Film Analysis Of Billy Jack

In 1971 Tom Laughlin released Billy Jack, the sequel to The Born Losers (1967) starring himself as the main character, Billy Jack, a biracial Navajo Native American. The film explores the plight of Native Americans in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement (the film is set in and was filmed in 1969), as well as their interactions with the dominant White American culture. The main character Billy Jack is set up to be a myth like warrior-savior of the Native Americans and the multi-ethnic populace of their reservation. Billy Jack, even though he is half-white is completely submerged in his Navajo culture, taking a vow of peace that throughout the film is broken. The film shows an unadulterated depiction of White American racism and privilege,

Around five children from the reservation walk into an ice cream parlor, with one being White, sit at the counter and ask to be served. The owner of the place denies them service by lying about having ice cream and cones. To break up the argument between the owner of the parlor and the White child defending her Native friends the Sheriff’s son, Bernard (David Roya), executes his idea of “making the Native children white” by pouring flour on them, then injures one of them. To break up the altercation Billy Jack comes in and carries on a monologue before starting to beat up Bernard for the disrespectful way he treated the Native children. In this scene the Native children remain benevolent, not speaking or physically responding to being physically humiliated in public and the altercations persists. Only when Billy Jack comes in and decelerates the situation and unleashed his anger on the White townspeople and Bernard does the situation end. The scene shows the White customers idly standing by as the Native children are denied service and humiliated, silently condoning the Bernard’s racism. The owner of the shop still believes he should be able to deny service to anyone despite the law saying otherwise. The Native children disrupt the previous way of life where White people didn’t have to cater to people of color, where people of color were not seen or heard in white-only spaces. White attitudes towards people of color did not change with federal legislations starting six years before 1971. The sheriff’s son, Bernard, is just as racist as his father displaying how racism is engrained though generations. The privilege Bernard possesses allows him to, for most of the film, to get away with heinous crimes with little repercussions. Billy Jack defies his teachings and the pressure of the