The Born Losers

This post isn't about a horror movie but it is about a B-movie. A B-movie featuring Tom Laughlin, the actor who placed Billy Jack on the map.

For those of you not in the know, there is a whole series of films that focuses on a "half-breed-Native-American-Green-Beret Vietnam-War-Veteran” who goes by the name of Billy Jack. (In following movies we learn he is also a hapkido master and gunslinger however it really doesn’t come into play in this one.)

Hello. My name is Petra and I am was a Billy Jack groupie.

This post isn't about the Billy Jack movies that hooked me, though. This post is about the movie that introduced me to Billy Jack, and that movie is The Born Losers, released in 1967.

During the exploitation movie era, there was a genre and SUBgenre for just about every subject imaginable. In the case of The Born Losers, that subgenre was motorcycle gangs and true to form, the gang in this movie is portrayed as unruly, defiant rebels protesting society and everything that is moral. Granted they are not given much of a chance to prove otherwise; but they also do nothing to change the stereotype. Actually, they encourage it.

Not a lot of time is wasted getting to the meat and potatoes of this gang. You see them rebel rousing in the streets and targeting some poor schmoo as the object for contact with their fists. This schmoo they target is pretty stupid in that he didn't back down when these derelict biker boys came pushing him around. Before you know it, Schmoo Boy is getting his ass handed to him orally. Several passerby’s watch yet do nothing as he begs for help and is almost killed.

Luckily Mr. Schmoo stumbles into a deli/cafe where Billy Jack just happens to be having an afternoon coffee or tea, or something. When the owner of the establishment kicks Mr. Schmoo back out to the streets so as to "avoid trouble," Billy Jack feels the need to interfere. He grabs his rifle out of his truck and proceeds to promise bad things to the bikers should they decide to keep harassing Schmoo Boy.

And wouldn't you know that Billy Jack gets busted by the cops while the bikers get off with a warning? Seems almost killing someone is ok, as long as you don't do it while waiving a gun around.

So while Billy Jack is being detained, the bikers are back to running the streets when they notice a sweet young chippy named Vicki Barrington (Elizabeth James, aka co-script writer for The Born Losers,) clad in go-go boots and big 60's sunglasses cruising along on her very own bike. Oh, and did I mention she was wearing a bikini?

Well it seems Vicki is every bit as naive as Mr. Schmoo, and doesn't back down when the bikers being to harass her. After she realizes she bit off more than she can chew, she develops a brain cell and beings to play by the bikers rules in order to self preserve. Unfortunately the result is a drug induced, multiple gang rape that leaves some girls dead, and others wishing they were dead, with Vicki being one of the latter.

The Born Losers plays out a lot like the old westerns, where a lone cowboy takes on a lawless town armed with nothing more than a gun and half a brain. Complete with rifle, cowboy hat and Indian blood running through his veins, Billy Jack appears just that, and manages to position himself as the one man army determined to take out the violent biker gang that always manages to stay an arms length away from a jail cell.

Common themes run through this movie and the following 3 Billy Jack installments: rape of innocent females, Billy Jack's "problem" with authority figures, and a gang of derelicts that Billy Jack takes on virtually unarmed and alone. Unfortunately in The Born Losers, we do not get to sample the karate moves Billy Jack is known for, but we do get to sample his determination and desire to kick thug ass. Sadly, we also get to see his ass beaten more than once, but he proves time and again that the underdog does not always lose, and that his spirit can never be broken.

Billy Jack was the second and biggest money maker in the series. Though filming of it started in 1969, the movie was not completed until 1971, as production was halted when American International Pictures pulling out of the movie. After some bouncing around between Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Brothers, distribution was still lacking, so Tom Laughlin took the movie to the theaters himself in 1971.

Billy Jack died a quick death initially, but a re-release in 1973 brought in surprisingly more than $40 million. Soon Bill Jack had a cult following, due largely in part to the films focus on the plight of Native Americans during the civil rights movement. Additionally, the movie's theme song One Tin Soldier by Coven, remains among the top 100 when the list is adjusted for inflation, and I can certainly see why. It's one of the things I remember most about the movie.

So what about you guys? Any fellow fans out there? Or is Billy Jack the epitome of cheese?

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