Later films in the series featured increasingly political plots and tended to rely less on the martial arts and more on the message, which quickly lost its resonance with increasingly apolitical audiences of the 1970s (the fourth film never made it into theatres).
Films in the series
- The Born Losers (1967)
- Billy Jack (1971)
- The Trial of Billy Jack (1974)
- Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977)
Billy Jack was the first movie to be marketed with the "BlockBuster" technique: To release a movie at a great many theaters on the same day in the same market. Before Billy Jack, movies would test the market at a few theaters and blossom to more if the reaction proved positive. BlockBusters would get a much stronger reaction and result in a more popular acceptance. This marketing got Billy Jack its top grossing credit. Today, virtually all major releases open in thousands of theaters at the same time.
Laughlin's website mentions plans to make another sequel, entitled Billy Jack's Moral Revolution which, according to the film's synopsis, hopes to "lead a nationwide protest march to force Bush and Cheney to give up Iraq as an oil colony and stop the endless flow of blood by getting the hated Americans out of Iraq immediately. In Billy Jack’s Moral Revolution, Billy Jack and Jean are recruited by mainstream Americans, Moderate Republicans, Democrats and Independents who hate both Parties and believe Congress has become so systemically corrupt it can’t possibly represent the people any more, to form a new mainstream – not fringe – 3rd Party, with exciting reforms to give real power back to the people (see 3rd Party enclosure). Throughout the film Billy Jack and Jean are under a horrendous siege in their struggle to try to save the heart and soul of America–and Its Constitution--before it’s too late. The movie is set to be released sometime in 2007."[2]
See also
References
Footnotes
- ^ "einsiders.com". Film & Disc Review, Billy Jack: Ultimate Collection. Retrieved 26 March.
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External links
- Official site
- Review of Billy Jack at badmovies.org
- Review of Billy Jack at Invasion of The B-movies.com
- Entry for Billy Jack at the IMDB.