Runtime:
113 minutes
Directed
by: Tom Laughlin
Starring:
Tom Loughlin, Elizabeth James, Jeremy Slate, William Wellman Jr.,
Jack Starrett
From:
AIP
Monday night I revisited Scream 4; I am still meh on that movie. I was also meh on this film, and I explain why below:
If a girl isn't scared by seeing bikers sporting swastikas, perhaps
they should be once they see a quote from HEINRICH HIMMLER on the wall
of their hangout.
Tonight, TCM is showing all four of the Billy Jack movies. As I have those films on disc-I bought the set a few years ago but as I am me, I hadn't watched them yet-I figured it'd be easier to get this one out of the way while I had the opportunity to. I'll say more about the late Tom Laughlin as I talk about the other films, but I know that those films were pretty popular in the day. I mean, when it was announced in late 2013 that he had passed away, my parents talked to each other about it-they both immediately remembered who he was even though he vanished from the spotlight back before I was even born in the early 80's.
The plot: this is a biker film, a genre that was for certain in vogue at the time. They are the heels of this picture... in fact, they do a lot to make them pretty despicable. Besides being what would be known now as the “Alt-Right”, they cause a lot of mayhem, including sexual harassment and then harassing the victims & their families so they won't testify against the perps in trial. Standing against them is Billy Jack, a half Native American who was a Green Beret and is a loner who loves nature, knows Hapkido and has been involved with the rodeo before. No surprise that a character who did not trust banks would be liked by “the youth” and the counter-culture types. Anyhow, he protects one of the girls who was assaulted.
You'd suspect that Billy Jack would kick a lot of ass and whip all those Nazi bastards. Not exactly... Jack only uses his martial arts briefly and it's more about him getting his ass kicked. For all the buildup and all the atrocious things the bikers did, their comeuppance did feel like a letdown of sorts. Plus, this movie has some moments that I'll charitably call “questionable” and they were gross and I did not get much enjoyment out of their turns.
Now, the bikers were so over the top evil that I occasionally laughed at them and Billy Jack still had his badass moments so I can say that this was OK. But I am sure that an unfiltered Billy Jack with all of his idiosyncrasies (which is what made the character a hit in the 70's) will be on display in the other films and that will be more of a good time for me than this silly exploitation fare... where the Billy Jack character was literally dropped in so Laughlin could try and get his foot in the door and make the films he wanted to with that heroic persona.
Tonight, TCM is showing all four of the Billy Jack movies. As I have those films on disc-I bought the set a few years ago but as I am me, I hadn't watched them yet-I figured it'd be easier to get this one out of the way while I had the opportunity to. I'll say more about the late Tom Laughlin as I talk about the other films, but I know that those films were pretty popular in the day. I mean, when it was announced in late 2013 that he had passed away, my parents talked to each other about it-they both immediately remembered who he was even though he vanished from the spotlight back before I was even born in the early 80's.
The plot: this is a biker film, a genre that was for certain in vogue at the time. They are the heels of this picture... in fact, they do a lot to make them pretty despicable. Besides being what would be known now as the “Alt-Right”, they cause a lot of mayhem, including sexual harassment and then harassing the victims & their families so they won't testify against the perps in trial. Standing against them is Billy Jack, a half Native American who was a Green Beret and is a loner who loves nature, knows Hapkido and has been involved with the rodeo before. No surprise that a character who did not trust banks would be liked by “the youth” and the counter-culture types. Anyhow, he protects one of the girls who was assaulted.
You'd suspect that Billy Jack would kick a lot of ass and whip all those Nazi bastards. Not exactly... Jack only uses his martial arts briefly and it's more about him getting his ass kicked. For all the buildup and all the atrocious things the bikers did, their comeuppance did feel like a letdown of sorts. Plus, this movie has some moments that I'll charitably call “questionable” and they were gross and I did not get much enjoyment out of their turns.
Now, the bikers were so over the top evil that I occasionally laughed at them and Billy Jack still had his badass moments so I can say that this was OK. But I am sure that an unfiltered Billy Jack with all of his idiosyncrasies (which is what made the character a hit in the 70's) will be on display in the other films and that will be more of a good time for me than this silly exploitation fare... where the Billy Jack character was literally dropped in so Laughlin could try and get his foot in the door and make the films he wanted to with that heroic persona.
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