The Trial of Billy Jack is a 1974 Western action film starring Delores Taylor and Tom Laughlin. It is the sequel to the 1971 film Billy Jack and the third film overall in the series.
Directed by Laughlin, the film has a running time of nearly three hours. Although commercially successful, it was panned by critics. The film was included in the book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time.
Plot
Billy Jack goes to court facing an involuntary manslaughter charge stemming from events in the earlier film. He is found guilty and sentenced to a prison term. Meanwhile, the kids at the Freedom School—an experimental school for runaways and troubled youth on a Native American reservation in Arizona—vow to rebuild the school. They raise funds and acquire a new building, eventually starting their own newspaper and television station.
Inspired by Nader's Raiders, they begin using the newspaper and TV station to conduct investigative reporting, angering several politicians and townspeople in the process with their exposés.
The school's activities range from having their own search and rescue team to artistic endeavors such as a marching band and belly dancing. The school hosts a large marching-band contest and arts festival, called "1984 Is Closer Than You Think," to raise money for the school.
Billy Jack is released from prison and, trying to reconnect with his spiritual beliefs, begins a series of lengthy vision quests. He becomes involved with a radical group on the reservation that opposes the federal effort to cease recognition of their tribe and the surrender of their tribal lands to local developers. When one of the tribal members is arrested for poaching deer on what was formerly tribal land, the school comes to his defense.
The school begins to hold hearings on the rights of the native people and child abuse. The school defies a court order to return a boy to his father who had abused the boy and cut off his hand. The FBI begins visiting the school and taps their phones.
As tensions mount between the school and the people in the nearby town, a mysterious explosion at the school knocks their television station off the air. The governor calls a state of emergency and mobilizes the National Guard, and a curfew is established in town. The students respond by holding a parade in the town in violation of the curfew. On the way back to the school, their bus breaks down and local townspeople confront the students and threaten to set their bus on fire.
Billy Jack appears during the incident to protect the students and then comes to the attempted rescue of a tribal member who is being harassed and beaten to death at a local dance in town. Billy managed to use his Karate on Posner, who gets killed by the kick to the throat. However, the National Guard is stationed around the school and is ordered to open fire on the students, killing four and wounding hundreds more.
The entire story is told through flashbacks by teacher Jean Roberts from her hospital bed after the shooting. During Billy's trial, he mentions the 1968 My Lai massacre and recalls, in a flashback scene, witnessing a similar incident while serving in Vietnam.
Cast
Tom Laughlin as Billy Jack
Delores Taylor as Jean Roberts
Victor Izay as Doc
Teresa Kelly as Carol
Sara Lane as Russell
Geo Anne Sosa as Joanne
Lynn Baker as Lynn
Riley Hill as Posner
Sparky Watt as Sheriff Cole
Gus Greymountain as Blue Elk
Sacheen Littlefeather as Patsy Littlejohn
Michael Bolland as Danny
Jack Stanley as Grandfather
Bong-Soo Han as Master Han
Rolling Thunder as Thunder Mountain
William Wellman Jr. as National Guardsman
Production
Part of the film was shot in Monument Valley in Utah.
Release
The film opened on November 13, 1974 in one of the widest releases of the time. It opened in an additional 150 theaters two days later, totaling more than 1,000 theaters in its opening week, including 180 four wall distribution locations in New York, Philadelphia and Phoenix. The wide release was accompanied by a $3 million advertising campaign in the opening week.