― bryan, Thursday, 18 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
Besides, isn't Billy Jack really more Seventies than Sixties?
― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Thursday, 18 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― , Thursday, 18 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
The Trial of Billy Jack is pretty amazing, though isn't it?
(Tom Laughlin has left us).
― Josefa, Monday, 16 December 2013 02:27 (eleven years ago)
he was a very interesting, weird dude. billy jack wasn't cynical exploitation, laughlin was behind the sort-of wacko populist righteousness all the way. for better and for worse.
does anyone even remember billy jack? seems like one of those films that was HUGE at the time and then nobody really talked about it much afterward.
― extraterrestrial★squad (amateurist), Monday, 16 December 2013 05:07 (eleven years ago)
Regarding The Trial of... I can't think of another film that has that mix of direct political commentary and surrealism.
Didn't know that he "sought the office of President of the United States" in 1992, 2004, and 2008
― Josefa, Monday, 16 December 2013 07:20 (eleven years ago)
I mean, there were films that were both wildly surrealistic & political in the late '60s like Tinto Brass' Nerosubianco, but the way Billy Jack integrates fantasy-type scenes into the otherwise straight narrative without any winking to the audience is pretty unique.
― Josefa, Monday, 16 December 2013 08:21 (eleven years ago)
Unique is the keyword with these films. I go back and forth. I have loved them, cringed and hated them and now...it's been about 8 years since I've seen the films. Have been nostalgic and have been thinking about watching them again.
― *tera, Monday, 16 December 2013 10:27 (eleven years ago)
i saw a Billy Jack dvd at the swap meet a couple weeks ago for $2, and am kicking myself now that I didn't buy it. It's always been a guilty pleasure, though I haven't watched it in about 20 years.
― nickn, Monday, 16 December 2013 19:21 (eleven years ago)
I heard the NPR lead-in to his death and O'Toole's and Fontaine's this morning: "three legendary actors"
also, the death of standards.
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Monday, 16 December 2013 19:24 (eleven years ago)
wiki:
Laughlin booked (Billy Jack) into theaters himself in 1971. The film died at the box office in its initial run, but eventually took in more than $40 million in its 1973 re-release, with distribution supervised by Laughlin.
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Monday, 16 December 2013 19:29 (eleven years ago)
yeah billy jack was the big success story that made "four-walling" an important distribution/exhibition strategy in 1970s (see also "badlands," "mean streets")
― extraterrestrial★squad (amateurist), Monday, 16 December 2013 21:19 (eleven years ago)
IIRC laughlin sued warners claiming they had botched the film's original release