Billy jack movie#
Billy jack free#

Both made a big impression on my burgeoning adolescent brain, clouding it with enough stimuli to prevent any of the film's idealistic messages from gaining entrance.

Billy jack movie#

I'd never before seen such a violent movie (although by today's standards, it's pretty tame), and the two things I remember most were Laughlin's slow-motion karate kicks and hand chops to the solar plexus, and Roya cutting open a bodacious bimbo's bra with a switchblade. I first experienced 'Billy Jack' as a wide-eyed 10-year-old during its wildly popular 1973 re-release. As tensions mount, largely due to the sadistic exploits of spoiled bad boy Bernard Posner (David Roya) and his band of thugs, Billy resorts to more drastic measures to exact revenge and ensure that both the school survives and Jean, whom he loves, can continue to teach and help needy children without worrying about vicious repercussions.

Billy strives to embrace his peaceful Indian side, but resorts to violence when the situation warrants it, much to the chagrin of Jean Roberts (Delores Taylor, Laughlin's real-life wife), who runs a controversial progressive school for troubled students of various races and backgrounds. The story focuses on the efforts of Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin), a half-breed, ex-Green Beret, to protect the minorities and misfits persecuted by bullying bigots in a divided, uptight Arizona community. Once considered edgy and bold, 'Billy Jack' now exudes a strange quaintness that severely dulls its heal-the-world mojo and turns what was once a blazing hot property into little more than an oddball curio. Though its altruistic themes of peace, love, and brotherhood are timeless, this martial arts, anti-everything cult classic remains firmly rooted in the '70s. Not all succeeded, but 'Billy Jack' sure did, tapping into the palpable emotion and malcontent of many Americans fed up with the country's state of affairs to the tune of millions of box office dollars.

Billy jack free#

Railing against war and prejudice, and advocating free speech, free thinking, and free love, these low-budget, independent movies with misunderstood heroes often tried to temper their heavy-handed messages with enough action and attitude to appease the masses. She received a Golden Globe nomination for 'most promising female newcomer.' (She lost to Twiggy, in 'The Boy Friend.Back in the late '60s and early '70s, anti-establishment films captured the imagination and stoked the passions of a turbulent society hankering for radical change. Taylor played a teacher at an American Indian school where the students were facing persecution. (The movie's theme song, 'One Tin Soldier,' was a hit single for the rock group Coven.) Made for an estimated $800,000 with little studio backing, 'Billy Jack' was one of its year's top-grossing movies, and, after it was re-released in the 1970s, eventually took in more than $90 million. Taylor had a cameo in 'The Born Losers,' but she co-starred with Laughlin on 'Billy Jack,' the 1971 movie that made the title character a pop-culture icon and Laughlin an indie-movie legend. Costing about $400,000, the movie took in $2.5 million in its initial release subsequent re-releases pushed its box-office take to $12.5 million.

'The Born Losers' also taught Hollywood something about the changing movie business. 'They should teach the viewer something about himself and society.' 'Tom and I believe movies should do more than just entertain,' Taylor said. Laughlin always planned to direct it, she said, but he only stepped in to play the lead role at the last minute. In a 1967 interview with The Milwaukee Journal while on vacation with Laughlin and their children in Lake Geneva, Taylor said she and her husband wanted to make a movie that mattered.