The Best Horrible Movie Ever Made!
Of course I'm talking about Billy Jack. I have to first say that I don't mean it's "so bad it's good" like Plan 9 From Outer Space or any other MST3K candidate. What I mean is that Tom Laughlin had a vision, tried to make an interesting and admirable movie, failed miserably, but still created something that resonated with a large audience.
When I was a kid, Dad used to throw us all in the station wagon and take us to the drive-in every weekend during the summer. Jim and Mom would usually fall asleep halfway through the second movie, but the old man and I had an insane love for movies and would gut it out until the third feature ended (usually about two or three in the morning). The Ranch Drive-In in Ames had an eclectic program. One week there might be a James Bond triple feature, the next week John Wayne would headline with a couple of Japanese monster movies pulling down the second two slots. Roger Corman horror movies with Vincent Price, Hollywood blockbusters putting in one more theatrical showing before they wound up on the NBC movie of the week - - - there was no telling what might show up at the Ranch. One week Born Losers was one of the features. It was a typical biker exploitation movie with lots of bloody violence, teenage girls in bikinis, and a half Indian Vietnam veteran protagonist who remained calm regardless of the odds he might face. It was the first appearance of Billy Jack - equal parts John Wayne and Steve McQueen. I found out years later that Tom Laughlin had already written the script for Billy Jack but couldn't get any studio to make it. He worked out some kind of deal with Samuel Arkoff where he would make a motorcycle gang movie, and if it was successful, Arkoff would fund Billy Jack. Born Losers made a ton of money for American International Pictures so work was started on Billy Jack. Arkoff and Laughlin had some sort of falling out, Laughlin got back the rights to his script, financed and completed the movie himself, struggled to get it released, and then found himself with one of the most financially successful movies of the year.
But I've gone way off topic. When Billy Jack played at the Camelot Theater in Nevada, Iowa I probably saw it three times. When it showed up in the inevitable double feature withBorn Losers at the drive-in, I saw it again. My cousin Tony, brother Jim, and I saw it in Greenville, Kentucky when we visited our grandparents in the summer. Before the release of The Trial of Billy Jack, there was a reissue of Billy Jack, so I got to see the movie again. I bought the paperback screenplay featuring photos from the movie. In those days before cable tv or videos, I never knew when I'd be seeing a movie for the last time. As it turns out, I didn't see Billy Jack again for about twenty years, and when I finally had the opportunity to rent the video cassette (remember those?) I couldn't believe that such a terrible excuse for a film had been one of my all time favorites. The storyline is sloppy and filled with stereotyped characters. There are plot holes that you could drive Bernard's Corvette through (true Billy Jack fans will understand that reference). The soundtrack features folk songs that are unintentionally hilarious. The acting is inept, but it's hard to blame the performers when the dialogue is the sort of stuff that the phrase "cringe worthy" was invented for. Still there was something about it - - - nostalgia, maybe?
When I saw a boxed set a few years ago featuring Born Losers, Billy Jack, The Trial of Billy Jack, and Billy Jack Goes to Washington (Yes. That's a real movie.) I had to own it. I watched Born Losers, which was much as I remembered, a competent, low-budget exploitation film. Then I settled in for Billy Jack. The movie begins with a voice over that gives a minimal back story. We are then introduced to the town sheriff, a man of integrity, and his deputy, who is more interested in scoring points with a small-time power broker than in picking up his runaway daughter at the bus station. Next we cut to a helicopter shot, which must have used half the film's budget. It is a stunning tracking shot of horses running through a beautiful Arizona landscape while the credits roll. Cowboys pursue them in a round up as the theme song "One Tin Soldier" plays. The song works well in this context. At the end of the credits, the horses are penned up, and Posner, the town heavy, the deputy and their men prepare to shoot the horses and sell them to a dog food company. Posner is disgusted with his son Bernard who can't bring himself to shoot a horse. Before any shots can be fired, Billy Jack mysteriously appears. Though he is outnumbered he faces down the gang with cool confidence. He frees the horses, and the men ride away. It is a great opening. No, it is a fantastic opening. In just a few minutes we have met the villains and seen that the hero is someone who will not be messed with. The movie's major theme of conflict between generations (particularly single fathers and their children) has been introduced. Visually it has been great. Unfortunately, it's all downhill after that.
Sure, there are a few bright spots in the rest of the movie. Billy Jack's fight with the townies in the main square is terrific as are the mystical snake ceremony and the shootout at the end, and the improvisational comedy scenes featuring Howard Hesseman (later ofWKRP in Cincinnati) are very good. But overall this is just a bad movie. Yet somehow, I still like it. I'm sure that part of the appeal is that Tom Laughlin did what other independent filmmakers like John Cassavetes and John Sayles have done, make movies they don't particularly want to make, so that they can make the movies they have a passion for. In Laughlin's case, he wanted to make a movie for the counter culture, and he wasn't coming at it from the perspective of some Hollywood executive who wanted to appeal to "those wacky kids." He and his wife Dolores Taylor were true believers. They actually ran a Montessori School, and they worked with underprivileged youth. They truly wanted to make a difference. With Billy Jack, flawed as it was, Laughlin and Taylor tried to make a sincere movie with a positive statement. They may have failed to make a good movie, but they certainly communicated their message to a lot of young people. I doubt if anybody much younger (or older) than me would get this, but if you were in junior high or high school when Billy Jack came out, you probably saw and enjoyed it. Despite the movie's magnitude of faults, I still prefer it to much of the jaded, cynical entertainment marketed to today's youth.
However, I still can't bring myself to watch The Trial of Billy Jack or Billy Jack Goes to Washington.
