Just saw Billy Jack

Street Samurai1978

Street Samurai1978

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Mar 25, 2012
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694
Just saw the movie Billy Jack for the first time. Not bad choreography, even though a blind man could have seen the guy doing the fighting was Asian. I guess a lot of what the movie was trying to get across was lost on me, as I wasnt even an itch in my daddy's shorts when it came out. Was wondering what people who were around at the time thought about it.
 
I haven't seen that movie in a long, long time.
The good thing is that now 'One Tin Soldier' is stuck in my head for the next 3 days.
 
Only thing I remember was that it was a big disappontment.

As post above, the song was the only good part.
 
When watching Billy Jack one must keep in mind it predates Enter the Dragon.

Now certainly it wasn't the first time people saw a movie with people doing (or more correctly attempting) martial arts in it. As far back as 1945 Cagney was doing Judo (he was actually a legitimate shodan aka black belt grade) in Blood on the Sun. Sean Connery and all the Bond copies were doing their best to pantomime martial arts at a believable level. Sinatra and some others also tried to pull out some moves in 60s movies like The Manchurian Candidate.

There were even some legitimate moments like Bruce Lee with his couple of minutes of screen time in Marlowe (1969). But for the most part Billy Jack broke new ground because the main character was a martial artist and rather than trying to teach Tom Laughlin to do some David Carradine quality moves helped by camera effects they brought in a legit martial artist (Bong Soo Han) to double for Laughlin and show some genuine martial arts.

This is something the Kung Fu series (1972) did to some degree but really should have done more, problem was Carradine was so tall all of the asian martial artists had a difficult time standing in for him in a way that wasn't painfully obvious.

But as this movie came out even a year before that it kind of blew everyone away. Of course it was a product of it's time so it was saddled down by themes of racism, hippie philosophies and every white person (including Cher) trying to pretend to be Indian or part Indian because that was what you did back then just as every one of their children would later try their hardest to look and act like a black person despite the fact that they look like a Norwegian albino.

At any rate in 1973 everyone would see Bruce Lee and that was pretty much the end of caring about films like Billy Jack except for as a notable footnote. Following Enter the Dragon and Lee's death his earlier Hong Kong films would later be repackaged and introduced to the US and the Bruce Lee fan craze never really truly ended.

Like all martial arts junkies I actually have the boxed set, terrible as the sequels actually are. I think I actually prefer Born Losers to Billy Jack even though there really isn't any martial arts in it. Basic 60s biker film with a couple cute chicks.
 
Most of this movie was filmed around my home town Prescott Arizona in 1969 and 70. I was 17 when it came out in 1971. I was on Forest Service trail crew watching when they drove the Corvette into Lynx Lake. I knew quite a few of the extras
When it came out the Viet Nam War was going on and Americas social consciousness was waking up. I think it was the first movie I watched that involved martial arts. At the time I was not impressed by the major themes of the movie but was attracted to the couner culture elements.
A few months after this movie came out I took off on a hitch-hiking expedition through 45 states most of Canada ending in Alaska.
It was that year I "found myself" as they used to say. It was that summer I decided to move to Alaska and become an artist. I could never have dreamed that I would one day have 8 children and 16 grandchildren.
 
SteyrAUG said:
When watching Billy Jack one must keep in mind it predates Enter the Dragon.

Now certainly it wasn't the first time people saw a movie with people doing (or more correctly attempting) martial arts in it. As far back as 1945 Cagney was doing Judo (he was actually a legitimate shodan aka black belt grade) in Blood on the Sun. Sean Connery and all the Bond copies were doing their best to pantomime martial arts at a believable level. Sinatra and some others also tried to pull out some moves in 60s movies like The Manchurian Candidate.

There were even some legitimate moments like Bruce Lee with his couple of minutes of screen time in Marlowe (1969). But for the most part Billy Jack broke new ground because the main character was a martial artist and rather than trying to teach Tom Laughlin to do some David Carradine quality moves helped by camera effects they brought in a legit martial artist (Bong Soo Han) to double for Laughlin and show some genuine martial arts.

This is something the Kung Fu series (1972) did to some degree but really should have done more, problem was Carradine was so tall all of the asian martial artists had a difficult time standing in for him in a way that wasn't painfully obvious.

But as this movie came out even a year before that it kind of blew everyone away. Of course it was a product of it's time so it was saddled down by themes of racism, hippie philosophies and every white person (including Cher) trying to pretend to be Indian or part Indian because that was what you did back then just as every one of their children would later try their hardest to look and act like a black person despite the fact that they look like a Norwegian albino.

At any rate in 1973 everyone would see Bruce Lee and that was pretty much the end of caring about films like Billy Jack except for as a notable footnote. Following Enter the Dragon and Lee's death his earlier Hong Kong films would later be repackaged and introduced to the US and the Bruce Lee fan craze never really truly ended.

Like all martial arts junkies I actually have the boxed set, terrible as the sequels actually are. I think I actually prefer Born Losers to Billy Jack even though there really isn't any martial arts in it. Basic 60s biker film with a couple cute chicks.
Click to expand...

If you go to a Pow Wow in CA, you have idiot white people in moccassins and fringed suede outfits proclaiming 1/32 Cherokee. :(:rolleyes: They would make arrowheads out of broken toilet basin pieces and vow for your attention to listen to these lost souls. It is as pathetic as it gets. If you actually do find an actual Pow Wow with authentic red skin native indigenous peoples, they make fun of the white man. I have went once to both places, and don't find it amusing at all either way. I watched Billy Jack as a kid, and thought he was cool. I watched it again a decade later and thought it was a joke. Hippies also are not amusing to me.
 
akivory said:
Most of this movie was filmed around my home town Prescott Arizona in 1969 and 70. I was 17 when it came out in 1971. I was on Forest Service trail crew watching when they drove the Corvette into Lynx Lake. I knew quite a few of the extras
When it came out the Viet Nam War was going on and Americas social consciousness was waking up. I think it was the first movie I watched that involved martial arts. At the time I was not impressed by the major themes of the movie but was attracted to the couner culture elements.
A few months after this movie came out I took off on a hitch-hiking expedition through 45 states most of Canada ending in Alaska.
It was that year I "found myself" as they used to say. It was that summer I decided to move to Alaska and become an artist. I could never have dreamed that I would one day have 8 children and 16 grandchildren.
Click to expand...

8 children? Helluva way to keep warm up there!
 
Billy Jack was a great movie.
Heck, it had or still has a cult following. I even had a Billy Jack hat for a time.
Rolf
 
My wife and I saw it when it came out. It was, of course, not a "martial arts" movie. Rather it was a "peace, love, and understanding" movie.
This was at the height of the hippies and the counterculture and all that. The dichotomy between the progressive school and the redneck townfolks... And of course the situation with "Billy", being a genuine badass and all, trying desperately to be all peaceful and understanding but having to resort to violence in the end.
It was supposed to be very "heavy".... Big social message.

The sequel featured Mr. Jack's Hapkido guru, who's name I cannot recall at the moment and I'm too lazy to punch the IMDB button.
 
It was about a strong silent type protecting gentle, unorthodox people against the corrupt conformist establishment. At least that's what I remember. Kinda hazy days :)
 
I was a kid when it came out, and I loved it. I watched it many times after that, and still liked it a lot, though I haven't seen it in at least 20 years.

I'll never forget the "I'm going to take my right foot" scene.
 
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As Werner says, it wasn't a martial arts movie, that was just a side aspect to help move the main premises along.
Billy Jack was about the times, not the moves. :)
Denis
 
cj65 said:
If you go to a Pow Wow in CA, you have idiot white people in moccassins and fringed suede outfits proclaiming 1/32 Cherokee. :(:rolleyes: They would make arrowheads out of broken toilet basin pieces and vow for your attention to listen to these lost souls. It is as pathetic as it gets. If you actually do find an actual Pow Wow with authentic red skin native indigenous peoples, they make fun of the white man. I have went once to both places, and don't find it amusing at all either way. I watched Billy Jack as a kid, and thought he was cool. I watched it again a decade later and thought it was a joke. Hippies also are not amusing to me.
Click to expand...

As they should.

I'm deeply immersed into Asian cultural considerations but I would never make outlandish claims like being part Asian (even though it is possibly in my genetic makeup someplace). And while I can sometimes be found wearing an Autumn jacket with traditional frog buttons I have no desire to mock their culture by pretending to be Asian.

It is enough that I understand their culture to a certain degree and respect it. If those whites would simply do the same, they'd probably not be ridiculed. I have to imagine real American Indians were sickened by Cher back in her "Half Breed" days where she not only strongly suggested she was part native American but understood and represented their issues. How she didn't understand that she was just a 1970s version of Al Jolson in black face is beyond me.
 
mwerner said:
My wife and I saw it when it came out. It was, of course, not a "martial arts" movie. Rather it was a "peace, love, and understanding" movie.
This was at the height of the hippies and the counterculture and all that. The dichotomy between the progressive school and the redneck townfolks... And of course the situation with "Billy", being a genuine badass and all, trying desperately to be all peaceful and understanding but having to resort to violence in the end.
It was supposed to be very "heavy".... Big social message.

The sequel featured Mr. Jack's Hapkido guru, who's name I cannot recall at the moment and I'm too lazy to punch the IMDB button.
Click to expand...

Bong Soo Han.
 
SteyrAUG said:
When watching Billy Jack one must keep in mind it predates Enter the Dragon.

Now certainly it wasn't the first time people saw a movie with people doing (or more correctly attempting) martial arts in it. As far back as 1945 Cagney was doing Judo (he was actually a legitimate shodan aka black belt grade) in Blood on the Sun. Sean Connery and all the Bond copies were doing their best to pantomime martial arts at a believable level. Sinatra and some others also tried to pull out some moves in 60s movies like The Manchurian Candidate.

There were even some legitimate moments like Bruce Lee with his couple of minutes of screen time in Marlowe (1969). But for the most part Billy Jack broke new ground because the main character was a martial artist and rather than trying to teach Tom Laughlin to do some David Carradine quality moves helped by camera effects they brought in a legit martial artist (Bong Soo Han) to double for Laughlin and show some genuine martial arts.

This is something the Kung Fu series (1972) did to some degree but really should have done more, problem was Carradine was so tall all of the asian martial artists had a difficult time standing in for him in a way that wasn't painfully obvious.

But as this movie came out even a year before that it kind of blew everyone away. Of course it was a product of it's time so it was saddled down by themes of racism, hippie philosophies and every white person (including Cher) trying to pretend to be Indian or part Indian because that was what you did back then just as every one of their children would later try their hardest to look and act like a black person despite the fact that they look like a Norwegian albino.

At any rate in 1973 everyone would see Bruce Lee and that was pretty much the end of caring about films like Billy Jack except for as a notable footnote. Following Enter the Dragon and Lee's death his earlier Hong Kong films would later be repackaged and introduced to the US and the Bruce Lee fan craze never really truly ended.

Like all martial arts junkies I actually have the boxed set, terrible as the sequels actually are. I think I actually prefer Born Losers to Billy Jack even though there really isn't any martial arts in it. Basic 60s biker film with a couple cute chicks.
Click to expand...

I only got to watch in back in the mid-90's and rather than adding my own thoughts, I think Styer's post is spot on.

The movie did break ground, and while the central themes it did project were directly were not specific to MA but on the restlessness of the times, it did help for the West to catch a better glimpse of Asian MA.

Bong Soo Han's art was Hapkido, a Korean art which is widely considered well-rounded combining the signature kicking arts which are Korean staples with the influence of Japanese throwing/joint-locking/breaking aspects of aikijitsu.

BTW, I understand Tom Laughlin was/is an interesting character in real life.
 
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Interesting? Back in the seventies, he said the youth of the day had two heroes, Ralph Nader and Billy Jack (Laughlin himself). Apparently Laughlin got real full if himself and it showed in the sequels. His comment also shows how far back Nader's political career(LOL) goes.
 
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