YMMV / Billy Jack

• Anvilicious: Just about everything that bothered hippies and the New Left in the early '70s - racism, mistreatment of Native Americans, class privilege, Vietnam, Watergate, police brutality, campus shootings, the Generation Gap, etc. - is endlessly harped on, particularly in The Trial of Billy Jack. Even those who agree with the movies' politics often find their endless preaching insufferable.
• Broken Aesop: For as much as the film sells the audience on the idea that pacifism and nonviolence are the right way to go, the message is heavily undermined by how the only thing keeping the peaceful hippies from being repeatedly victimized by the town thugs is Billy's freely-dispensed asskicking.
• Critical Dissonance: Terrible reviews never stopped Billy Jack or Trial from becoming box-office hits. Laughlin not only recognized this, he organized an essay contest where fans could rebut the critics of Trial, knowing it would resonate with the franchise's intense anti-establishment themes.
• Franchise Original Sin: While the series' turn to the political is often derided now, it was initially well-received. In contrast to the largely apolitical first movie, The Born Losers, Billy Jack leaned heavily into hot-button issues of the day, particularly the counterculture and Native American rights. The thing is that it was still an action movie first and foremost, and the political stuff served largely to make the film more intellectually and emotionally stimulating rather than slowing it down. However, later movies would up the political content significantly to the point that it became more of a burden. The Trial of Billy Jack was over three hours long and the action took a backseat to filibustering and vision quests, and while the committed fanbase ate it up, critics and general audiences were less enthusiastic. Billy Jack Goes to Washington, meanwhile, would drop the action entirely in favor of the title character giving speeches to the Senate and failed to gain a wide release.
• Sequelitis: Born Losers has its fans and Billy Jack is a bona fide Cult Classic. Few except hardcore fans have anything good to say about the third and fourth films in the series, which take the series' less charming attributes up to eleven.
• Signature Scene: Billy Jack kicking Mr. Posner in the face, then taking on several thugs using his Hapkido skills. As one of the earliest films to make use of martial arts, it was quite iconic for its time. Interestingly, a bit of a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome ensues in that, despite his skills, Billy Jack is overwhelmed by sheer numbers and loses the fight.

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