#Billy jack trial#

When he picks on Billy’s schoolteacher woman Jean Roberts (played by Laughlin’s real life wife Delores Taylor), our hero rejects his basic pacifist principles and opens up a can of king sized whoop ass on the bad guys. The storyline was, again, very straightforward: the corrupt dropout son of an equally crooked town big wig spends his days in abject racial intolerance and his nights raping the local teenagers. But it wasn’t until a sequel of sorts was released that the name of this counterculture icon became a wholesome household word.īilly Jack continued the adventures of this reclusive revenge renegade, establishing a set of thematic elements that would come to define all of Laughlin’s future films. Entitled The Born Losers, this standard story of a good girl gone kidnapped and the chopper-riding reprobate intent on violating her virtue (among other things) was a major hit. Naming the man of moral justice “Billy Jack”, he drafted a combination biker pic / vengeance actioner, the kind of passion pit production that kept the petting hot and heavy down at the local outdoor theater. Using the growing anti-war movement for inspiration, as well as the controversy over the American government’s unseemly treatment of the Native American population, Laughlin created an ex-Green Beret Vietnam veteran who uses his stance as a half-breed member of the minority population – and his extensive martial arts training - to work out all manner of social struggles, be they rich against poor, black against white, or craven versus the innocent. Looking to the lagging exploitation genre for inspiration, Laughlin came up with a character he was sure would sell. Even when he tried to create material for himself (he wrote and directed two independent efforts – 1959’s The Proper Time and 1960’s The Young Sinners), the industry ignored him. From his mid-20s to his early 30s, he seemed stuck in a stereotype that wouldn’t let him escape. Even when he landed a part in a legitimate major release ( South Pacific, Gidget) he found himself billed several spaces below the marquee leads. Thanks to his rugged good looks and athletic prowess (he was a running back in college at the University of Minnesota) he at first found himself cast as soldiers, young ruffians, and the jaded juvenile delinquents that populated the standard studio b-picture of the era. Teresa Laughlin said that Taylor received numerous acting offers after the success of Billy Jack but politely demurred.His name was Tom Laughlin, and for years he was a no name bit player eking out a marginal living in that land of failed dreams known as Hollywood. She also was an EP on The Master Gunfighter (1975), written, directed by and starring Laughlin in a landowner-vs.-local Indians tale not tied to the Billy Jack franchise.

#Billy jack trial#

Taylor also was an executive producer on Born Losers and Trial of Billy Jack, co-writing the latter.

Also starring Taylor, it never was finished. They would team again for sequels The Trial of Billy Jack (1974) and Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977). A decade later, Laughlin also wrote, directed and starred in a fifth film in the series, The Return of Billy Jack.

Taylor also had an uncredited role in The Born Losers, the Laughlin-helmed 1968 biker flick that introduced the Billy Jack character. was part of the country’s consciousness, fueled in part by pop culture success of the nonfiction runaway bestseller Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and the chart-topping Paul Revere & the Raiders single “Indian Reservation.” Courtesy of Teresa Laughlin It hit theaters at a time when the plight of Native Americans in the U.S. BBC Film Announces Updated Editorial Team With New Hires Including Production Executive Kristin Irving & Anu HenriquesĬompleted in 1969 on a budget of $260,000, Billy Jack was released in 1971 by Warner Bros after other distributors balked.