The snake scene.
That’s all you have to say to anyone who saw ‘Billy Jack’, and you’ll get an emotional reaction. It was the same on the set.
You have to understand, people in the world knew a lot less in 1970 than we know today. You couldn’t find things out quickly by clicking a Google search button or bringing Wikipedia on your phone. You had to go your set of World Book Encyclopedia, or, if you were super erudite, your Encyclopedia Britannica. (I don’t know what the difference between the two was, but back then everyone knew the Britannica’s were the ultimate informational resource.)
But even with either of these esteemed sources of information, you’d look up something like ‘rattlesnake’ and it would tell you were they lived and what they ate and how they regulated their body temperature (laying in the sun and hiding in the shade). Neither book told you if the snake was going to kill you if you stood 50 feet away. And that’s the bottom line of what everyone wanted to know that day. It’s like we thought the snakes might possibly be able to fly.
So when the Snake Man (as I referred to him) arrived on the set with snakes in boxes (the scariest boxes ever), everyone psychically just knew. And most people left. There was a lot of discussion about how they were going to film the snakes, what the snakes were likely to do, how fast they were, if they could jump, squirt, or in any way kill us just because we could see them. (I told you: ignorance and fear ruled supreme.) Some members of the crew opted out. Like a suicide mission, the crew on the shoot of this scene was volunteer based. But it all got shot. And became one of the more vivid, long-lasting impressions from the film.
The snakes arrived in boxes. There were 4 or 5 or 6 of them, by my memory.
Snakes in a bag. The snakes were in burlap bags inside the boxes.
The Snake Man at work
The crew bunkered in for the shoot. Notice how far away this picture is taken from 'the action'. Also notice Snake Man poised between the two cameras to protect the cameramen, plus the two men standing behind the cameramen ready to pull them to safety should the snake get really pissed and want to kill everyone (like I said, we didn't know much). That's Fred Koenekamp on the camera on the right, and Tom standing behind him directing and preparing to scram.
One of the stars of 'Billy Jack' that didn't get proper billing
thats just great film making.