Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

dweilermg-1 While both BORN LOSERS and BILLY JACK portrayed Billy Jack as a heroic young man who stood up for the rights of oppressed children against prejudiced bullying townspeople making both movies cult favorites among young movie-goers this 3rd film was atrocious as it seemed to be apologizing for the violence of the 2 previous films. We saw Billy Jack as a martial arts hero protecting oppressed Indian children in the 1st 2 films so this film that seemed to be saying "You shouldn't have done that, Billy" was just totally wrong. Billy Jack never should've been sent to prison after end of Billy Jack and he should never be told that his fighting for justice was wrong. The bleeding heart "turn the other cheek" message of this film was a major turn off.

Diane Ruth I remember vividly some beautiful cinematography by Jack A. Marta from the beginning of this film. It seemed breathtaking at the time and the fact that it was downhill fast from those first scenes was disappointing. A short while into the movie, that disappointment turned to disgust. Finally, I was outraged by how offensively insipid and incredibly infantile the story was. I couldn't take it anymore and this became one of perhaps three films of which I walked out. It was absolutely awful and more than I could take. Not only did it insult my intelligence, it was a desecration of cinema. The writing, direction, and acting were some the worst I've ever seen. I also remember that I was in a multiplex and I simply went into another theater rather than ask for my money back. I just wanted to escape as quickly as possible into something that would help me forget what I had just witnessed. The other movie was just starting and I stayed for the duration. I don't remember what it was or anything about it except it didn't turn my stomach. The Trial of Billy Jack made me physically ill.

itsjustaaro_1 The views stated in this film are so unrealistic it hardly deserves the rating it has gotten, so much most of the commentary from the other reviewers on this website. I wasn't even alive or born in the era it was created, but even an elementary school drop-out can tell what is wrong with this picture and question some of the most ham-fisted script work, direction, and cast of characters ever put on film. There have been worse films made since the birth of Hollywood, from prominent directors to the indie scene, and frankly I'm inclined to say this ranks amongst the Top 10 of some of the worst. If not the Top 10, then all three deserve to be in the Top 20.I choose the second film first of the group because it displays such a lopsided view of reality. In what is said to be an 'expose' of the "corrupt" people around us we are instead given a three-hour preach song and dance which force-feeds it's overall goal rather than raise the bar as far as 'provocative' films go. In all of Laughlin's films we are told that all white people are evil, that the Native Americans are pathetic creatures always getting the short end of the stick, that the President and the government are so gosh-darned evil that they would want to tap into the phone lines of seemingly innocent flower power girls and guys. Rather amusingly, apparently Billy Jack is constantly referred to as a 'dirty in-jun' despite the fact that one could've easily mistaken him for an extra from a long-forgotten episode of TV's "Bonanza". The fact that these themes are evident frequently in all three of his films makes me question the family's sanity; the only good decision I've seen so far in this film were the opening shots of the prairie.The film borderlines stupidity in which the teens or children in question decide to create some "almighty lie detector" which can tell whether or not people on the media are lying. I'm sorry, but at that point, all motivation to take the film at face value has been lost. In trying to fight against a supposed 'agenda' the film has inadvertently started preaching it's own agenda. Thankfully, films made long after this one have learned not to treat the subject matters at hand with such stupid insecurities and lopsided twists. Things like having the Freedom School destroyed and attacked, children with bunnies being shot, make the film unintentionally funny and in my eyes - lazy.I find it ridiculous to believe that 'The Man' in this film, be it Washington, the National Guard, or the Army, would constantly go out and kill people or attack certain individuals without remorse and sweep things under the rug as is implied in this film. As a result, the cards are stacked too high and I'm being forced to believe that through the power of really awfully sung folk songs and a one-man killing machine is going to put down his detractors. This is supposed to be a movie in which to tell me that 'non-violent' means of getting a point across and wit, savvy, will triumph in the end. Not the case here: I have to be barefoot and were tight-fitting jeans with a goofy looking black hat.The acting is awful, the singing is horrendous, and if the DVD commentary is to be believed that Laughlin and his family didn't know what they were doing, then I guess the majority of you can see why we hate this film. By comparison to Rambo, a far superior soldier who underwent far worse conditions in the same war and location, Billy Jack comes off as a very hypocritical, stupid character and more like a fan-fiction "self-insertion" of the director.

sol **SPOILERS** With the earth-shaking success of his last film "Billy Jack" that took in an astounding 35 million in ticket sales in the box office, compared to the $500,000.00 that it took him to produced, Tom Laughlin-who played the fearless and sh*t-kicking half Indian half Irishman Green Beret hero in the film- was more then eager to follow up that movie with a sequel.Having Billy arrested and brought to trial for the karate kicking death of Bernard Rosner in "Billy Jack" it was a given that a film had to be made, the public demanded it, of Billy's trial and how he handles himself on the stand like he did handling the bad guys in the movie. Sad to say the 170 minute movie "The Trial of Billy Jack" was not really about his trial, that lasted no more then ten minutes of screen time, but the suffering of Billy's girlfriend Jean Roberts, Delores Taylor. It was Jean together with some 50 students of her government funded Freedom School who was gunned down by a bunch of trigger happy national guardsmen in a Kent State-like massacre in them being mistaken for being a gang of home grown terrorists and drug crazed, on pot, hippies. Almost the entire film is told in flashback by a crippled Jean in her hospital bed in how a series of tragic events lead to the school massacre that she's a survivor of.Having been released from prison after serving five years for involuntary manslaughter, the justifiable death of Bernard Rosner, Billy is back in town, or on the Indian reservation, and with a new outlook on life. Going into the mountains to have his soul cleansed of all impurities like violence and revenge Billy hopes to become a true Christ-like pacifist and man of love where his ability and skills of the martial arts would no longer be useful, or beneficial, to him. In that Billy Jack's film success is based on his sh*t kicking abilities not his turn the other cheek pacifism you know that his peaceful and passive outlook on life, as well as his and the Freedom School's enemies, wouldn't last too long!It's when Jean's students start to expose local as well as national, from the president on down, crooked politicians and their big business supporters with a serious of scorching exposes on the students-run TV station that those who run the country, and our lives, decide to put their foot down; On Jean's and her student's necks. Using a bunch of paid off American Indian leaders to sell their people out, by signing away their land rights, the late Bernard's father Mr. Posner, Riley Hill, who runs to state bank has Jean and her students threatened and harassed at every turn in having their precious Freedom School taken away from them. It's when Posner & Co. try to take over the secrete Indian Land adjutant to the Freedom School, as well as the school itself, that Billy who's been in deep meditation with his both dead as well as live Indian ancestors, as well as his deep inner self, comes on the scene.It's after a series of minor attacks on Jean and the Freedom school, like the bombing the TV station, that Rosner and his goons decide to go full tilt and finally put an end to the school's activities once and for all. That's In the schools, through a series of scorching exposes, exposing Rosner and his fellow crook's crimes against the Amerian Indians, as well as the American people. Rosner & Co. being totally unsuccessfully in putting Jean and her Freedom School out of business now plans to have the state and federal government do their dirty work for them.Nowhere as good as the previous Billy Jack movies, "Born Losers" & "Billy Jack", the film "The Trial of Billy Jack" despite it's marathon-like screen time, a world-class marathon runner runs that race faster then the length of the movie, it's not at all boring. What really spoiled the movie for me is that I expected, but knowing better, Billy to throw off his violent past and become a true man of the spirits where violence would be the absolute last thing on his mind. The fact that Billy was so eager to use his fists and feet instead of his spiritual attributes, as a peaceful and environmentally conscious American Indian, made him no better then the violent and mindless brutes that confronted him in the movie!P.S The movie had Billy Jack at his trial bring out how the infamous Lt. Calley's Mi Lie massacre of some 300 Vietnamese villagers was covered up by the then President of the United States Richard Nixon. The fact is that the Mi Lie massacre happened on March 16, 1968 when at the time Lyndon Johnson, not Nixon, was President.