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]]>I agree with Michael Appel. This scene is the best scene of the movie… a “Bernard had it coming” moment fulfilled. You wait and wait thru out the movie for this for this kind of justice to prevail… THEN, finally it does.
Thanks for resurrecting this unequaled movie! AND please re-post the entire scene.
Leon Epperly
Current score: 2 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)
]]>Frank – Tom has a unique ability of conveying an idea onto film so the viewer gets hit with a visual impact of the point he is trying to make. An example of this is the opening sequence of THE BORN LOSERS. When the kid is getting beaten up by the motorcycle gang and noone has the courage to help him. When the store owner won’t even let him use the phone to call the police, Billy Jack just can’t stand by and let this take place. He gets his rifle and holds the entire motorcycle gang at bay, preventing them from continuing their assault on, and possibly killing the boy. Along come the police and Billy Jack is also arrested. In court, he gets a larger fine and more jail time than the motorcyle gang. He attorney tells him, “Go help someone again sometime.” That’s the way life is. Your father captured it perfectly.
The ice cream parlor scene is a masterpiece. The kids are afraid to go into the store to get ice cream because they know the owner is a racist. All they can do is watch the white kids enjoy ice cream. Finally, they go in, don’t get served, and if the store owners brutality of discriminating against them isn’t enough, Bernard and Dinosaur also humiliate them by making them white. Again, Billy Jack is outraged and just can’t stand by. He goes berserk! Then, he kneels down by the girl and wipes the flour off her face and makes sure they are all okay. That is the real Billy Jack. The man who loves those children, protects them, and is outraged by the way they are treated, and allowed to be treated, by society. Even though he knows he’s going to have to face the town now, he goes outside and stands tall knowing he did the right thing.
Your father fought long and hard to have his films released unedited by the studios who wanted to take away a lot of their meaning and make them little more than dime a dozen action films. In my opinion, you are doing Tom injustice by not showing the ice cream parlor sequence in its entirety. You have edited a masterpiece – a work of art. It should start with the kids outside, afraid to go in, and end with Billy Jack leaving the shop after consoling the child victims.
My wife and I had long arguments about Billy Jack. She is not a fan. She points out the violence in the film, and in that scene in particular. The first time we discussed it I agreed with her. But explained not violent in the way she says. The violence is what the store owner, Bernard, and Dinosaur did. She did not see that. She did not understand that form of violence. Before going berserk, Billy Jack explained the impact that violence would have for years to come on those children. That was the true violence. It took me a long, long time to open her eyes and understand the film. Tom was a genius in having Billy Jack go over to Sunshine and brush the flour off her face after the fight. THAT IS THE REAL BILLY JACK. That is who Billy Jack is and what Billy Jack is all about. Please post the entire sequence, Frank.
Thank you.
Current score: 9 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)
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