is the second (after 'The Born Losers') in the series of films about the half-Native American war vet, Billy Jack, played by Tom Laughlin. I say it's the best action movie of all time for GLers, even though by today's standards there's actually not that much action in it. The film focuses on an independent, Summerhill-style school (called Freedom School) for troubled kids, many of them hippies and Native American kids. It was the biggest money maker in the whole series after it's theatrical re-release in '73. The coolest parts of the film are when the story focuses on the kids themselves, which it does quite a bit, actually. Near the beginning an 11-year-old girl at the school sings songs she wrote and plays guitar at the school.

One of the best scenes, though, is when many of the younger students, including the 11-year-old, confront the town council about the harassment of the students by bigoted townspeople, among other issues. There's a great line by one of the girls--who is about 13 or 14--who asks the council members why their so afraid of the kids: "What is it about me that scares you?" she asks. "Is it my sexuality?" The council chairman is stunned for a minute, then says, "You're a dirty little girl." There's also banter about the 11-year-old, when the chairman asks her her age and she tells him, one of the older students says, "Too old for you." To which he replies something on the order of, "She's just about right for you, I guess." Cut to thirty years later, and it's obvious that the girl who asked if he was afraid of her sexuality was right.

And Billy Jack, of course, stands up for the kids against the town and it's corrupt policemen and officials. This is an essential hippie film. And the critics hate it. Of course they do--the film truly does deal with some issues no modern film would dare touch, even though it's in no way an art film. But ironically sometimes it takes one of these kinds of genre films to tap into the heart of an issue, even if it doesn't exactly age well. Still, this is a film that has direct significance for us, in that it is essentially about youth empowerment. Sure, the kids sometimes need a little help, but they do a pretty good job of standing up for themselves for the most part.

This is a movie that should be in every GLer's collection, I think. And it should be loaned to friends because it's a youth rights movie disguised as an action film, so it won't make your friends think oddly of you. Besides, the movie has tons of girls aged about 10 up (none of them get naked but they talk about sexual stuff pretty openly.) The critics' main complaint about the film was it carries an anti-violence message while its hero hypocritically uses violence to achieve his goals. this is, however, a simplistic argument. One can make a distinction between the type of offensive violence the film criticizes and the violence that Billy Jack uses to defend the kids. But if you ask me, what really bothers the critics isn't the violence but the blatant celebration of youth resourcefulness, ability and, yes, sexuality.

Go buy this movie! Let's bring Billy Jack back!