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The Gratuitous B-Movie Column: The Trial of Billy Jack
The Gratuitous B-Movie Column Issue #505: The Trial of Billy Jack
The Billy Jack Marathon: Week 3
Hello, everyone, and welcome once again to the internets movie review column that has never had to repel down the side of a cliff in the desert so I could then interact with a blue flame that’s alive or a spirit or some shit, The Gratuitous B-Movie Column, and I am your host Bryan Kristopowitz. In this issue, issue number five hundred and five, The Billy Jack Marathon continues with the third Billy Jack movie, The Trial of Billy Jack, which hit movie screens in November 1974.
The Trial of Billy Jack
The Trial of Billy Jack can best be described as the ultimate “first draft” movie. Directed by star Tom Laughlin (this time under the name Frank Laughlin) and co-written by Laughlin and fellow star Delores Taylor (they wrote the script under the names Frank and Teresa Christina), The Trial of Billy Jack is filled with all sorts of stuff that both Laughlin and Taylor want to talk about. It’s like they came up with a list of issues they wanted to include in the movie and, instead of figuring out which issues would make for a good story, they decided to put all of them into the script. And when I say all of them I mean goddamn all of them. As a result of this script packing, The Trial of Billy Jack is an unwieldy near three hour epic that isn’t all that satisfying compared to the previous two movies The Born Losers and Billy Jack but, at the same time, is still entertaining as hell. In fact, I’d venture to call The Trial of Billy Jack a kind of masterpiece. The movie is exactly what Laughlin, Taylor, and by extension Billy Jack all believe and you can either buy into it or you can dismiss it. I bought into it wholeheartedly.
The Trial of Billy Jack picks up a few years after the events of Billy Jack with Jean (Taylor) in the hospital, recounting to a reporter what happened during the big hooha police attack on the Freedom School, which we will see towards the end of the movie as the movie is basically narrated by Jean via flashbacks. Jean also tells the reporter what happened before that massacre and how things got so out of hand.
Billy Jack (Laughlin), after standing trial for the events of Billy Jack (killing Deputy Mike and Bernard Posner?), is convicted of “involuntary manslaughter” and sent to prison for four years. As Billy Jack served his sentence, Jean and the kids at the Freedom School decided to go all in on being a force for progressive hippie change and found ways to expand the school and the programs it offers. After raising vast sums of money through various means, the school moved to an abandoned Army base and the school’s big plans started happening. Pretty much every program the school had before the move to the Army base was expanded, and they added various sports programs, too. Journalism also became a bigger deal for the students, as the school started doing more investigative journalism and created its own TV station. This journalism expansion led to big deal exposes that apparently upset business and political leaders all over the country as shadowy government forces started to come down on the school. Undeterred by government and corporate pushback, the Freedom School kids pressed on even more. Hell, one kid came up with a goddamn lie detector machine that could detect lies just by hearing a person talk. The Freedom School was into everything.
And so the years pressed on, the school expanded more and more (Jean helped establish more programs to examine child abuse), government forces continued to try to interfere, and Billy Jack’s image/legend grew. Everyone at the school began to fear that something bad was going to happen to Billy Jack before he could get out of prison. What if Billy Jack’s sentence was changed? What if Billy Jack was killed in prison?
So Billy Jack, miraculously, survives prison and gets out. And, after meeting Jean alone out in the desert, Billy Jack gets back to being Billy Jack, donning the denim and hat and being cool. The kids at the school are happy, and all seems right with the world. That happiness doesn’t last long, as the government and the new bad guy, Posner’s just as big a fucking asshole douchebag brother played by Riley Hill, ramp up their efforts to undercut the school and all of the good it’s been doing. The kids endure multiple indignities and, Billy Jack being Billy Jack, tries to help in the only way he knows how, kicking ass and taking names. Jean tries to keep Billy Jack’s violence in check, and for the most part succeeds (the authorities don’t haul Billy Jack back to prison). The school’s only real ally, the new sheriff Cole (Sparky Watt), also helps Jean keep Billy Jack on the straight and narrow, or as close as that’s possible with a guy like Billy Jack.
So then some stuff happens, there’s a whole section where local natives complain about the Bureau of Indian Land Management, various Indians complain about the bullshit they have to endure from various entities, and Billy Jack decides to get involved by, again, doing what he does best, kicking ass and taking names. Billy Jack leads a team of Indian police to an encampment where a group of rich and powerful businessmen and government people (local, state, and federal) are illegally hunting on Indian land. The Indian police humiliate the rich and powerful, and their big hunting party is disbanded. It’s a big win for the good guys, sure, but that euphoria lasts about five minutes. The powerful people who don’t like the Freedom School, Jean, or Billy Jack decided to triple down on their efforts to eliminate them all.
Now, while all of that is going on, Billy Jack hooks up with an old Indian named Grandfather (Jack Stanley) out in the desert so he engage in, I guess, a vision quest or some such so he can learn about himself, his place in the world, and how to control his temper/learn how not to be so violent all of the time. Jean’s all for this vision quest thing, as she’s worried that Billy Jack is going to somehow provoke the authorities into killing him. And, as Billy Jack experiences all sorts of supernatural Indian what have you, Jean focuses on the school’s child abuse program, helping Carol (Teresa Laughlin) work with an abused kid that’s missing a hand. The authorities try to remove the one-handed kid from the school, but they’re unsuccessful. And on top of all of that, the school decides to hold some sort of Indian seminar that’s going to seriously piss off the authorities.
And so it all comes to a head, when the authorities send a man to the school to blow up the TV studio. After destroying the antenna, the kids have a big meeting at the school and decide that they’ve had enough of the governmental interference and want to strike back by bombing something. Jean tries to intervene, but the kids refuse to listen (they all bring up to Jean the whole “the kids need to make their own decisions because that’s a big part of what the school is about” thing, which is sort of true because Jean mentions all of that “decision making” stuff quite a bit). Before the kids can make a final decision, though, the governor calls in the National Guard and declares martial law.
The National Guard? Martial law? How is that going to end well for anyone? Billy Jack finally ends his vision quest, meets his inner self, slaps Jesus in the face (it’s all part of the process. Billy Jack has to interact with various “people” and one of them is Jesus), and heads out of the desert and back to the school. He tells the kids who show up to meet him not to bomb anything because that never works. Because he’s Billy Jack and the kids listen to him, the kids decide to shelve their retaliatory bombing scheme and instead stage a peaceful parade into town, showing everyone the various programs the school specializes in (marching band, belly dancing, yoga dancing, all sorts of other shit. I don’t see any improv going on inside the parade but I’d imagine that that’s still going on at the school and it’s represented somewhere in the mass of marching people).
So then some stuff happens, the parade sort of buys the school some time, but then the school’s bus gets stuck in the mud out in the desert. This accident brings out a group of cowboy mercenary assholes who seize the bus and beat up the kids (a teen girl gets sucker punched in the gut, which is just awful). Before they can kill anyone, though, Billy Jack shows up at the accident scene and destroys the cowboy mercenaries, swiftly taking them out with his hapkido.
Now, you’d think all of that would lead next to the government siege on the school, but you’d be wrong about that. There’s tons more shit to go. Despite the presence of the National Guard and martial law still being in place, the Freedom School goes ahead with its big Indian conference, the authorities try to take the one-handed kid again, and the cowboy mercenaries kidnap the Indian Blue Elk (Gus Greymountain), an Indian who acted as a sort of mole for the authorities. Blue Elk is beaten severely by the mercenaries, both in private and in public (Blue Elk is attacked during a public dance of some sort). When Billy Jack hears about this, he decides that he’s had enough of this shit and he’s going to end this his way. Teaming up with Master Han (Bong Soo Han), the guy that Billy Jack met at the school teaching Jean hapkido, Billy Jack infiltrates the dance hall and causes a major public disturbance. And by “public disturbance” I mean Billy Jack and Master Han beat the shit out of everyone (the cowboy mercenaries, Posner, and other assorted sacks of shit). Posner pulls a gun and shoots Master Han in the chest, an act that makes Billy Jack spring into deadly action. See, before this, the ass kicking Billy Jack and Master Han dealt was brutal, sure, but it wasn’t necessarily life threatening (well, outside of the lead cowboy mercenary that “stabbed himself”). Shooting Master Han, though, is something Billy Jack just isn’t going to tolerate and he delivers a flying kick to Posner’s throat, forcing the rich rat bastard to choke on his own blood as he dies.
In the aftermath of Billy Jack’s retaliation, Sheriff Cole tries to arrest Billy Jack, but Billy Jack refuses and goes on the run. Billy Jack heads back to the school, and a standoff ensues. The National Guard barricades the entrance to the school and the authorities demand Billy Jack surrender. Billy Jack eventually makes a deal with the governor that if he surrenders the National Guard will leave. The governor agrees, and Billy Jack surrenders. And that should be the end of all that, right? That’s how the last movie ended.
Yeah, there’s still more to happen. Because the government can’t be trusted, and because Billy Jack killed Posner, as soon as Billy Jack is taken away from the school, the authorities decide to act in a massive way. They’re going to kill Billy Jack and they’re going to shoot up the school. The kids in the school also decide that they’ve had enough of this shit and they’re going to start bombing shit and killing soldiers. Jean, as she always does, tries to talk to the kids and get them to calm down but they don’t want to listen this time. The kids go out and start shit with the guardsmen. At the same time, the guardsmen leadership claim they see a sniper at the school and the guardsmen start shooting.
It’s a bloodbath. The kids, armed with, at best, stones, don’t stand a chance against the guardsmen’s guns and they all go down, either killed or seriously wounded. Jean herself gets shot in the chest multiple times. Once the shooting dies down, the sheriff and several distraught guardsmen protest the shooting and stand in front of the guardsmen that want to keep shooting.
And while all of that is going, Billy Jack escapes police custody, gets shot, and then gets help from the Indians again. He goes back to the place of his vision quest and, I guess, finally learns that he needs to stop being so violent. He may have good intentions, but his ass kicking just leads to more pain and suffering and further violence. The movie ends with a new(?) Billy Jack taking Jean to a church where the kids who didn’t get shot all sing “Give peace a chance.”
See what I mean? There’s a lot of stuff going on in this movie. Way too much stuff. I mean, yes, there is an overall message to the story, that violence isn’t necessarily a good thing because of what happens after the violence is over (and that isn’t anything new to the series, especially after Billy Jack), but a good chunk of that message gets missed in the midst of everything else going on in the movie. Billy Jack’s court trial both goes on forever and doesn’t show enough, like what the run up to the trial was like, what Billy Jack’s lawyer had to deal with in preparing for the trial, and the immediate aftermath of it. How did the jury come to its decision? We do get to see Billy Jack in Vietnam as a Green Beret witnessing a war crime, a horrifying scene that makes you wonder why Laughlin didn’t do a movie where we see Billy Jack in Vietnam (a “prequel” before prequel became a thing). Billy Jack in prison is basically glossed over, although it would have been interesting to see how he actually survived the day-to-day behind bars. When we see the Freedom School expand, it’s a series of montages that are both interesting and not as interesting as they want you to believe. A whole movie about the expansion of the school and the shit it stirred up could have been interesting, but without Billy Jack there would have been no action and that movie may not have been commercial enough to make. Still, it would have been fun to see.
Now, when Billy Jack is let out of prison, you’d think the movie would ramp up a bit since Billy Jack is back in action. The movie doesn’t ramp up, though. It continues on at its deliberate pace. And when the story gets to Billy Jack’s Indian trials/vision quest thing, that in and of itself seems like it should be its own movie. Some of the supernatural special effects get pretty elaborate, and, again, it’s like we’re in a totally different movie. The section on the Bureau of Indian Land Management is another “could have been its own movie,” although that story, by itself, may have almost felt like a rehash of Billy Jack.
So why did Laughlin and company cram so much into The Trial of Billy Jack? I don’t know. Laughlin does provide a commentary track on the DVD, but as of me writing this I haven’t had a chance to listen to it. I’d imagine that he gets into the specific reasons as to why he and Delores Taylor decided to put so much into the script. It almost seems like, with the success of Billy Jack at the box office and the ensuing hero fame that resulted from that movie, Laughlin and Taylor wanted to make another movie but weren’t sure if lightning would strike twice. They had stuff they wanted to talk about and, godammit, the next one was going to be the one where they talked about it. They were going to put it all out there, they were going to put it all on the table, and they were going to go down swinging. Or maybe they figured, hey, we have an audience, people are interested in Billy Jack the character, so we’re going to use that popularity to talk about everything we want to talk about. If they didn’t talk about it, who would? So they went all in, figuring the audience would show up and respond to it all and, maybe, learn something. The Trial of Billy Jack, as far as I can tell from what I’ve read, was a success at the box office, at least initially. The critical establishment may not have cared for the movie, but audiences showed up for it. In the end, though, the movie wasn’t as successful as the previous one. No one likely expected a nearly three hour movie.
So, yeah, in retrospect, Laughlin and company should have worked a little more on the story and the script, figuring out what was the best material at that time to use for the next Billy Jack adventure. A better, more focused script would have, maybe, led to a better movie, more success, and, maybe, even more Billy Jack movies. That certainly would have made good business sense for all involved. Still, I kind of like that Laughlin and company decided to go all in and make the movie they wanted to make. So what if the movie ends up being three hours and filled with enough story and plot to make like six movies? Laughlin and Taylor and everyone else have issues and ideas they want to talk about, and they now have a chance to do it. So that’s what they do. You have to admire that kind of cinematic audacity. They’re going to make a movie about everything and fuck you if you don’t like it.
But isn’t this strategy kind of pretentious and ridiculous? Aren’t these Billy Jack movies supposed to be exploitation B-movies? Yeah, the other two had ideas in them, but they were both also about Billy Jack kicking ass and taking names. You can’t do that with endless talking and a lack of action throughout. Wasn’t this whole thing just a big ego stroke for Laughlin and Taylor? In some sense, it probably was all of those things, but, at the same time, what the movie is talking about is kind of important, and it’s all so damn heartfelt that it’s hard to get mad at anyone involved. Again, they all swung for the fences and crammed in as much as they could. They made the movie they wanted to make. You have to respect that. They took a chance on making something different, and they did it and it worked. Again, you have to respect that.
The big action scene at the dance hall is a tour de force fight that shows Laughlin could have amped up the hand-to-hand action in the movie if he wanted to and it would have been well staged and exciting. Big, too. It’s easily the best action sequence in the movie. The school siege, while also a big scene, is actually scary and filled with all sorts of tension as the students are mowed down. And Laughlin spares no one, not even the kid with one hand. It’s heartbreaking to watch it all unfold, the stupidity of it. Even if you didn’t know anything about the Kent State shooting, which is one of the movie’s influences, you could still be shocked to your core at how violent it gets. Of course, there’s also the Vietnam flashback massacre, a scene that will make you sick.
In terms of badass moments, the bit where Billy Jack shows up after the bus accident in the desert and takes out the biggest mercenary cowboy is phenomenal. Granted, it’s not as badass as the “Right foot across the face” sequence from Billy Jack, but it’s close. Watching Billy Jack take out multiple guys in quick succession is always fun and worth experiencing. I wish there was more of this kind of thing in the movie. And check out the shot to the back Billy Jack takes while leaving prison. Holy shit, that is as badass as it comes. It makes you wonder how often Billy Jack had to put up with that kind of shit while in prison from the guards and officials, let alone the prisoners. You know that someone must have taken a shot at him. See how much we needed a “Billy Jack in prison” movie?
The expansion of the school into a national concern is a little hard to believe. If it was just a state concern that, by the end, became a national issue because state officials called in some favors to their cronies in the federal government, I could buy that. But a national concern that Washington started paying attention to almost immediately? I’d also like to know how that goddamn super lie detector thing came about. How does one create that machine in 1974? On top of that, what other kind of super machinery did that one kid create?
Tom Laughlin is, once again, awesome as Billy Jack. Laughlin’s natural integrity and charisma shine through in every scene he’s in and, well, he shows you why he really is Billy Jack. It’s interesting watching him sort of figure out who he is when he’s doing the Indian vision quest, trying to overcome his innate need to just kick someone’s ass. Laughlin also manages to make the supernatural aspects of the vision quest work simply by being in them. I doubt they would have worked with someone else in the role.
Delores Taylor has a bigger part this time around and picks up some of the slack when Billy Jack isn’t around. Seeing her go from a terrified basket case at the beginning of the movie to a can do woman of action and then back to a basket case at the end is nothing short of amazing. Taylor also manages to sell all of the big speeches her character has to give and none of them are annoying. That’s always a plus when you’re dealing with characters giving lots and lots of speeches. Taylor also does quite well for herself in the hapkido training sequence, showing that, despite being a pacifist, if she wanted to, she could team up with her lover Billy Jack and kick some ass, too.
Victor Izay has a little more to do this time around as the sympathetic doctor. He seems to be involved with the school more directly in this movie as opposed to a guy in town that Jean can talk to. Teresa Laughlin also has much more to do this time around, helping the one-handed kid play a guitar and control his temper. And is it me or did she age like ten years between movies?
Riley Hill is scum personified as Posner. Yes, he isn’t as scummy as his brother in Billy Jack, but he knows how to be awful and terrible. As soon as you see him you know that he needs his ass kicked and, by the end, he gets his ass kicked big time. Again, he isn’t as good as the previous Posner, but he’s a good enough substitute for what Laughlin and company have going on.
Sparky Watt is terrific as the new sheriff, Sheriff Cole. At first, he seems a bit too goofy to be a sheriff in this town, but he grows on you and you eventually accept him as the town’s law enforcement. I would like to know how he got elected to the position, since he isn’t exactly pro-Posner. Wouldn’t Posner try to stop a guy like Cole from being sheriff, especially after how the last sheriff refused to get in line? You will absolutely cheer when Cole stands in front of the National Guardsmen to prevent further shooting at the school. That’s what I did.
And Bong Soo Han is all sorts of awesome as Master Han, the guy who teaches Jean hapkido, trains a bit with Billy Jack and a cane, and then teams up with Billy Jack to lay waste to Posner’s scumbag cowboy mercenaries. Imdb shows that he only acted in a few movies and consulted on/did stunt work for a few other movies. Why? He has the skills, the look, and the screen presence. He should have had at least one starring role in something back in the day. He really is that good.
The Trial of Billy Jack is a heartfelt epic with a message of peace, plus tons of other stuff that Tom Laughlin and Delores Taylor wanted to talk about. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t good business to make a movie like The Trial of Billy Jack because it’s so different from anything else in the marketplace. Laughlin and company probably should have found a way to make a smaller Billy Jack sequel, worked on a better, more succinct story. At the same time, I’m glad that they decided to make The Trial of Billy Jack the way they made it. You can tell that it’s the movie that they really wanted to make. It may not be as successful as the previous two movies, but then it doesn’t have to be. The Trial of Billy Jack is its own thing. It defies analyzation. It’s a kind of masterpiece.
See The Trial of Billy Jack. See it, see it, see it.
So what do we have here?
Dead bodies: 10+
Explosions: One big one. It’s quite impressive.
Nudity?: Briefly.
Doobage: A bird flying in the desert that turns out to be an owl, a funeral procession, flashback to Billy Jack’s trial, flashback to Vietnam, a war crime, official corruption, multiple Freedom School montages, a big school band competition, flagrant racism, a total lack of visitors, night stick to the back, a desert rendezvous, face touching, an excruciating song about Billy Jack, flying jump kick training, apple kicking, cane attack, a full on Indian mountain rescue in the snow, wooden fence trashing, completely unsafe chopper transports, skiing, sexual assault by the cops with boob touching, police brutality, running, tribal council meeting bullshit, off screen illegal deer hunting, an Indian vision quest, exploding TV antenna, man on fire gag, martial law, multiple meetings, cliff repelling, walking among the rattlesnakes,, blue skin, face slapping, hippie face slapping, Jesus slapping, a protest parade, jiggling boobs, a bus gets stuck in the mud, cowboy mercenary assholes, guitar breaking, violin to the throat, total bus destruction, a bus on fire, sucker punching a teen girl, supreme ass kicking, multiple speeches about America, a guitar shot, Indian kidnaping, lit cigarette to the bottom of the foot, shoes and socks removal, a wicked backwards fall, multiple kicks to the face, arm breaking, forced stabbing, bullet to the chest, jump kick to the throat, police car destruction, a barricade, an arrest, attempted assassination, cop car stealing, a heartfelt freak out, a TV address, stone throwing, barn fire, rock to the face, a full on massacre, multiple dead kids, torches and flares, more Indian vision quest bullshit, and a plea for peace.
Kim Richards?: Jesus Christ. Big time.
Gratuitous:Old Indians chanting in the desert, on screen body counts, a full on takedown of the Nixon administration, and Attorney General John Mitchell, Tom Laughlin, Tom Laughlin in Vietnam, attack on Richard Nixon, an attack on America’s lost conscience, a mega dirty prison cell toilet, a yoga/meditation/dance montage, magazine meeting, a lie detector that’s more accurate than a polygraph, Delores Taylor walking with a walker, a kid with only one hand, a child abuse conference, a refusal to talk to the press, Billy Jack smoking a pipe and talking to a bird, Billy Jack being a dick, Bong Soo Han, multiple helicopters, an attempt by someone to assert that Indians aren’t susceptible to state laws, a party bus filled with rich assholes who want to go deer hunting on Indian land, a pile of dead deer, Billy Jack hanging out in a steam room and seeing a blue flame in the air, an Indian woman spirit that talks about how awful white people have been throughout history, “Big Mama,” Billy Jack talking to a cobra like it’s a person, a group of men watching sports on TV in the desert, Billy Jack slapping Jesus, belly dancers, a prosthetic hook, love for America’s founding fathers, a totally unnecessary school massacre, kids singing in church, and “Give peace a chance.”
Best lines: “I have a lot of fear, but I also have a lot of respect,” “I feel terribly sorry for your children, Mr. Williams,” “Waste them! You mean the civilians?,” “Gold almighty, what is happening to us?,” “In war, when you brainwash men to become cold blooded killers you expect them to be,” “I want to do an expose on the IBM ribbon conspiracy,” “23 years in this town, doing a hell of a job, just following orders, and because of one crazy nigger I’m dead,” “Was the boy born without his hand?,” “Okay, tough monkey, time to shower up for the press,” “So that’s where the school gets its pacifism?,” “He’s a hard head. He’ll be back,” “You’re not little… Carol? Sunshine?.” “I haven’t seen one of those in a long time,” “Why are you bringing him here?,” “Tell me, if he were a white man how would you treat him?,” “Hey, don’t rip your pants, buster!,” “Well, can’t win’em all,” “Congress is a bunch of lying, rotten thieves!,” “Who you calling a pig?,” “I never voted for termination,” “Oh, come on, now, don’t be childish,” “Where will I look for my shadow demon?,” “Grandfather, may I now descend into the cave of the dead?,” “Oh my God, I don’t know where she gets the patience,” “Now, what can I do for you, princess?,” “I thought we were supposed to make our own decisions?,” “I’m sorry, but I can’t understand what’s going on here,” “What the hell is that?,” “Please don’t burn our bus!,” “Indian, you’re full of karate crap, you know that?,” “Now what in the world happened to you, Blue Elk?,” “Just your feet against all of this?,” “I dislocated it,” “Are you satisfied?,” “You have no legal right to be here!,” “Are you accusing me of being afraid of responsibility?,” “One sound and I tear out your windpipe,” “Damn you, liar!,” “Does he really expect us to kill college kids?,” “Grandfather is right, but we still have to try to stop them. They’re going to try and kill Jean,” “Well, how am I supposed to do that when I don’t know what the fourth way is?,” “You really mean you want to go through that all again?,” and “All we are saying is give peace a chance!”
Rating: 10.0/10.0
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Things to Watch Out For
–Replicas: I actually managed to see this sci-fi flick starring Keanu Reeves earlier this year when it was in theatres and thought it was pretty good. The movie flopped hard, but I’m confident that the movie will find its audience on home video and television. The movie is weird from the beginning, and it actually gets weirder the last third or of its running time. The movie also suddenly becomes an action thriller the last third, whereas until that point the movie is a science fiction movie with some horror undertones. Reeves is fantastic in the lead role, and Alice Eve does some fine work. Heck, even the kids are good in the movie. If you’re looking for something a little different, give Replicas a shot. I know I plan on giving it a shot again on home video.
–Escape Room: This low budget horror flick came out this past January and was apparently a big enough hit to warrant a sequel. I missed it, but I thought it looked interesting. The trailers gave it a kind of Saw vibe, but as far as I can tell it isn’t a new “torture porn” movie. It seems to be something else. Anyone out there see this? Are you excited for the sequel that’s supposed to come out in 2020? And, heck, does the concept deserve to be a franchise?
–I Spit on Your Grave: Déjà vu: This is a direct sequel to the 1978 original, written and directed by the man who created the “franchise,” Meir Zarchi, and it also features the original’s star Camille Keaton. The actual star of the movie appears to be Jamie Bernadette, who kicked ass in the awesome 420 Massacre, and based on her performance in that movie, Déjà Vu should kick all sorts of ass. Now, who the heck ever thought there would be a sequel to the original I Spit on Your Grave? I know I didn’t. It will be interesting to see how this sequel compares to the original. Does it fit with it?
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Check out my Widow’s Point set visit report!
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Next Issue: The Billy Jack marathon concludes with Billy Jack Goes to Washington!
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Well, I think that’ll be about it for now. Don’t forget to sign up with disqus if you want to comment on this article and any other 411 article. You know you want to, so just go do it.
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The Trial of Billy Jack
Tom Laughlin– Billy Jack
Delores Taylor– Jean Roberts
Victor Izay– Doc
Teresa Laughlin– Carol
Riley Hill– Posner
Sparky Watt– Sheriff Cole
Gus Greymountain– Blue Elk
Michael Bolland– Danny
Jack Stanley– Grandfather
Bong Soo Han– Master Han
(check out the rest of the cast here)
Directed by Tom Laughlin (as Frank Laughlin)
Screenplay by Tom Laughlin and Delores Taylor (as Frank Christina and Teresa Christina)
Distributed by Taylor-Laughlin, Billy Jack Rights, and Shout! Factory
Rated PG for violence, language, and adult situations
Runtime– 170 minutes
Buy it here
