Perfect cast and a good story

Just what I expected

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Half-breed Vietnam-vet Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin) lives on a Reservation protecting the natives, wild horses, and the peace-loving people. He confronts Posner and his men poaching wild mustangs for dog meat. Sheriff Cole brings back Barbara from Haight-Ashbury to her deputy father. She is beaten for getting pregnant from the free love. Cole asks Billy Jack to protect her at the native school from his deputy and the big man Posner. The school is home to every race run by Jean Roberts. The tension between the school and the locals grow until it boils over.In 'The Born Losers', Billy Jack is interesting but it's Elizabeth James who plays Vicky Barrington in her white bikini that is truly memorable. I don't know where she went although I doubt they could have worked the bikini into this movie. There is a lot of hippie ethics and a sympathetic depiction of native plight. Although for a hippie movie, there is plenty of violence. The philosophizing can be conflicting. The dialog is often rambling. The acting is terribly amateurish. Its heart is mostly in the right place but it's a bit of a mess.

BILLY JACK is the quintessential '70s film detailing the hippie movement and depicting their struggles against small-town narrow mindedness and bigotry in the American south. Tom Laughlin, who directs as well as stars as the eponymous hero (he's playing the character in the second of five films here, although the last remains unreleased), is in many ways an early version of Rambo in FIRST BLOOD, a highly skilled loner who just wants to be left alone. Unfortunately, as in FIRST BLOOD, the corrupt authorities have other ideas, and that's where the film comes in.I'm no fan of political polemics in films. I believe they have their place, and that place is not being thrust down your throat in a piece of entertainment. Sadly, a lot of the running time of this overlong film is spent in depicting the hippie movement in a positive light, which in essence means lots of preaching, lots of happy-clappy nonsense and plenty of amateur theatre. BILLY JACK is in reality a didactic film that aims to educate its audience rather than entertain, which is a shame, as all of the subtext stuff is rather dull. Remove all of the 'messages' and you'd have an hour-long film.Still, the thriller aspects are well-handled even if they're overshadowed by the rest of the film, and it's fun to see a hero using martial arts before Bruce Lee hit the scene in ENTER THE DRAGON. There are the standard elements of many a '70s thriller, including rape scenes, humiliation, ass-kicking, car chases and a siege that doesn't disappointment. Laughlin is excellent in the titular role and his supporting cast, especially the Native Americans, are very good too, but it's just hard to get worked up about a film so intent on spreading the message that it loses focus of what it's all about.

As great as the first Billy Jack movie, Born Losers, was, this movie is the antithesis. Here's why:Script not co-written by Elizabeth James, who actually wrote most of Born Losers.Elizabeth James not the female lead, and instead we get why nepotism is bad, Laughlin's wife as the lead.Billy Jack vs everyone in the whole town as a stereotyped bigot, rather than vs a motorcycle gang terrorizing the townspeople who were not Billy Jack haters.Billy Jack spends too much time contemplating philosophy and rubbing his forehead rather than busting ass like he did in the first one.Lame ending vs a great ending. Damn Billy Jack shoulda got away to the hills after laying waste to the bigots (but no cop killings).As I said, he killed a cop who was doing his job. And Laughlin managed to kill a great character after such a great debut.

I was a high school sophomore when this movie came out. It was one of the iconic movies of the period, but I managed to miss it until 2013 when I caught it on cable TV. All I knew about its content was what I learned from the Paul Simon SNL parody "Billy Paul" which ran a few years after the film's release. I had the impression that it was a sort of violent revenge film along the lines of "Death Wish."Instead, it's a 2-hour reminder of how truly awful the hippie era was, full of pretension, naiveté, new-ageism, and horrid folk songs that make you want to pull a Belushi with the guitar player. The plot itself takes about 60 minutes to unravel; the rest is filler, featuring "music" or improvised comedy by the 60s troupe "The Committee" (including Howard Hesseman under a stage name). The clichés flow freely, and the characters are all cardboard cutouts, but at least things are livened up by a few good fight scenes featuring the "pacifist" Billy Jack. It's the kind of movie you'd expect when a husband/wife team writes a script, then give themselves the starring roles and the director's chair. With any luck, this film will cure any nostalgia you may still have for the late 60s/early 70s.