X
- 1971
- GP
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 54 m
- 1971
- GP
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 54 m
Summary Ex-Green Beret hapkido expert saves wild horses from being slaughtered for dog food and helps protect a desert "freedom school" for runaway.
Directed By: Tom Laughlin
Written By: Delores Taylor, Tom Laughlin
- 1971
- GP
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 54 m
- 1971
- GP
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 54 m
Billy Jack
50
6.8
Summary Ex-Green Beret hapkido expert saves wild horses from being slaughtered for dog food and helps protect a desert "freedom school" for runaway.
Directed By: Tom Laughlin
Written By: Delores Taylor, Tom Laughlin
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 7 Critic Reviews
50
29% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
57% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
14% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 7 Critic Reviews
50
29% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
57% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
14% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
There's a sweet, naive feeling to the movie even when it's violent and melodramatic and atrocious, and when it's good it's good in an unorthodox, improvisatory style.
There are a lot of things in Billy Jack that are seriously conceived and very well-handled. Some of the scenes at the school, for example, with real kids experimenting with psychodrama, are interesting. Some of the action scenes are first-rate. But the movie has as many causes in it as a year's run of the New Republic.
The whole picture nicely conveys a Southwestern atmosphere. But much too often, at the cost of plain credibility, it stacks its cards, characters and even credo like any rootin', tootin' Western.
Billy Jack is a film of violent contradictions. It is a fortysomething über-square’s tribute to the promise and potential of the hippies, as well as an intensely violent homage to non-violence.
Screenplay attempts to encompass too many story facets. Result is that the action frequently drags.
A down market youth pic with Laughlin as the half-breed Vietnam veteran who stands up for America's misunderstood youth and operates a sort of one-man Countryside Commission.
The material played upon all the best aspects of the socially conscious movements of the 1960s, and then perverted them by preaching that violence is indeed the solution to problems as long as it's for the right cause.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 6 User Ratings
6.8
67% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
33% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 6 User Ratings
6.8
67% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
33% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Production Company
Eaves Movie Ranch,
National Student Film Corporation,
Warner Bros.
Release Date May 1, 1971
Duration 1 h 54 m
Rating GP
Tagline Would Billy Jack be executed if it had happened in your town?
Website
http://www.billyjack.com/
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Nomination
Taormina International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Image Awards (NAACP)
• 1 Nomination
