The Trial of Billy Jack

Following the events of the previous movie, Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin) stands trial and is sentenced by the corrupt system to prison. The kids from the Freedom School decide to fight the system themselves.

The movie makes a big early mistake. After Billy Jack gets sentenced, the movie needs to follow him into prison. Instead, his prison time is skipped over and the movie follows a bunch of no name kids with his wife. His wife is charismatically challenge, not to say that he's some great actor either. After he's released, the movie follows our hero once again. This is part personal vanity project and part sincere hippie idealism. It could be indie camp if only it's not three freakin' hours long. It's so long and so slow. It's obvious that Laughlin is throwing everything into the cooking pot. This is the result of an unencumbered artist who has more confidence than skills.

This movie is a painful experience to watch. Tom Laughlin was a talented filmmaker but he allowed his ego to wreck this movie. It's two-plus hours of speechifying kills this movie. Blah, blah, blah, get on with it. It is so "serious" it becomes unwatchable. Between the many speeches Billy Jack actually changes color. He's red, then he's blue. Ridiculous. If this movie was half the length, it would have become a camp classic. But it's way too long to become even that. However, I must admit it is often quite a beautiful movie to look at. Stunning at times. Overall, "The Trial of Billy Jack" is a career killing mess.

Child abuse, the trampling of Indian rights, prejudice, illegal FBI wire-tapping and subterfuge, television exposes, campus shootings by the National Guard, the Mi Lai massacre, culture clashes, Jungian philosophy, police brutality, government corruption, karate, guns, and a spiritual journey are just some of the subjects explored in this sequel to Billy Jack. Surprisingly, despite the title, this is not a courtroom drama. The film is told in flashback, and the trial is over rather quickly. Instead, it's an angry film that was finished shortly after several of the campus killings (ie, Kent State) and Watergate. Most of the film's events and anti-government sentiment were taken directly from the events of the early 1970's.

The director's commentary on the DVD is very interesting, and my favorite discussion is when Tom and Delores acknowledge they "threw in everything but the kitchen sink." They both wish they had reduced the exposition and some of the plot lines, which would have certainly made it a better film, but they were being true to themselves at the time. Unfortunately, this makes the film too long and too preachy, but I still enjoyed it.

it's hard to know where to begin with this movie. I Saw Billy Jack in the theater as a teen. I found this sequel on youtube and watched it. I had to pause it regularly because it was so bad. it really has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Unlike many bad movies that are so bad, they are good, this one is so bad it does not even have that quality. bad script, bad acting, bad directing, bad story line. it's to political to even be political. it's like one of those really horribly made Soviet propaganda movies from the 50's and 60's. so over the top. every character is cartoonish in nature. Usually I like past era films with a political statement but, this one rambles on and on and on. the best part of this movie is, it finally ended. worth watching if you are totally bored. it will get you off the couch to clean the bathroom grout. or, inspire you to do your own dental work on a toothache.

After the first Billy Jack movie where he went to prison for five years for involuntary manslaughter the freedom school that Delores Taylor was building on the Indian reservation has expanded quite nicely. There are a whole lot of young people of all kinds now living there and attending school and absorbing the radical ideas as the locals see it of the school.

And the school has done one thing more. They have a pirate radio station on the reservation and are doing all kinds of exposes that some of the powerful locals aren't crazy about. The maddest of the lot is Riley Hill who is the brother of Bert Freed who was the owner of the local Ponderosa in the first Billy Jack movie. Freed moved away after the death of his son, but Hill is the local banker and that position gives him leverage on a lot of the locals.

Poor Taylor whose passive non-violence is being put to some stressful tests in this film as it was in the last film is caught in the middle. And Tom Laughlin is off on a vision quest not be disturbed. That gives the bad guys a chance to do their worst. Which leads to a horrible Kent State like confrontation at the school on the reservation.

This film could easily have told the story in a third to half of its running time. But I suppose producers Laughlin and Taylor couldn't bear to cut a single frame. It really dilutes the story and blunts the impact of the climax.

Still Billy Jack's fans should like The Trial Of Billy Jack.