Director / star Tom Laughlin, who'd already debuted his title character in the film "The Born Losers", plays Billy Jack, a hapkido expert and war veteran. He supposedly does not care for violence, but finds it impossible to avoid in the white mans' world. A lawman on an Indian reservation, he makes it his mission to protect a local "progressive" school that harbors runaways of all ethnicities. The trouble in the story begins when the pregnant Barbara (Julie Webb), daughter of the nearby towns' deputy (the great Kenneth Tobey), runs away and finds a safe haven at the school.An enormous independent hit in its day, Laughlins' film would go on to spawn two more Billy Jack tales, "The Trial of Billy Jack" and "Billy Jack Goes to Washington". It will never be mistaken for high art, but it is entertaining in a visceral way, and obviously it was a real passion project for Laughlin and his wife / co-star Delores Taylor. It sheds a lot of light on the continued mistreatment of Indian people by the white establishment, and while it may seem ridiculous that a film that preaches pacifism contains so much violence, this viewer gathered this sort of thing happens because violence is the ONLY thing that some people understand. And while Billy Jack is shown to have a hot temper, much of this violence is instigated by the bigoted, reactionary townspeople. One key miscreant is Bernard Posner (David Roya), cowardly son of a local fat cat (Bert Freed); he is a racist piece of work."Billy Jack" certainly does go on for a quite a while, wasting a little too much time with performance pieces by the improvisational group The Committee. One may wish the filmmakers stayed more on point. But it begins on an impressive note, with opening credits displayed over a tableau of mild mustangs being hunted and slaughtered. The hit song "One Tin Soldier" that plays here is quite catchy.Overall, an interesting enough look at persecution, not just of indigenous peoples, but the whole hippie movement.Negligible acting by the leads is offset by a solid supporting cast. Excellent character actors like Freed and Tobey sure do have you hating their characters in short order. Clark Howat is superb as the much more understanding and easygoing sheriff, as is Victor Izay as a doctor. Howard Hesseman, a member of The Committee, has a small supporting role as a drama teacher.Some viewers may take issue with the films' politics, or the presentation of its message, but this viewer still found it compelling in its own unsubtle way.Seven out of 10.

I've given this a low rating for one good reason: I did what someone else suggested I do and that's not compare "Billy Jack" to films of today but compare it to the films of 1971. Gosh... lessee... OK, compare it to "Fiddler on the Roof," "A Clockwork Orange," "The French Connection," "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." Should I go on? Those of you who were 14-21 back in 1971 need to face a simple fact and that is "Billy Jack" was a low-budget "message" film that managed to resonate with your age group. My sons stumbled on me watching this today and one remarked "the acting and dialog are terrible." They are majoring in media in college and know the difference between good and bad film-making.I was 9 when "Billy Jack" came out and the whole hippie thing was already becoming nostalgia by the time I was old enough to have been a part. Consequently, the movie felt more like watching old clichés come to life than anything either nostalgic or inspiring.That said, the movie isn't really a train wreck. I thought it was worth watching to see the sketches done by Howard Hesseman (Johnny Fever from "WKRP") and his friends from the Committee. The hold-up scene felt like "who's on first?" collided with the Monty Python crew.

As a kid, I marveled at the martial arts on display in BILLY JACK- although, even back then, I realized that that wasn't Tom Laughlin doing the kicking up there on screen. What I marvel at these days is the fact that the late Tom Laughlin managed to get a "message movie" of this caliber up on The Big Screen at all; there weren't a lot of movies, even back then, that came close to reflecting the Harsh Reality of the times. What BILLY JACK did was rub our noses in our own hypocrisy. Laughlin made us take a nice, long (and uncomfortable) look at ourselves as we really are- to this day. (Unfortunately, the more things change, the more they stay the same...) I used to take great comfort in the fact that Tom Laughlin was still Out There, somewhere; it meant a lot to me personally; and, although he's gone, now, his movies remain and that's not a bad legacy at all.

Tom Laughlin returns as director and star of this second film appearance of Billy Jack, former Green Beret and Martial Arts Master who must combat bigotry and violence in his town. Dolores Taylor plays Jean, who runs the freedom school for orphaned or underprivileged children that is targeted by some residents, who mock and threaten them, causing Billy "to go berserk" defending them. Billy is also targeted because the bigots call him "half-breed Indian" and so on. When both Jean and the school are attacked by the worst of the lot, events threaten to spiral out of control... Rousing film with Billy being a modern day John Wayne(despite claims of political bias) Villains may be quite one-dimensional, but film has its heart in the right place, and its message really hits home, especially with the song "One Tin Soldier".