Billy Jack [P&S]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Actor/auteur Tom Laughlin created the character of Billy Jack in the motorcycle flick The Born Losers. Wandering Christlike through the Southwest, Native American Vietnam veteran Billy Jack -- soft-spoken, but well-versed in martial arts -- champions the cause of a progressive school run by Jean Roberts (Delores Taylor, Laughlin's real-life wife). The bigoted white townsfolk don't cotton to Jean's minority-group students, so they do everything they can to humiliate and physically abuse the kids. When one of her charges is cruelly coated with white flour, Billy Jack goes berserk. Thus begins an orgy of self-righteous violence, culminating with our hero being hunted down on a murder charge. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Screen: Color
• Features:
  • cc

AWARDS

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Nominated New Star of the Year - Female - 1971 (Delores Taylor)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Tom Laughlin - Billy Jack
       Delores Taylor - Jean Roberts
       Clark Howat - Sheriff Cole
       Bert Freed - Stuart Posner
       Julie Webb - Barbara
       Kenneth Tobey - Deputy
       David Roya - Bernard

• Director:

  T.C. Frank

• Producer:

  Mary Rose Solti

• Screenwriter:

  Teresa Christina, Frank Christina

• Cinematographer:

  Fred Koenekamp, John M. Stephens

• Composer (Music Score):

  Mundell Lowe

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Mundell Lowe

• Editor:

  Marion Rothman, Larry Heath

• First Assistant Director:

  Michael Dmytryk

• Martial Arts Instructor/Coordina:

  Bong Soo Han

• Conductor:

  Mundell Lowe

REVIEW:

• A dated phenomenon of the late-'60s counterculture, Billy Jack is a crude 1971 yarn about a half-Indian Vietnam veteran who uses his martial arts skills to protect wild mustangs and a runaway teenager from backwards Arizona citizens. The townsfolk are racist, and don't like a progressive school in town catering to non-whites, so Billy Jack fights them and blows them away. Championing a violent approach to pro-Establishment attitudes, the movie was a runaway cult hit, along with its theme song, "One Tin Soldier." Virtually a one-man show, it was written and directed by its star, Tom Laughlin, who created the Billy Jack character in a 1966 motorcycle movie, The Born Losers. Billy Jack also stars Laughlin's wife, Delores Taylor. In 1974, Laughlin followed up with The Trial of Billy Jack, which together with the original had huge box-office receipts. Two more attempts at Billy Jack films, in 1977 and 1986, flopped. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi