The motorcycle gang menaces the young women to persuade them not to testify, and half-Indian dude Billy Jack, a former Green Beret who knows karate, gets involved and you probably have a pretty good idea of how it plays out from there.
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BILLY JACK, the movie Laughlin and Taylor *really* wanted to make, was released in 1971, and flopped. Laughlin sued the studio to get the right to rerelease it himself, and in 1973 he turned the $350,000 movie into a multimillion dollar cash machine.
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In BILLY JACK, Billy (played by Laughlin) is getting back to his roots on the local Indian reservation, where his romantic interest Jean (played by Taylor) runs a hippie school for disaffected kids, and do they run afoul of small-minded folk in the local town why yes they do
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The thing about Tom Laughlin as an actor and filmmaker is that he has two things he really likes to do, only one of which he is any good at: 1) delicious build-up to a righteous ass-kicking 2) cheerfully anarchic hippie chaos
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There are a number of anarchic hippie chaos scenes in BILLY JACK, which include allegedly funny improv comedy numbers (featuring Howard Hesseman!), godawful songs, and a boisterous city council meeting. Only one of them even *slightly* works.
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(The scene that slightly works is the hippies doing street theater about an incompetent mugger that's interrupted by the sheriff, who promptly gets drafted into the scene when the street theater hippies start giving him direction. Everything else is interminable.)
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The build-up to ass-kicking, though, is glorious. To understand how Tom Laughlin approaches an action scene, compare to early Steven Seagal flicks, like OUT FOR JUSTICE. Seagal walks into every action scene knowing he's the toughest guy in the room. So does Laughlin. But.
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Steven Seagal enters his action scenes like an asshole. He knows he's the toughest guy in the room, he wants to rub that in everybody's face. He's very confrontational. Tom Laughlin knows he's the toughest guy in the room... and he's *quietly amused* you want to fight him.
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Billy Jack is absolutely down to fight. But he will give you time to change your mind. And Laughlin, an actor of limited gifts, plays with that time wonderfully. You know what's going to happen. Billy Jack knows what's going to happen. You're in on the joke with Billy Jack.
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Imagine a young Steven Seagal playing this scene, and you'll see what I mean. I adore the way Laughlin says, "Really." (Also the following sound effect is one of my top five sound effects in all of cinema.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVX-voqWuwY …
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Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWPfKQJ5oSo …
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