The Trial of Billy Jack

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The Trial of Billy Jack
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTom Laughlin
Written byFrank Christina
Teresa Christina
(pen names for Tom Laughlin and Delores Taylor)
Produced byJoe Cramer
StarringDelores Taylor
Tom Laughlin
CinematographyJack A. Marta
Edited byMichael Economou
George Grenville
Michael Karr
Jules Nayfack
Tom Rolf
Music byElmer Bernstein
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Taylor-Laughlin
Release date
  • November 13, 1974 (1974-11-13)
[1]
Running time
173 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2.5 million[1]

The Trial of Billy Jack is a 1974 Western action film starring Delores Taylor and Tom Laughlin. It is the sequel to the 1971 film Billy Jack and the third film overall in the series.[2]

Directed by Laughlin, the film has a running time of nearly three hours. Although commercially successful, it was panned by critics. The film was included in the book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time.[3]

Plot

The entire story is told through flashbacks by teacher Jean Roberts from her hospital bed after a shooting has taken place.

Billy Jack goes to court facing an

involuntary manslaughter charge stemming from events in the earlier film. During Billy's trial, he mentions the 1968 My Lai massacre and recalls, in a flashback scene, witnessing a similar incident while serving in Vietnam. He is found guilty and sentenced to a prison term for a minimum of five years. Meanwhile, the kids at the Freedom School—an experimental school for runaways and troubled youth on a Native American reservation in Arizona—vow to rebuild the school. They raise funds and acquire a new building, eventually starting their own newspaper and television
station.

Inspired by

investigative reporting
, angering several politicians and townspeople in the process with their exposés.

The school's activities range from having their own

belly dancing
. The school hosts a large marching-band contest and arts festival, called "1984 Is Closer Than You Think," to raise money for the school.

Billy Jack is released from prison and, trying to reconnect with his spiritual beliefs, begins a series of lengthy

developers. When one of the tribal members is arrested for poaching
deer on what was formerly tribal land, the school comes to his defense.

The school begins to hold hearings on the rights of the native people and

FBI
begins visiting the school and taps their phones.

As tensions mount between the school and the people in the nearby town, a mysterious

National Guard, and a curfew is established in town. The students respond by holding a parade
in the town in violation of the curfew. On the way back to the school, their bus breaks down and local townspeople confront the students and threaten to set their bus on fire.

Billy Jack appears during the incident to protect the students and then comes to the attempted rescue of a tribal member who is being harassed and nearly beaten to death at a local dance in town. Billy Jack and Han, a fellow karate master take on the gang of people assaulting the man. When Posner threatens to arrest them for assault with a gun, he shoots Han in the chest. Billy managed to use his karate on Posner, who gets killed by the kick to the throat. Han is taken to the hospital. The sheriff tries to take in Billy Jack, but the students close in on the car and cause a riot that allows him to get away.

The National Guard is then stationed around the school (under orders by the Governor to stay there until Billy Jack is put under arrest). Billy Jack agrees to a surrender as long as the soldiers leave the school. Later that night, the State Police take him outside the car to "take a leak" while giving him a gun despite his handcuffs for the dark. Despite being shot in the back, Billy Jack escapes into the dark only to return for keys to get away. He attempts to recuperate with the natives and calls on them to help while writhing in pain.

Jean decides to intervene during a school meeting and tells the students about the love that should not be extinguished by meeting violence with violence. Danny, now with a hook on his missing hand, is assisted by Carol in delivering a brief song. Later on, the students see a supply shack and use torches on it for a bonfire. Jean tries to call the Governor to call back the militia (told to fire one warning shot and then one shot to kill if confronted), if she can pull the students back into the school.

Meanwhile, the Guard make a move when they think they see a sniper after hearing a shot. This was actually a warning shot fired by someone upon hearing chants of "Sieg Heil". Under orders to open fire on the students, the Guard and state troopers kill four and wound hundreds more. Jean is shot in the midsection when going out to yell at them to stop, while Danny and Carol are shot in the back. All of a sudden, an array of Natives (including the tribal chief) with torches come from behind the area along with the local sheriff. Several of the troops throw their weapons down while the militia notifies the Governor.

"Some may feel this picture is too violent...but the real massacres which inspired this fictionalized version were a thousand-fold more violent for those innocent people who were its victims...

Rather than direct anger at this re-creation...please channel your energy toward those officials who either ordered, condoned, or failed to take action against these events...and perhaps towards ourselves for also turning our backs and letting such events occur unchallenged.

All we are saying is...give peace a chance..."

—End title card from the film.

Now back in the bed, Jean muses about the freedoms that had been present in the school along with peace and harmony. When asked if she would bring back the school, she notes the townspeople seemed to enjoy the massacre. Billy Jack, lapsed into a deep sleep seemingly with the loss of will to live, wonders why he is not deemed ready to be on the other side. The spirits tell him that he has not learned enough to be on the other side permanently because he does not value his visions. In theory, if he changes his ways and finds inner peace, people will see it and find a good example set by him. Billy Jack is told he will only find his spiritual guide by practicing the fourth way that would have him stop covering his weakness with violence. Billy Jack awakens to Jean, who is now in a wheelchair, and tells her to come back to the school. A selection of students with casts and limps tell her about how they will march to build the school again and work harder on their exposés. Jean is wheeled in and cries upon the sight of so many students present.

Cast

Production

Part of the film was shot in the

Bong Soo Han, who had done some of the harder stunts of the previous film, has a supporting role here.[5]

Release

The film opened on November 13, 1974 in one of the

four wall distribution locations in New York, Philadelphia and Phoenix. The wide release was accompanied by a $3 million advertising campaign in the opening week.[1]

Reception

Box office

In its opening five days, the film grossed $9 million and was

theatrical rentals in the United States and Canada.[7] Its international take was very small; Laughlin suggested that American government agencies conspired to force the film to be "banned in almost every country in the world" to hide its "scorching exposés" from foreign audiences, though he admitted that he had no supporting evidence.[8][9]

Critical

The film was a commercial success upon its release in theaters, but met with a harsh reaction from critics.[3][10]

Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "three hours of naiveté merchandised and marketed with the not-so-innocent vengeance that I associate with religious movements that take leases on places like the Houston Astrodome."[10]

Variety wrote that the film was "badly in need of trimming its 170-minutes running time" and that Laughlin sometimes seemed to be "only a visiting guest star, since he does not figure in what seems to be reels of irrelevant school action. It is only when he is on-camera that the picture picks up, a commanding figure whose low-key characterization adds to the brilliance of his performance."[11]

Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one star out of four and called it "gross, misleading and a run-on bore," writing that "whereas the original had moments of genuine humor and refreshing improvisation, 'The Trial of Billy Jack' comes on as totally committed to establishing half-truths. In reality, both My Lai and Kent State are testaments to the danger of arming young men and placing them in combat situations. But 'The Trial of Billy Jack' twists those facts so as to make the killings a direct policy statement of the national government."[12]

Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times described the film as "one of the longest, slowest, most pretentious and self-congratulatory ego trips ever put to film. The running time is an excruciating three hours, which make you wonder what the five count 'em five credited editors did for their pay."[13]

Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "such a rambling, maudlin, sanctimonious rehash of its phenomenally successful predecessor that one can at least hope for a few defections among the legions of young fans who evidently thrilled to the self-flattering gospel according to 'Billy Jack,'" concluding, "Laughlin's point of view may be militantly liberal, but his artistic methods are reactionary in the extreme."[14]

Pauline Kael of The New Yorker declared, "This film probably represents the most extraordinary display of sanctimonious self-aggrandizement the screen has ever known."[15]

Donald J. Mayerson wrote in Cue that "this sequel proved more of a trial for me than it was for Billy."[3] Leonard Maltin's film guide assigned its lowest possible grade of BOMB and called the film "Laughable" until the final massacre scene that rendered its peaceful message "ludicrous."[16]

In a retrospective review, Donald Guarisco of AllMovie wrote: "Ultimately, most viewers are likely to be baffled by The Trial of Billy Jack, and it can only be recommended to B-movie fans with a hearty constitution...it's a mess, but it's a fascinating mess."[17]

When the film was reissued for another theatrical run in the spring of 1975, an accompanying newspaper ad campaign attacked critics as being out of touch with the tastes of mass audiences.[18][19]

The Trial of Billy Jack was included among the selections in the 1978 book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time.[3]

Legacy

The film was followed by Billy Jack Goes to Washington in 1977, which never saw a widespread theatrical release. A fifth film, The Return of Billy Jack, filmed in 1985-86, was never completed.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Albarino, Richard (November 20, 1974). "'Billy' Sequel's Grand $11-Mil Preem". Variety. p. 1.
  2. ^ Waxman, Sharon (June 20, 2005). "Billy Jack Is Ready to Fight the Good Fight Again". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2011-07-03. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-445-04139-0
    .
  4. ISBN 9781423605874
    .
  5. ^ Stewart, Jocelyn Y. (2007-01-14). "Bong Soo Han, 73; grand master of hapkido won film fans for martial arts". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-11-24.
  6. ^ "50 Top-Grossing Films". Variety. November 27, 1974. p. 9.
  7. ^ "All-time Film Rental Champs". Variety. 7 January 1976. p. 44.
  8. ^ Medved and Dreyfuss, p. 260.
  9. ^ "The Trial of Billy Jack - History". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
  10. ^ a b Canby, Vincent (November 14, 1974). "Screen: 'Trial of Billy Jack,' a Sequel". The New York Times: 58. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  11. ^ "Film Reviews: The Trial Of Billy Jack". Variety. November 13, 1974. 18.
  12. ^ Siskel, Gene (November 25, 1974). "Trial of Billy Jack". Chicago Tribune. Section 4, p. 17.
  13. ^ Champlin, Charles (November 13, 1974). "A 'Billy Jack' Marathon". Los Angeles Times. Part IV, p. 1.
  14. ^ Arnold, Gary (November 15, 1974). "The Trial of Billy Jack" The Washington Post. B1, B13.
  15. ^ Kael, Pauline (November 25, 1974). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. p. 180.
  16. ISBN 0-451-18505-6
    .
  17. ^ Guarisco, Donald. "The Trial of Billy Jack". AllMovie. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
  18. ^ "'Billy Jack' vs. Critics". Variety. April 30, 1975. p. 5.
  19. ^ "'Jack' Again Using Anti-Critic Ads". Variety. May 21, 1975. p. 7.

External links

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