This review of Billy Jack was requested by Tim
Billy Jack (1971)
Director: Tom Laughlin
Writer: Tom Laughlin and Delores Taylor
Genre: Action/Drama
Story
Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin) is an Indian (sort of) who lives on the Indian reserve and protects a special school for kids to learn differently than the normal public schools allow. Most of the kids going to the school are Indians and are not welcome in the town. When the daughter of the sheriff runs away to the peace-loving free spirited hippie school in the desert, the town begins the search for the girl. The tensions between the two groups rise and Billy Jack is right there in the middle of it.
Everything Else
The directing and acting of Billy Jack by Tom Laughlin was quite entertaining. For those that do not care for the goodbad movie, don’t bother with this one. Laughlin not only lacks the ability to provide a decent acting job in the lead role here, but the directing of everything was quite bad. Slow motion, cheesy dialogue, terrible music, and an absolutely odd lack of decent action sequences (for an action movie) make Billy Jack one of the funniest movies I have seen in a while.
Of course Billy Jack was not meant to be a comedy, but that is why it is a goodbad movie. There are some lines in the film that were meant to be serious, but when they were delivered I immediately busted out in laughter. The acting was horrendous not only on the part of leads Laughlin and Taylor (who are also the makers), but the children that go to the school and the Sheriff’s son. The Sheriff (Clark Howat) did a decent job, but since no one else did the movie had no chance even if the story had been good.
There is one scene in particular that stands out as a great example of how bad the acting and directing were in this film. The Sheriff’s son drives a girl out onto the reservation (this is the first aspect that makes no sense; why would he go somewhere he was more likely to get caught) and asks her to cooperate in helping him find the girl who has run away. When she does not cooperate, he decides to try and rape her, but thankfully Billy Jack and Jean Roberts show up before he can hurt the girl. The odd part here is how serious the situation is and yet as soon as Billy Jack and Jean arrive they smile and laugh as though the situation is funny. I admit, it was quite funny when they started laughing (so embarrassing though).
The Real Deal
Billy Jack was the worst movie I had seen in a while; I absolutely loved it. I think I will have to rent the sequels some time, but I am worried that they will actually be a bit better since they had the opportunity to improve the quality after the first one. The real deal is that this movie was a lot of fun because it was so bad. I couldn’t stop laughing at it; truly not a good sign if you are the director of the film and intended for it to be a serious Action/Drama with a lot of your own propaganda you want to push on the American public. Maybe people thought it was good at the time though.
The Short Version
Raw Score: 361,837
Sharon Movie? No
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