The Trial of Billy Jack
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Movie Reviews of The Trial of Billy Jack
Movie Review: Billy Jack Protects Young Hippies
Summary: 4 Stars
I will give a more positive review than others have. "The Trial of Billy Jack" is the first Billy Jack movie I saw and it made me a fan. It tapped into many things which were important to me such as the Viet Nam war and a massacre similar to Mi Lai, the plight of the Native Americans and other forms of racism, martial arts, romance, etc. As Tom Laughlin freely admits now, they very much overdid it and threw in everything but the kitchen think. They felt that this would likely be the last Billy Jack movie and wanted to say everything they could think of. So, it is rather muddled. However, it has great cinematography by Jack Marta of Monument Valley, a wonderful score by the late, great Elmer Bernstein, an epic martial arts fight including the great Bong Soo Han as Billy Jack's ally, and very contemporary political issues. The reviewer above accurately points out that it was unfair to Kit Carson and his proposal about what should have been said was good. It was overly ambitious and much too long but, in my mind, still a very nice film.Movie Review: trail of billy jack
Summary: 4 Stars
this is a really good movie. if you seen born losers or billy jack, then this is a must see. Tom Laughlin is great. this truly a great american classic. and my family really enjoyed this one to. now if you haven't seen billy jack yet then i suggest you wait and see it first.I love all the billy jack movies . and i think this is a great transfer of the film. its a mst have in my movie collection and i hope you enjoy it too as much as i have.Movie Review: trail of billy jack
Summary: 4 Stars
this is a really good movie. if you seen born losers or billy jack, then this is a must see. Tom Laughlin is great. this truly a great american classic. and my family really enjoyed this one to. now if you haven't seen billy jack yet then i suggest you wait and see it first.I love all the billy jack movies . and i think this is a great transfer of the film. its a mst have in my movie collection and i hope you enjoy it too as much as i have.Movie Review: Nice Message - Poor Storytelling and Stereotypes
Summary: 3 Stars
You of course have to watch the first Billy Jack movie to really understand this one. In the first movie, Billy Jack stands up for the downtrodden free-spirited kids in a quiet western town - and gets into a fight that results in a few deaths. He wants to just make a stand and die, but Miss Jean Roberts, his girlfriend convinces him to turn himself in. That's where the story ends.
These movies were made during the times of rioting and political unrest, and it's important to keep that context in mind. Kent State is explicitly mentioned several times in the opening scenes, with Jean lamenting, "students are slaughtered by trigger-happy police types and nothing is ever done about it."
The movie is in essence a long flashback sequence. It starts where movie #1 ended, with Billy Jack being tried. Roberts is accused of lying about her rape. Billy explains how the US government killed innocent women and children in Vietnam - soldiers were told to "waste them". Billy refused to participate in that dastardly killing. My Lai is of course brought up here. At the end of the trial, Billy was tossed into jail, while the students work on growing the school.
We head into the school's world of biofeedback, meditation, yoga football, belly dancing and singing. The self-governing students work on child abuse and orphanages, and move on to exposing government corruption and consumer issues. They laugh about how corrupted Nixon was. Soon they have a TV station and broadcast news about abuses in the area. In retaliation, the students' phones are bugged and the FBI begins investigating the school.
Jean talks about loving child abusers instead of punishing them - that if child abuse organizations "love" bad parents, they will all start being nice to their kids.
Skip to scenes of blatant police brutality and also police feeling up women during searches. Typical quote - "Police - they're so damned corrupt." Oddly, for a movie which claims to champion the rights of women, there is a *lot* of gratuitous breast jiggling shots in this film.
I won't give away the ending, but I think you see the pattern here. This movie is *very* black and white. The kids are always good, noble, kind, and super-wise, super-intelligent (and sexy). The police, government and businessmen are always evil, corrupted and power-hungry (and ugly). Many of the statistics they quote to back their statements up are completely wrong. It's one thing to make a point, but it's quite another to lie in order to make your points. My boyfriend and I laughed out loud several times because the movie tipped so heavily into its over-the-top dialogue.
That being said, I can certainly understand how parts of this movie might appeal to viewers who had never heard of some of these concepts before. It's like people watching the Matrix and being wowed at the philosophies explained there, because they'd never learned them in high school. The Trial of Billy Jack covers many important basic ideas. The idea that people of honor should stand up for what's right even if it's difficult. The idea that you should focus, every day, on what is really important - not on blown-up but fleeting emergencies. The idea that even if people are violent or angry with you, that you should have the self-possession and maturity to stay calm and peaceful yourself in response. The idea that you should seek to find balance in your life.
These are certainly all very important philosophies, but there are many other movies which make these points without having to resort to exaggeration, untruths and stereotypes. I really like the message - but I don't like being led by the nose with wild inaccuracies to try to drive the message home. In many ways it makes the message far less palatable. In one scene you watch an entire roomful of "regular people" stand around while they torture a fellow human being. This isn't storytelling ... it's preaching, and I would hope that most audiences were able to handle issues in a more mature, realistic manner.
Movie Review: For Billy Jack Fans-Not History Buffs
Summary: 3 Stars
I remember seeing this film eagerly after having seen the movie "Billy Jack" a year before....at that time I was thirteen and found the movie
entertaining at times, but disappointing, just too "heavy" on politics and paranoia. At that time, all I wanted was more action, more of "Billy", and the martial arts...If I didn't like the character, "Billy Jack" so much...I'd have probably not given the film much thought.
Over 30 years later I still like the character, and now have a more sentimental attachment to the films.
I don't think I ever considered the "historic accuracy"...I never took the movies as seriously as people seem to do today. To me, I was watching another Billy Jack movie. I liked the series of Billy Jack films in all their schlockiness and don't care much about "historic accuracy" or
over analyzing....There are just some films out there you can't take seriously, I know Tom Laughlin did then and does, but I don't care.
If you saw the films as a youth as I did, and liked them, this film is for you, otherwise leave it alone.