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| Genre: | Action |
| Year: | 1971 |
| Rating: | PG |
| Cast: | Tom Laughlin, Tom Laughlin, Delores Taylor, Clark Howat |
Actor/auteur Tom Laughlin created the character of Billy Jack in the otherwise undistinguished motorcycle flick Born Losers. One would have thought that this intriguing but thinnish character couldn't carry a picture by himself, but Laughlin persisted, and thus the 1971 cash cow Billy Jack was born. Wandering Christlike through the Southwest, Native American Vietnam veteran Billy Jack-soft-spoken, but well-versed in martial arts--champions the cause of a progressive school run by Delores Taylor (Laughlin's real-life wife). The bigoted white townsfolk don't cotton to Taylor's minority-group students, so they do everything they can to humiliate and physically abuse the kids. When one of her charges is cruelly coated with white flour, Billy Jack goes berserk. Thus begins an orgy of self-righteous violence, culminating with Our Hero being hunted down on a murder charge. Any film that takes a "support nonviolence or I'll kill you" stance is bound to spark controversy: while the critics hated Billy Jack, audiences ate it up like soy-covered popcorn. If these same viewers found Laughlin's subsequent The Trial of Billy Jack obnoxious and self-aggrandizing, they have only themselves to blame for encouraging a sequel. Hal Erickson
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