Billy Jack [VHS] [Import] (1971)

This time-capsule film from 1971 is a perfect example of having one's cake and eating it, too. Written and directed by filmmaker Tom Laughlin--and starring him in the title role--Billy Jack concerns a half-white, half-Indian karate expert who protects a free school built on principles of pacifism by kicking hell out of pesky rednecks. The story actually embraces that tension between Billy Jack's way of doing things and that of the school's founder (Delores Taylor), but their tension doesn't so much lead to an examination of principles as it leads to an excuse for Laughlin to incorporate fight scenes between hippie politics. Crude and brutal, the film is pretty exploitative of a viewer's torn sympathies, and in that way Billy Jack actually anticipates much of the simple-minded, violent fare that followed in the movies of the '70s and '80s. --Tom Keogh

Born Losers: The first film in which the character Billy Jack ever appeared. Tom Laughlin had written Billy Jack back in the 1950s, but couldnt get anyone interested in a film about Indians  half-breed or otherwise. Tom Laughlin toned down the Indian and political themes in order to get Born Losers made. It became a very successful independent film! Billy Jack: The film that broke the mold. Billy Jack was, once again, the largest grossing independent film of all time. People saw Billy Jack 25 times or more than any movie in history until Star Wars. From the karate to the Native American spirituality, to the Freedom School, to the racial tolerance, few films have ever been this successful or stuck their necks out so far. The Trial of Billy Jack: The Trial of Billy Jack not only broke every box-office record for its day, it forever changed the way motion pictures were distributed. It was for the release of The Trial of Billy Jack that Tom Laughlin created the mega-multiple release that included the first-ever use of national TV advertising for a motion picture. Billy Jack Goes To Washington: Perhaps the most controversial film of all. Twenty years before Senators like Bradley, Rudman, Cohen, and Pell quit saying the U.S. Senate is so corrupt it doesnt work anymore, Billy Jack Goes to Washington told a story straight out of the headlines. At the Washington premiere one Senator exploded, vowing to do everything in his power to make sure Billy Jack Goes to Washington was never released.