Billy Jack Is Ready to Fight the Good Fight Again

[kskiska]

SANTA ROSA VALLEY, Calif. - It has been more than 30 years, but Billy Jack is still plenty ticked off.

Back then, it was bigotry against Native Americans, trouble with the nuclear power industry and big bad government that made this screen hero explode in karate-fueled rage. At the time, the unlikely combination of rugged-loner heroics - all in defense of society's downtrodden and forgotten - and rough-edged filmmaking sparked a pop culture and box-office phenomenon.

Now the man who created and personified Billy Jack, Tom Laughlin - the writer, director, producer and actor - is determined to take on the establishment again, and his concerns are not so terribly different. Mr. Laughlin (and therefore Billy Jack) is angry about the war in Iraq and about the influence of big business in politics. And he still has a thing for the nuclear power industry.

"I'm going to say a lot of egregious things," Mr. Laughlin, 73, announced at the start of an interview at his home here in the rolling horse country east of Los Angeles. His face is creased with deep lines, his hair a bleached gray, but he is still entirely recognizable as the handsome Billy Jack.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/20/movies/20jack.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1119293921-n8OGpqSM1FEc1Ng3JdqcGQ

[bpilgrim]

1. awesome - the time is ripe for a comeback

kick their a$$ Billy Jack! :toast:

peace

[Yupster]

14. He ran for president

In 1992.

[ailsagirl]

2. I remember those films of his-- he can't stand unjustice

I didn't realize he was 73-- wow

Go Billy!!

[earth mom]

3. Billy Jack made a huge impression on me as a kid...

though it's been what? 30+ years since I saw the movie and I really can't remember what exactly happened. Amazing how that sense of right and wrong has stayed with me...I hope Laughlin will be able to pull this one off...we so need to get the word out about the BFEE!

I agree with the 1st post...Kick some ASS! Billy Jack!

:bounce:

[merh]

4. The legend of Billy Jack

ONE TIN SOLDIER
(The Legend of Billy Jack)
words and music by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter
Copyright © 1969 by ABC / Dunhill Music, Inc.

Listen children to a story that was written long ago
'bout a kingdom on a mountain and the valley folk below.
On the mountain was a treasure buried deep beneath a stone,
and the valley people swore they'd have it for their very own.

Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowin' come the judgment day
on the bloody morning after one tin soldier rides away.

So the people of the valley sent a message up the hill
asking for the buried treasure, tons of gold for which they'd kill.
Came an answer from the kingdom: "With our brothers we will share
all the secrets of our mountain, all the riches buried there."

Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowin' come the judgment day
on the bloody morning after one tin soldier rides away.

Now the valley cried with anger; mount your horses, draw your sword,
and they killed the mountain people, so they won their just reward.
Now they stood beside the treasure on the mountain, dark and red,
turned the stone and looked beneath it. "Peace on earth" was all it said.

Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowin' come the judgment day
on the bloody morning after one tin soldier rides away.

http://www.thecolefamily.com/onetinsoldier.htm

[TX-RAT]

5. 1 Tin Soldier

[kskiska]

6. His website:

http://www.billyjack.com/

[BringEmOn]

10. I like this quote from the website....

http://www.billyjack.com/index.php?menuID=Page&pid=85

Wars

Wars caused by a General and 2 other Presidents’ need to prove they were masculine

McArthur, an ultimate mama’s boy (his mother took an apartment a block from his residence all the while he was at West Point), because of his need to prove his potency, violated Presidential orders, crossed the 38th parallel, and raced to the Yalu River, forcing China to enter the war, slaughtering thousands of Americans who were driven back to the 38th parallel.

It is well known that Bush Sr. invaded Panama partly to prove he wasn’t a “wimp,” and George W., the ultimate mama’s boy who has never had the strength or the manhood to successfully complete anything in his life on his own, is constantly strutting and posturing his “macho”, “mano-a-mano” persona on the world stage like an adolescent schoolboy – “Bring ‘em on!” – continually escalating the nuclear and terrorist crisis instead of calming it and solving it.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. Billy Jack --

The guy that Steven Segal always wanted to be.

on edit -- NOT a bash on Segal. His acting may be questionable, but his protagonist's politics are always progressive.

[EC]

8. He made heros out of ordinary activists back then

people were shown the injustice and angered, and then they rebelled...this is what we need now, someone who knows how to project empathy and get more people involved physically...

Like the folks that took over the governors office today, that is exactly what is going to have to happen, over and over, until it is finally in the news and the "ordinary" folks kids are arrested and more people have a vested interest in changing what's going on, then we'll see things start to change again.

Then we have to fight that a Republican NEVER gets into power again, since every single time that they have, they've trashed the Constitution and our Country...They just cannot ever be trusted...


And as an aside, I just don't get what is so hard about seeing what is right for humanity...why does business trump humanity every time with them?

[RaleighNCDUer]

13. ...heros out of ordinary activists...

So true. And if they remade 'Norma Rae' today, Hollywood would have her walking into the plant with an AK under each arm.

Can you imagine 'Silkwood', 'China Syndrome', 'Matewan', or even 'Meet John Doe' being made in today's climate?

Anything that smacks of real activism is invisible.

The stories of ordinary activists need to get out there.

[OneBlueSky]

9. the Billy Jack movies were real-l-l-l-y bad, but . . .

somehow oddly compelling . . . guess we were looking for a hippy-type superhero or something . . .

[Tsiyu]

11. I was just thinking about Billy Jack the other day

My teenaged girlfriends and I went to see that movie so many times. We were all in love with Billy Jack. When he spoke in that movie, it was so clear what the true moral path was.

Most recently, I was pondering whether his message would fly today, but maybe our young people need an alternative, and maybe his time has come round again.

[ezekiel333]

12. You know what I think I'm gonna do?....

"You know what I think I'm gonna do? Just for the hell of it? I'm gonna take this right foot, and I'm gonna whop you on that side of your face....and you wanna know something? There's not a damn thing you're gonna be able to do about it...." "Billy Jack"

Hmmm... Maybe we do need another hero, one who fights for freedom and principles, who knows when to "whop" the other side. Perhaps a counter to the Army's super hero soldier video game assault.

Yeah, I know its violent and I know by todays standards the Billy Jack movies might seem "cheesy", but the message plays on and Tom Laughlin is ready to bring it back, hard.

Billy Jack’s Crusade to End the War and Restore America to its Moral Purpose. <http://billyjack.com>


Rock on Tom & Delores and thanks for saying "Neo-Fascist" while others cringe, sometimes the truth hurts!

[H2O Man]

15. Thr Trial of Billy Jack

was perhaps the best of the four Billy Jack movies. It had to do with the federal government's attack on campuses that protested the Nixon war policy. It would not get the exposure the other films did.