The Trial of Billy Jack
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Movie Reviews of The Trial of Billy Jack
Movie Review: Don't fight with the police.
Summary: 2 Stars
Tom Laughlin returns as "Billy Jack" for the third time (Born Losers [1967], Billy Jack [1971]). Also returning is Laughlin's real-life wife, Delores Taylor as "Jean", Victor Izay as "Doc", Lynn Baker as "Lynn" and Susan Sosa as "Sunshine".
We are first reminded of the shooting at Kent State in 1970 and other school massacres. We then see Jean talking to reporters from the hospital bed. Billy Jack has been shot too. They don't know if he will make it. Jean proceeds to tell about the horrible massacre that occurred on the reservation.
On trial, Billy Jack could be arrested. He just wanted to protect the Indians and thus he filed charges against the officers. Jean's rape in 1971 is also discussed, but the lawyer does not believe she was actually raped.
I was really dissapointed in this third "Billy Jack" film. The second film, BILLY JACK (1971), actually made you feel sorry for the Indians. This third film is poorly-acted and over-acted. It tries to be over-emotional. It tries to stir up alot of issues. They start with making statements about child abuse and later instead of making you feel something for the Indians, they actually are the trouble-makers in this film. It is the Indians verses the police.
The only scenes I found of interest were the Indian ceremony scenes when Billy Jack was hallucinating and being visited by spirits.
John Navlin was the consultant for the filming of the Indian ceremonies.
Note: Sacheen Littlefeather plays an attorney. You may recall Miss Littlefeather on the 45th Academy Awards, March 27, 1973, when she walked onstage for Marlon Brando who just won the Best Actor Academy Award for The Godfather (1972). He was "refusing" the award. Littlefeather spoke on his behalf and said in part, "Marlon Brando very regretfully cannot accept this very generous Award".
DVD includes audio commentary with Tom Laughlin and Delores Taylor. Film Production Information and Billy Jack website.
Followed by Billy Jack Goes To Washington (1977).
Update: Tom Laughlin is in remission of cancer of the tongue. He currently is suffering from Coeliec disease, an auto-immune disease.
Movie Review: A 174 minute lecture....
Summary: 2 Stars
I was really intrigued by this film at first. I'm a sucker for a long running time (this is the uncut version, running 174 minutes), so I decided to check it out. It was actually one of the first films I ever rented from Netflix. Having seen the whole thing, I can safely say that I've seen it once, and once was enough. While there are some good scenes (some fight sequences are really good), the whole film is pedantic and preachy. The sequence where Billy Jack goes into the mountain, hallucinates and sees green men is unintentionally hilarious. The ending is also so ridiculously over melodramatic. Everyone gathers to sing "Give Peace a Chance", which is a great song. Unfortunately, here it ends up making you laugh more than anything else, which is a shame, as this scene comes right after a scene where national guardsmen shoot several students from Billy Jack's school. So, instead of feeling sympathy with Billy Jack, his students, and the faculty of the school, you end up laughing. That's not how you're supposed to feel. The Trial of Billy Jack is an extraordinarily preachy film, with political correctness coming out of every frame (before the words political correctness became famous). Even if you agree with some of the ideas (governments lie about war atrocities, the news media protects the government, etc., etc.), it hammers every point home so blatantly you end up just saying enough already. It makes one understand why the "silent majority" voted for Nixon in 1972. And with a megalong running time, the preachiness reaches epic proportions. If you have 3 hours to kill, and you want to see something mediocre, go for it. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and see anything else.Movie Review: A Hippie Diatribe with Indian Mysticism
Summary: 2 Stars
BILLY JACK closed with Billy being arrested for manslaughter. This film opens with an extremely long sequence featuring the director of the school Billy was protecting in the last installment, recounting a long list of grievances to a reporter. In this sequence, virtually every hippie stereotype and left wing cause is aired. Intermingled with this retrospective diatribe are flashbacks of Billy Jack's legal trial and prison sentence.
The "trial" referred to in the title does not seem to be the legal one mentioned above. After being released from prison, Billy undergoes a personal trial, replete with Indian mysticism. He is seeking to become a less violent person. This is the backdrop for the real point of the film.
All events lead up to staging a massacre at the school similar in nature to the historic one at Kent State University. The movie is virtually a tribute to those who lost their lives. Little else is accomplished in terms of story or drama.
The movie makes some valid and even good points about the politics of the day and indicts justs about everything associated with "The Establishment". It also back a few losing points of view. Whether these points of view are agreed with or not, however, the film could have been much stronger and made its point better.
This is a very long film. That made it proportionally more difficult to sit through. It is propaganda of its time. It has germs of truth within but those germs are lost with the sledgehammer method of delivering the message.
Movie Review: Perfect Fodder for MST3K
Summary: 2 Stars
I recently acquired this DVD and watched the film for the first time since its release in 1974. As I watched it, I couldn't help imagining what Tom Servo and Crow might have to say if "Mystery Science Theater 3000" skewered it. Obviously, the film has numerous flaws, not the least of which is its interminable length; cutting it down to two hours might not have made it a good movie, but it would have made it much easier to sit through. As the voice-over commentary by Tom Laughlin and Delores Taylor makes clear, they had a fixation with 1960s and 1970s campus riots, especially those resulting in student deaths, which fixation caused them to conclude, Oliver-Stonishly, that every single one of these incidents was a political-campaign ploy calculated to demonstrate law and order to the electorate. Needless to say, this perspective makes the film painfully didactic and even manipulative. Finally, The Trial of Billy Jack is much more implausible than the original Billy Jack movie, which creates major problems when it comes to the willing suspension of disbelief.I will say this, however--the film has some great aerial shots of Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly.
Movie Review: Worst of the series.
Summary: 2 Stars
They really took things too far in this movie. Laughlin and his wife seem like nice people, on the surface anyway, but, unfortunately, they have a really twisted view of the world. This movie criticized both Jesus Christ and Saint Augustine. That's scary. It mentioned "befriending" demons in the part where Billy Jack prepares to descend into the cave to seek the vision.
But the spiritual stuff (though it is false) is my favorite part of the movie. The worst part of the original film, to me, was all the obnoxious young people vocalizing their uninformed opinions. The Laughlin's daughter was not as obnoxious. But most of them made Billy Jack look like George Bush in comparison. And this type of stuff was most intense in this (very long) film.
And you know there is something wrong when the so-called "good" guys get killed, and you are glad. Personally, I couldn't side with either group in this film.
He should have stuck to Indians, spirituality, fighting, etc, and left the politics at home.