Your Film Professor

2 Comments

1. Ann Marie says:

   November 16, 2018 at 11:29 pm

   Every film that was of a certain time period, needed to be acted, filmed in that exact way. THEY WERE AUTHENTIC. This film was not made off the cuff, it was made using REAL Native American people and REAL input from the last living ancestor of the holy man which was depicted in the snake ceremony scene. What Tom Laughlin and Delores Taylor DID was give GREAT respect to Native American’s. The Billy Jack films are real, what was happening at that tine and in that exact way to Native Americans, it is not much better in the way of treatment today, its just that people are more “aware” of it. I don’t see anyone giving any land back, apologizing to us that we were “oppressed” , those of you should remember, WE were the first slaves in this country and the entire country was OURS to begin with.

   Reply
   • reagan@yourfilmprofessor.com says:

     November 17, 2018 at 9:28 pm

     Thank you SO much for your thoughtful and thought provoking response Ann Marie. To respond to your last point first, I wholeheartedly agree with you: The genocide of Native Americans and the stealing of Native Americans’ land is not just one of the worst crimes against humanity in American history but to my mind human history. (Coincidentally, I just recently read Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s seminal work _An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States_, a devastating account of how Native Americans were systematically displaced, assimilated, and annihilated.) I don’t know if you happened to read my other blog post on the focus of how Native Americans continue to be oppressed, but if you haven’t you might check it out: https://www.yourfilmprofessor.com/american-outrage-two-american-outrages-reflect-historical-violations/ Now, in terms of the film _Billy Jack_, I agree with you to this extent: As I say in my blog post on the film, I do appreciate that for the time, the film was an important and perhaps even radical counterculture narrative, including intersecting with Native American belief systems. I did not know that the film was made using “REAL input from the last living ancestor of the holy man,” depicted in the snake ceremony, so thank you for educating me on that point. That sequence did indeed have a feeling of Native American authenticity, though, and correct me if I’m wrong (my memory is a little fuzzy on this point), I believe it was one of the very few moments (only moment?) of Native American authenticity in the film. In other words, as I say in my blog post, while the film is infused with, hmm, a deep regard for Native American culture and belief systems, I don’t think the film is actually ultimately about Native Americans (and, again, I believe that most if not all of the principal actors where non-Native American), Laughlin and Taylor making more of a “hippie”/Bohemian/counter culture film than a bonafide Native American culture film. The one provocative point you make that I would have to disagree with is that “every film that was of a certain time period, needed to be acted, filmed in that exact way.” You may be saying that films or any cultural text adheres to the cultural norms of the time period, which is of course true. However, within that historical limitation, filmmakers always have choices and indeed film history is replete with the questionable and indeed in some cares horrendous “choices” filmmakers have made. One need only look at one of the most racist films ever made _The Birth of a Nation_, a film that should not have ever been made in that way, even during that time period. Even today we see filmmakers making horrible choices, such as the notorious example of Adam Sandler’s film _The Ridiculous Six_, where “a dozen Native actors and actresses, as well as the Native cultural advisor, left the set…in protest of its portrayal of the Apache culture.” I’m of course not putting _Billy Jack_ into that category AT ALL, just trying to highlight some obvious films to illustrate my point. As I say, I admire _Billy Jack_ a great deal, and in this regard I’m not saying it should remade because it is a bad film or a derogatory film but rather that I think its incredible prescience could be updated to our even more evolved state of being today. And, again, wouldn’t it be refreshing if a Native American filmmaker made the film, casting a Native American actor? Thanks again for your great points; I thoroughly enjoyed engaging your provocative and insightful thoughts!

     Reply