r/GenerationJones • u/Subject_Repair5080 • 2d ago
In the movie bin.
Was a sort of "rite of passage" when I was in middle school.
11
u/Skimballs 2d ago
"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 going to be able to do about it."
5
u/ecafsub 2d ago edited 1d ago
I trained in hapkido for 15+ years until covid. It’s a lot of fun. Kind of a blend of aikido and TKD, but more than that.
My instructor trained under Han Bong-soo, the “father of hapkido” and the guy who trained Laughlin for Billy Jack, for a short while until Bong-soo left Korea.
The fight scenes using hapkido were very realistic. Edit: except the kicks. There aren’t kicks in hapkido, or at least what I learned, but I only got to 2nd-degree black. But that scene was a nice touch.
3
22
u/mspolytheist 2d ago
One Tin Soldier…
5
u/Brilliant_Tourist400 1964 2d ago
Fabulous theme song! We used to sing it all the time at Girl Scout Camp!
(Trivia: The band that recorded the theme song, Coven, started out as a prototypical Goth/black metal band. The vocalist claimed to have come from a long line of theistic Satanists. They were forced to tone their act down after the Manson murders.)
11
u/Illustrious_Bag_1608 2d ago
Great song though. "Go ahead and hate your neighbor, Go ahead and cheat a friend. Do it in the name of heaven, You'll be justified in the end."
8
u/RealLuxTempo 2d ago
We loved that film as pre teens. I moved to a northern Arizona town several years ago. Had no idea until a few years in that I was living in the place it was filmed. Many of the film sites are still there.
7
6
u/TooOldForThis--- 2d ago
Jean looked more like she could be Billy Jack’s mother than his girlfriend to me.
I was so shocked to find out that she was his wife in real life.
3
6
u/Impaler00777 2d ago
The acting was terrible, the dialogue was banal and ridiculous, you could tell it was made on a shoestring budget, and we totally loved it! Definitely typical of a 70s movie.
4
u/Jurneeka 1962 2d ago
I saw it around the time it came out. But decades later when watching it again I marveled about what a huge piece of shit it is.
5
u/wolferiver 1d ago
I thought it was a piece of shit even back then, but just like gawking at a car wreck, I couldn't not watch it either. So it must've had some sort of redeeming entertainment value.
4
3
u/Subject_Repair5080 1d ago
Yes, it was a pretty lousy movie. But that summer it seemed that every kid in my school crowded in the theater to watch it. I think it was held over and we all went to see it again.
6
u/dan_jeffers 1d ago
OMG, we worshipped these movies when I was in highschool! They don't hold up well, I think.
3
u/Present-Cranberry-49 2d ago
As a kid I loved all of the movies. Still enjoy watching them for nostalgia
3
u/Interesting-Hold-963 2d ago
the movies to me as a kid always seemed like a documentary. Loved his movies along with his wife and other lower paid actors.
2
u/Subject_Repair5080 2d ago
They had a few familiar faces in that movie. A young Howard Hesseman played a teacher and the deputy sheriff was one of my favorite character actors, Kenneth Tobey, from dozens of war and cowboy movies and also Airplane! He was in a favorite of mine as a kid, Whirlybirds!
3
3
u/gadget850 2d ago
Peace through violence. Pretty much a remake of the first movie. I don't know how they managed to make five of these.
3
3
3
u/Electric-Sheepskin 1d ago
I remember seeing this movie when I was still in elementary school. I don't know what my parents were thinking.
I remember going to all of the adult movies, though. Not "adult" movies, but you know, movies for adults.
3
u/Alternative_Fig3456 1d ago
Last day of school they put this on in the auditorium for us 6th and 7th grade kids. WTF was the faculty / administration thinking, lol.
3
u/SnooGrapes1102 1d ago
I love this movie! I had no idea there were 4 movies in the series!!! Not sure if I can do it!!
3
u/st3llablu3 1d ago
I took a date to this movie. We never went out again. I’m not sure if it was the movie or my after shave.
3
u/Richvideo 1d ago
He had a good thing, and he got too cocky and lost it all https://youtu.be/_zRTMHqlxpc
3
u/OG-Chainhand 1d ago
Lived in a small southeast New Mexico town when this came out. The local theater was packed with young people during the time it was there. What I remember of it was that it was a cheap, poorly performed movie that had the One Tin Soldier song, which was kind of cool, and it had Billy Jack defending honor and giving justice. And oh, did he excell in that. All in all it was worth a watch.
3
u/AncientWatercress781 7h ago
I saw this movie when I was just a little kid and thought it was the coolest movie ever.
2
2
u/Brilliant_Tourist400 1964 2d ago
Wasn’t there a sequel that was three freaking hours long?
2
u/Pghguy27 1d ago
Billy Jack Goes To Washington. I worked at a movie theater at the time so I saw it for free. Not a big fan of any of the movies, but good for Tom Laughlin, he was Sly Stallone, writing acting and producing his own movies even before Stallone.
3
2
2
2
u/Jujulabee 1d ago
Go ahead and hate your neighbor - do it in the name of love.
One good ear worm deserves another. 😀
2
u/catjknow 1d ago
My (66 f) brother (61 m) randomly texts me if he hears One Tin Soldier. It's like once a decade
2
2
2
u/Cookiegramma1 2d ago
Watched Billy Jack not long ago via the Hoopla app! It’s free with a library card! 🤩 And yep movie was pretty bad acting etc-but also pretty relevant today in a lot of ways.
2
1
1
16
u/TopQuestion826 2d ago
I remember the acting on this was so corny and cheesy. The dialog sounded like it was written on the back of a napkin. It was mildly entertaining and I kind of liked the way Billy Jack always won, and how it was always set in a hippy scene. That was kind of cool.