Excellent, a Must See

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

In today's age of movies, we have lots of action, occasionally great CGI, special effects, and sometimes highly competent acting. What we rarely have is good storytelling, and more often than not is a good story to tell to begin with! This is a good story told in a great way. The scenery and filming is incredible. I loved every bit of it. Some of the acting may not be up to today's standards, but Tom Laughlin and the Sheriff were both excellent and very relate-able. There's action here too, but it is balanced nicely. At the end of the day, there are a lot of unknown kid actors in this movie and if nothing else they are believable. I built a list here on IMDB of the top grossing movie and best picture Oscar from every year since I was born and this was the first, 1971. I had not seen nor heard of this movie, nor any of the actors. I was surprised this was the top grossing movie (some dispute on this according to my google search had Fiddler on the Roof but I am sticking with Billy Jack according to a couple of sources). According to IMDB, the movie's budget was $800,000 and gross revenue of $98 million. Can you imagine what an investment this was!?! Anyway, this was a great start to watching all of the movies on my list, if I had not already seen them. I look forward to seeing how things change over time.

I saw this as a college freshman. Given I was in a rebellious period and my number was up for the draft I reveled in its counter-culture world.The anti-war movement was in full swing and the hippie movement was still strong. The world was still a pretty macho place where women were exploited by greasy creeps and rescued by strong dark heroes. Parents were war-mongering reactionary throwbacks. Strong, independent women roles like that of Delores Taylor were unusual for its time. If you were a teenager or young adult it would definitely push the right buttons.It looks pretty silly today. It had an implausible, contrived plot with matching characters that I accepted without question at the time. The "peace through violence" figure of Billy Jack was fundamentally ridiculous but it was sure fun to watch his fighting moves which look far more realistic than later Bruce Lee fare.With Viet Nam long past and the hippies living in McMansions a younger generation would react with giggling snide contempt and they would be right to do so. I don't think I could watch this now without feeling some some serious embarrassment. I should have known better even then.

Okay, here we go. In this film Billy gets bitten by a rattlesnake a half dozen times and lives. He kicks the bad rich dude upside his head, makes the rich dude's kid drive a fancy Corvette into a lake, later killing him and two LEOs and goes to jail for it. He is driven off in a squad car with people standing along both sides of the road holding their arms up in the "power" salute while we hear the band "Coven" sing "One Tin Soldier," which is really catchy. We are still informed that Billy is an ex-Green Beret. I also liked this movie as Billy was a very charismatic character. However many things are left unexplained. Why is Billy now in Arizona, not California? Whatever happened to Vickie from "The Born Losers?" How does Billy figure out that Jean was raped by Benard? Why did Delores Taylor strip naked in the film? Was that really needed? Stay tuned, the best is yet to come. (Continued on "The Trial of Billy Jack.")

Shot in 1969 and released in 1971, "Billy Jack" was hugely popular with the counterculture at the time.Made independently by Tom Laughlin and his wife Delores, the story revolves around a New Mexican town and the "Freedom School" located on the nearby reservation, which is run by Jean Roberts (Delores). When the school provides sanctuary for an abused pregnant teen, her father -- a deputy of the town -- stirs-up hostilities. Jean responds with pacifism while her man, Billy Jack (Laughlin), fights fire with fire."Billy Jack" contains numerous worthy elements, but it's hampered by really lame skit performances at the Freedom School. Howard Hesseman ("Dr. Fever" from WKRP) takes the lead in most of these overlong and tiresome skits. One or two (at the most) would've been tolerable, but they overdo it. Yet "Billy Jack" delivers if you can look past this serious flaw.The title sequence is stirring with "One Tin Soldier", covered by Coven. Shortly later there's an excellent showdown sequence in the town where Billy Jack confronts the persecutors of the kids. Laughlin is an intriguing Rambo-like protagonist, a full dozen years before Rambo debuted in "First Blood". It's interesting that Billy Jack became so popular with the hippies since he's an ex-Green Beret, rejects the concept of total pacifism and has short hair! As it turned out, Laughlin was right to opt for the short haircut because it's a timeless look, whereas Hesseman looks horrible and seriously dated with his hippie mullet.There are some quality action scenes with Laughlin showing off his martial arts skills, but this is mostly a drama. As such, people viewing "Billy Jack" purely for the action will be sorely disappointed.Thankfully, much of the drama is good and even insightful. Billy's relationship with Jean (Delores) is refreshing in that Billy doesn't opt for the clichéd hot babe. Don't get me wrong, Delores has a nice body, but she's a far cry from Megan Fox. The question is raised at the beginning of the film as to whether they love each other and the ending effectively answers this. By the way, Tom and Delores have been married since 1954 and have 3 children -- I love it when couples stay together.An interesting topic is addressed: The pregnant girl, Barbara, comes off pretty obnoxious at first. She's disrespectful to her cop father and flaunts her dallyings with casual sex (no wonder he's ticked off, but this doesn't excuse his abuse). She starts to develop a relationship with a native student at the school, but she questions why he hasn't made sexual advances. He humbly informs her that sex isn't the reason he loves her. Somewhere along the line Barbara obviously confused sexual interest with love, but this guy demonstrates that sex is best as an offshoot of love & commitment.Then there's the fascinating debate between Billy and Jean as to which tactics are better: A peaceable attitude that only resorts to violence when necessary (i.e. limited pacifism) or absolute pacifism, which refuses to ever turn to violence in response to evil. Contrary to the complaints of the film's critics, this movie is not hypocritical in that "it preaches pacifism while occasionally showcasing violence." It's only Jean and, by extension her school, that supports total pacifism whereas Billy advocates limited pacifism, only resorting to violence when justified."Billy Jack" shows that total pacifism does not work. It supports the balanced position advocated by the New Testament. Some erroneously think that the New Testament supports the idea of absolute pacifism, but it doesn't. Jesus' ministry team had a treasury box with loads of money and some of his workers carried swords for protection from thieves and murderers. Not to mention that Jesus got a whip and chased all the greedy fools out of the temple -- throwing over tables, swinging the whip and yelling. This caused the legalistic religious leaders to fear him and plot murder (Mark 11:12-18). Harmless pacifists don't inspire fear and provoke murder plots. Also, Romans 13 clearly states the righteous laws of human governments are God-ordained for the purpose of punishing criminals, including the right to execute when appropriate. The majority of sane Christians realize this, but there are a few extremists who refuse to be balanced with the Scriptures on this matter and insist that conflict and especially armed conflict is never appropriate. "Billy Jack" shows that some people are so degenerate and evil that radical opposition and even execution are sometimes just reactions.The film also delivers in the area of women with the aforementioned Susan Foster standing out as the stunning Cindy. There's a great scene at the end with Cindy brandishing a rifle while wearing a jean jacket and purple hose and... it's just a great look, lol.The film also explores spiritual issues: The youth of America rejected the religious indoctrination of their culture because it largely devolved into sterile, powerless, em-bondaging legalism. Billy Jack turns to Native mysticism and draws parallels to biblical Christianity. I'm not saying I agree with every jot and tittle of his claims, but some of them are interesting and he makes some valid points.Another good point is the decision of the writers to not paint all the townspeople as ee-vil rednecks. The sheriff's a quality soul and many of the folks of the town respond positively to what the Freedom School is doing.Unfortunately, the ending feels padded with the overlong standoff, but the climax sort of makes up for it. In any event, "Billy Jack" is a worthwhile period piece if you can overlook the horrible skits at the Freedom School.The film runs 114 minutes and was shot in New Mexico, with some parts in Arizona and California.GRADE: B