Billy Jack
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the 1971 film. For the wrestlerProfessional wrestlingProfessional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
of a similar name, see Billy Jack HaynesBilly Jack HaynesWilliam Albert Haynes, III is a retired American professional wrestler better known as Billy Jack Haynes.-Early career :...
.
Billy Jack is a 1971 action
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
film. It is the second, and highest grossing, in a series of motion pictures centering on a character of the same name, played by Tom Laughlin
Tom Laughlin (actor)
Tom Laughlin is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, educator and political activist. Laughlin is best known for his series of Billy Jack films. He has been married to Delores Taylor since 1954. Taylor has also co-produced and acted in all four of the Billy Jack films...
who also directed and co-wrote the script. Filming began in Prescott, Arizona
Prescott, Arizona
Prescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, USA. It was designated "Arizona's Christmas City" by Arizona Governor Rose Mofford in the late 1980s....
, in fall 1969, but the movie was not completed until 1971. American International Pictures
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
pulled out of the production, halting filming. Twentieth Century Fox came in and filming eventually resumed, but when that studio refused to distribute the film, Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
took over.
The film lacked distribution, so Laughlin took it to theatres himself in 1971. The film died at the box office in its initial run but took in more than $40 million in its 1973 re-release, which was supervised by Laughlin.
Plot
Billy Jack is a "Half-breedHalf-breed
Half-breed is an historic term used to describe anyone who is mixed Native American and white European parentage...
" American Cherokee Indian
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
Green Beret
United States Army Special Forces
The United States Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets because of their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force tasked with six primary missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, direct action, hostage rescue, and...
Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
, hapkido
Hapkido
Hapkido is a dynamic and also eclectic Korean martial art. It is a form of self-defense that employs joint locks, techniques of other martial arts, as well as kicks, punches, and other striking attacks...
master. The character made his début in The Born Losers
The Born Losers
This article is about the film. You may be looking for the song http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_LosersBorn Losers is a 1967 action film and the first of the Billy Jack movies. The film introduced Tom Laughlin as the half-Indian Green Beret Vietnam veteran Billy Jack...
(1967), a "biker film" about a motorcycle gang terrorizing a California town. Billy Jack rises to the occasion to defeat the gang by defending a college student who has evidence against them for gang rapes.
This changes with the second film, Billy Jack, in which the hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
must defend the hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
-themed Freedom School and its students from townspeople who do not understand or like the counterculture students. The school is organized by Jean Roberts (Delores Taylor
Delores Taylor
Delores Taylor is an American film actress, writer and producer, known for her roles in the Billy Jack films of the 1970s.-Life and career:...
).
In one scene, a group of Indian children from the school go into town for ice cream and are refused service and then abused and humiliated by Bernard Posner and his gang. This prompts a violent outburst by Billy. Later, Billy's girlfriend Jean is raped and one of the Indian students is murdered by Bernard (David Roya), the corrupt son of the county's most successful (and ruthless) businessman (Bert Freed
Bert Freed
Bert Freed was a prolific American character actor, voice over actor, and the first actor to portray "Detective Columbo" on television.-Life and career:...
). Billy confronts Bernard and sustains a gunshot wound before killing him with a hand strike to the throat. After a climactic shootout with the police, and much pleading from Jean, he surrenders to the authorities and is arrested. As he is being driven away, a large crowd of supporters raise their fists into the air as a show of defiance and support. The plot continues in the sequel, The Trial of Billy Jack
The Trial of Billy Jack
The Trial of Billy Jack is a 1974 film starring Delores Taylor and Tom Laughlin. It is the sequel to the 1971 film Billy Jack and the third film overall in the series. Although commercially successful, it was panned by critics.-Plot:...
.
Box-office and critical reception
Billy Jack has a "Fresh" rating of 62% on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
In his Movie and Video Guide, film critic Leonard Maltin writes: "Seen today, its politics are highly questionable, and its 'message' of peace looks ridiculous, considering the amount of violence in the film."
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
disagreed on what the message of the film was, saying "I'm also somewhat disturbed by the central theme of the movie. 'Billy Jack' seems to be saying the same thing as 'Born Losers,' that a gun is better than a constitution in the enforcement of justice."
Influence
Although marketed as an action film, the story focuses on the plight of Native AmericansNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
during the civil rights movement. It attained a cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
among younger audiences due to its youth-oriented, anti-authority message combined with the then-novel martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
fight scenes which predate the Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...
/kung fu
Chinese martial arts
Chinese martial arts, also referred to by the Mandarin Chinese term wushu and popularly as kung fu , are a number of fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common traits, identified as "families" , "sects" or...
movie
Martial arts film
Martial arts film is a film genre. A sub-genre of the action film, martial arts films contain numerous fights between characters, usually as the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often as a method of storytelling and character expression and development. Martial arts are frequently...
trend that soon followed. The centerpiece of the film features Billy Jack, enraged over the mistreatment of his Indian friends, fighting a gang of racist thugs using various hapkido
Hapkido
Hapkido is a dynamic and also eclectic Korean martial art. It is a form of self-defense that employs joint locks, techniques of other martial arts, as well as kicks, punches, and other striking attacks...
techniques.
Billy Jack's wardrobe (black T-shirt, blue denim
Denim
Denim is a rugged cotton twill textile, in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. This produces the familiar diagonal ribbing identifiable on the reverse of the fabric, which distinguishes denim from cotton duck. Denim has been in American usage since the late 18th century...
jacket, blue jeans
Blue Jeans
"Blue Jeans" is a sentimental popular song written by Harry D. Kerr and Lou Traveller in 1920. In the song, the singer is reminiscing about a long-ago young love that happened somewhere in the "hills of the old Cumberland." The chorus echoes the singer's longing:* The Parlor Songs Collection.* by...
, 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
Coven (band)
Coven is an American rock band formed in the late 1960s, composed of vocalist Jinx Dawson, bassist Oz Osborne , Chris Neilsen on guitar, Rick Durrett and later John Hobbs on keyboards, and drummer Steve Ross...
, 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
Billy Jack in popular culture
- In 1976 musician Paul SimonPaul SimonPaul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
played "Billy Paul" (a parody of Billy Jack) in a sketch on the second season of the NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
comedy show Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, after the film Billy Jack aired earlier that same evening on NBC. - In the series Mystery Science Theater 3000Mystery Science Theater 3000Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
, at least two episodes make reference to Billy Jack: on the episode WerewolfWerewolf (1996 film)Werewolf is a 1996 direct-to-video horror film that was lampooned in a 1998 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.- Plot :...
, after a fight breaks out between a racist dig supervisor and his Indian help, Tom Servo says, "This is where Billy Jack should come riding up."; on the episode Track of the Moon BeastTrack of the Moon BeastTrack of the Moon Beast is a 1976 horror film, directed by Richard Ashe and written by Bill Finger and Charles Sinclair.-Plot:Mineralogist Paul Carlson is struck by a lunar meteorite while observing a meteor shower. Lodged in his brain, the meteorite causes him to transform into a strong and...
, after the Native American professor finishes telling a story, Crow says, "Uh huh...do you know Billy Jack?" - In an episode of The SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
("Bart of WarBart of War"The Bart of War" is the twenty-first episode of the fourteenth season of The Simpsons. It first aired on May 18, 2003.-Plot:Marge disapproves of Bart and Milhouse watching South Park, so unsuccessfully tries to get them to watch Good Heavens on PAX. The boys soon find themselves outside the house...
"), Bart joins a Boy Scouts of AmericaBoy Scouts of AmericaThe Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
-like group called the "Pre-Teen Braves", and they engage in a rivalry with "the Cavalry Kids". A montage of the two groups fighting each other is set to Coven's version of One Tin Soldier. - Billy Jack is also referenced in an episode of Gilmore GirlsGilmore GirlsGilmore Girls is an American family comedy-drama series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. On October 5, 2000, the series debuted on The WB and was cancelled in its seventh season, ending on May 15, 2007 on The CW...
("Red Light on the Wedding Night") while Lorelai and Rory are watching the movie in their living room. At the line "Billy Jack, I'm gonna kill you if it's the last thing I do!", Lorelai responds, "Ugh, he so jinxed himself with that one." Rory replies, "Yeah, he should've said 'Billy Jack, I'm gonna kill you or buy myself a lovely chenille sweater.'" - Upon first meeting serial killerSerial killerA serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
Cary StaynerCary StaynerCary A. Stayner is an American serial killer currently on death row for the 1999 murders of four women in Mariposa County near Yosemite, California.-Early life:Stayner was born and raised in Merced, California...
—then considered a possible material witness to a 1999 murder in Yosemite National Park—FBI Agent Jeff Rinek asked if Stayner had ever seen the movie Billy Jack, noting Stayner's close resemblance to the film's hero. Initially, Stayner denied ever seeing the movie. However, 90 minutes later, after building a rapport during the drive to the FBI headquarters in Sacramento from the nudist resort where he had been picked up, Stayner surprised Rinek by reciting several of Billy Jack's lines. - In the motion picture Major PayneMajor PayneMajor Payne is a 1995 comedy film, starring Damon Wayans. The film is a loose remake of the 1955 film The Private War of Major Benson, starring Charlton Heston....
, Damon Wayans as the title character references the iconic fight scene quote "Now, what I'm goin' do is take this right foot and I'm 'a put it 'cross the left side your face." - In season three of the television series Sabrina The Teenage Witch, the school principal Mr. Kraft reveals that Billy Jack is his favourite film.
- Billy Jack was referenced by Jim CarreyJim CarreyJames Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
in Yes ManYes Man (film)Yes Man is a 2008 comedy film directed by Peyton Reed, written by Nicholas Stoller, Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel and starring Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel, Bradley Cooper, John Michael Higgins, Rhys Darby, Maile Flanagan, Danny Masterson, and Terence Stamp...
. - Metal band Goblin CockGoblin CockGoblin Cock is a heavy metal band from San Diego, California started by Rob Crow of the band Pinback. Musically, they play a form of doom metal/drone metal with rather unusual lyrical subjects . All members of the band have taken on stage names...
have a song entitled "Ode to Billy Jack" on their 2009 album Come With Me if You Want to Live, which is a tribute to him. - In the movie Drillbit TaylorDrillbit TaylorDrillbit Taylor is a 2008 comedy film starring Owen Wilson as the eponymous character and based on an original idea by John Hughes. It was directed by Steven Brill and the screenplay was written by Kristofor Brown and Seth Rogen. Paramount Pictures released the film on March 21, 2008.Drillbit...
, actor Owen WilsonOwen WilsonOwen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,...
references Billy Jack by saying to another cast mate "I am gonna Billy Jack your ass." - In the episode of the animated show Pinky and the BrainPinky and the BrainPinky and the Brain is an American animated television series.The characters Pinky and the Brain first appeared in 1993 as a recurring segment on the show Animaniacs...
, titled "Brainy Jack," Brain assumes the role of the titular Brainy Jack to trick a commune of hippies into helping him take over the world. Brain's wardrobe is a direct reference to Billy Jack, especially the hat with a beaded hat-band. Likewise, the song that Pinky sings in the episode is a parody of "One Tin SoldierOne Tin Soldier"One Tin Soldier" is a 1960s era anti-war song written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter. The Canadian pop group Original Caste first recorded the song in 1969. The track went to No. 6 on the RPM Magazine charts and hit the No.1 position on Canada's most influential radio chain, CHUM-AM, in Canada...
." - British electro band Relaxed MuscleRelaxed MuscleRelaxed Muscle are a British electro duo formed in 2002 by Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and Jason Buckle.In early 2003, Relaxed Muscle began playing gigs. Cocker and Buckle maintained anonymity by assuming the alter-egos 'Darren Spooner' and 'Wayne Marsden' respectively...
(fronted by Jarvis CockerJarvis CockerJarvis Branson Cocker is an English musician and frontman for the band Pulp. Through his work with the band, Cocker became a figurehead of the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s. Following Pulp's hiatus Cocker has led a successful solo career...
, from PulpPulp (band)Pulp are an English alternative rock band formed in Sheffield in 1978. Their lineup consists of Jarvis Cocker , Russell Senior , Candida Doyle , Mark Webber , Steve Mackey and Nick Banks ....
) released a song called "Billy Jack" on their one and only album A Heavy Nite With... in 2003. It was also released as a single with a music video that featured Cocker (as his alter ego, Darren Spooner) in Western garb reminiscent of Billy Jack's trademark outfit. - In the book "The Berlin Blues" a play by Drew Hayden Taylor, the character named Trailer references Billy Jack when he says on page 92, "No Cirque du Billy Jack?" when the plan for Ojibway World which was supposed to be opening up on the reserve falls through.
External links
- Billy Jack, Laughlin's official Billy Jack web site
- The Man Who Made Billy Jack Go Berserk: A Conversation with David Roya Interview with Billy Jack co-star David "Bernard Posner" Roya
- DVD review of the Billy Jack series and production history
- A vision of American multiplicity Village Voice review August 19, 1971