Billy Jack: Movies

We just watched three movies from one director and star, someone I am sure most of you haven’t heard of or if you did hear of him you aren’t sure why. His name is Tom Laughlin, better known as Billy Jack (his character in the movies) There are four total movies, and we have one left to go but I was moved by the three that we have watched. The first movie of the four was in 1967 and then the others subsequently followed with about four years between them. Each movie has built upon one another and follows the same cast throughout. The basics of the movies are that Billy Jack is half American Navajo, a former Green Beret that fought in the Vietnam War and a martial art expert who is defending a school that outsiders view as “hippie” and counterculture in nature. The school is one where all creed, color, religion, and race can gather together and teach themselves. It was based off the Prescott College model. There is a wide array of Native American context in all the movies. If I had to venture I would say this was one of the largest groups of Native Americans assembled to be in a movie of its time. 

            Each of the movies depicts Billy Jack as he is learning to deal with the world as it is at the time. He defends women who are raped, he defends Native Americans who are being harassed and tortured, and he defends the students at the Freedom School so that they may continue their education much to the dismay of the townspeople. Each film deals with issues that were present at the time of their making. The first film is dealing with the counterculture motorcycle gang who rapes and tortures the young women of the town. Billy Jack takes it upon himself to rid the town of bad seeds. At this time in history there was a major news story about the Hells Angels raping two teenage girls in California. This movie plays on the viewer’s fears that motorcycle gangs are all bad and they are out to destroy the way of life that people were so accustomed to. Billy takes matters into his own hands when the law enforcement doesn’t respond. There is a major movement of anti-establishment that runs throughout all the movies. Billy Jack has to step up and be the law because they (law enforcement) are so corrupt. For his troubles he is shot in the back by a policeman as the movie ends. 

            As the second movie begins, we see that Billy Jack made it through the shooting and is recovered. Some of the students from the Freedom School come into town to get ice cream and they are denied because some of them are Native American. Billy Jack intervenes and beats up the ice cream shop manager. There is the mayor’s son who is orchestrating the entire fiasco, who later Billy Jack ends up killing after he rapes the leader of the school and murders a Native American student. Billy Jack then has a stand off with the police and finally surrenders on the condition that the school gets a grant from the government and that it is allowed to keep running as it was. The ending of the film was dramatic as we see Billy Jack in the back of the police car; the students and the local tribe raise their hands in solidarity as he passes by. 

            We come to the third film, which is the longest, and it is all about the trial of Billy Jack and what that comes to mean for him, the school, and the townspeople.  He is sentenced to four years in jail and as he is serving the students at the school is busy rebuilding what they lost in the school. As the film opens on the beautiful Arizona desert we see statics from the shootings that took place as campuses throughout the early 70’s.  We see the students (who were inspired by Nader’s Raiders) building their own newspaper, radio, and television stations, which were to investigate what was really happening in Washington and in the very town next to them. Their tactics worked because we see politicians getting angry at what they students were reporting on. We see Billy Jack being released from prison and reconnecting with his spiritual side with the help of the elders in the Native American tribe where the new school is stationed. We watch as he goes on these spiritual retreats in the desert and find him discovering a new way to live his life. 

            Here is where I want to really delve into what we watched. There was a lot of discussion about the dark side of man. In fact it reminded me Carl Jung and his thoughts on the shadow side of us. It was interesting to see that the Native Americans have a similar philosophy about the dark side of our souls. Jung doesn’t really correlate the soul in his version of this context but the Native Americans say the soul is what is most important. As we are viewing this film I am amazed at how much of it would apply today. I pray that as a society we are never in the place that we were back in the 1960’s and 70’s where the National Guard is called to “handle” students as they peacefully demonstrate. Now I wasn’t old enough to experience any of that first hand and we know that hindsight is always 20/20 and that there are two sides to every story plus the truth but seeing how this was portrayed made me cringe that our government would stoop so low. I look at our government today and I wonder the same thing. The pettiness has to end somewhere and it shouldn’t take a lone man with some karate skills to end it. 

            As the movie progresses we see the students television station get firebombed, the Native Americans get harassed and their land taken from them in a real estate scam, and the national guard called in to subdue the situations. I am in awe of just how the Native Americans are treated and how they are abused and discarded as if they didn’t’ matter. I understand that the Native Americans have always been treated badly but seeing it so realistically portrayed really made me stop and think. I appreciate the film addressing the concerns that the Native Americans had and I am sure still have to this day. He really gave a voice to the Native Americans, and I wish more people would understand the plight that they have had to endure from the beginning of the invasion into their country. 

            These movies are based in facts as to what was going on in the world at that time. During the trail sequence Billy Jack discusses the My Lai Massacre and really hammers home the monstrosity that it was. There is a flashback scene where he is telling what happened and it shows the massacre of women and children. These movies are not for the faint of heart, but they are so culturally relevant. If it were up to me, I would make these movies especially the third movie mandatory viewing. There is a lot of discussion about the world as it was, but it also fits into the world we are experiencing at this moment. There are moments of grandeur where you root for the under dog, but you can see the other side just as clear. Instances/things really do repeat themselves, history is very cyclical and we are now seeing it come around again. As the Byrds said: “Times They Are A-Changin.” But they are all to well staying the same.