Billy Jack (1971)
Actor/auteur Tom Laughlin created the character of Billy Jack in the motorcycle flick The Born Losers. Wandering Christlike through the Southwest, Native American Vietnam veteran Billy Jack ? soft-spoken, but well-versed in martial arts ? champions the cause of a progressive school run by Jean Roberts (Delores Taylor, Laughlin's real-life wife). The bigoted white townsfolk don't cotton to Jean's minority-group students, so they do everything they can to humiliate and physically abuse the kids. When one of her charges is cruelly coated with white flour, Billy Jack goes berserk. Thus begins an orgy of self-righteous violence, culminating with our hero being hunted down on a murder charge.
Just a person who protects children and other living things.
Billy Jack: Now, which is it gonna be: drive your car in the lake or get a dislocated elbow?
Eaves Movie Ranch - 105 Rancho Alegre Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Imperial County, California, USA
Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
Prescott, Arizona, USA
Contract disputes between Laughlin and various producers caused the film to change hands between three different film studios, and delaying its release for three years. In 1973, Laughlin filed a fifty-one million dollar lawsuit against Warner studios for "improperly publicizing" Billy Jack.
The unusual kick that Billy Jack uses in the fight in the park is known in Hapkido Karate as an "Outside Crescent Kick", a technique in which the leg is raised and swung outward striking with the outside edge of the foot.
Elizabeth James was originally cast in the film but was later fired and replaced by Delores Taylor.
The Hapkido fights in the film were choreographed by Hapkido master Bong Soo Han. Master Han not only choreographed but also body doubled for Tom Laughlin in the fight scenes.
Continuity
Billy Jack kicks Posner, and Posner's hat lands flat. In the next shot, the hat is on its side.
During the shy young girl's performance of her song for her brother, there is no guitar capo from the front view, however the rear view camera shots show a capo.
In the barber shop, the hands of the barber on the customer's head don't match up with his reflected position in the barber shop mirrors.
During the snake ceremony, Billy Jack's shoes change from moccasins to sneakers and back.
While Carol sings "Johnnie" in the Freedom School's auditorium, a capo is visible on her guitar's second fret in rear shots, but not front shots.
Factual errors
The quote read at the town meeting and attributed to Adolf Hitler was originally published in a minor Communist magazine. In the 1960s, the quote was used by the radical media to advance the anti-war cause. It was also quoted by public figures who sympathized with the movement, including Senator Edmund Muskie and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.
Revealing mistakes
Billy Jack tells Bernard to drive into the lake and he does so. Although partially visible, the emergency brake is up when Bernard is at the wheel.
Crew or equipment visible
When Billy Jack performs a spinning back kick against one of the "boys" attacking him in the park, the face shown is clearly not Tom Laughlin's. It's his body double, Hapkido expert Bong Soo Han.
The beginning credits include a shot taken from the view of someone riding a horse. The shadow clearly shows that whoever is riding the horse is also holding the camera.
Character error
Martin credits the Serenity Prayer to St. Francis of Assisi. It was actually written by American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, and first published in the 1930s.