The Movie Billy Jack
Many movie critics and reviewers consider the movie Billy Jack as an art. This is
because there is a lot of artistic work portrayed throughout the movie. First of all, the
main character of the movie called Billy Jack which is played by Tom Laughlin,
depicts a lot of prowess in martial art. He is so good at it that he uses the martial art to
protect the Indians, hippies and young people from their oppressors. Countercultural
controversies that were happening at that time are largely depicted in the movie too.
The main character Billy Jack, a former Green Beret veteran swears to protect the
runaway Indian kids from the locals who were against the countercultural values that
the school in Arizona had introduced.
Although the movie had a low budget, the director managed to make it a largely
influential movie which was widely loved all over the world. The movie was rejected
by many studios because at that time the trendy theme in movies was bike gangs.
However, Tom Laughlin manages, with a low budget, to turn the movie around and
portray its left-wing politics. It is alluded that Billy Jack influenced most of the right
wing movies that were released later including walking tall, death wish and first blood.
Apart from the counterculture politics, the movie will be largely remembered for its
revolution in terms of movie advertising and distribution. This is because Tom
Laughlin single-handedly did the shooting, production, advertising and distribution.
The way that the issues were brought up in the movie was also fascinating.
Despite not using professional actors, the movie perfectly represented its theme. It
later became one of the greatest movies of that time and still has influence to date.
