The Born Losers
Encyclopedia
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Born Losers is a 1967 action
film and the first of the Billy Jack
movies. The film introduced Tom Laughlin
as the half-Indian
Green Beret
Vietnam
veteran Billy Jack
. Since 1954 Laughlin had been trying to produce his Billy Jack script about discrimination toward American Indians. In 1967 he decided to introduce the Billy Jack character in a quickly written script designed to capitalize on the then-popular trend in motorcycle gang movies. The story was based on a real incident from 1964 where members of the Hells Angels
were arrested for raping two teenage girls in Monterey, California.
. The movie was not released until 1968 (according to the book "The Bible On Film: A Checklist, 1897-1980" by Richard Campbell and Michael Pitts, Scarecrow Press, 1981, the first hardcover book to write about the "Billy Jack" movies).
Despite its formulaic premise, it hit a note with audiences, and resulted in Laughlin being able to raise the funds to make its successful sequel, Billy Jack
. In 1974, after the sequel proved financially successful, American International Pictures
re-released The Born Losers with the taglines "The film that introduced Billy Jack" and "Back By Popular Demand: "Born Losers" The Original Screen Appearance of Tom Laughlin as Billy Jack". This re-release helped cement The Born Losers honor of being the highest grossing American International release until 1979 when The Amityville Horror
was released.
Although the screenplay has all the trappings of a typical motorcycle-gang exploitation film, director-writer-star Tom Laughlin added a layer of social criticism and a skeptical, anti-authority tone to the story (a formula he would expand upon in his next film, Billy Jack.) Here, bad parenting results in teenage girls cavorting with bikers and getting brutally assaulted. The police are ineffective in dealing with career criminals and protecting the innocent—and the local citizens lack the courage to take action themselves. It is up to the lone hero, in the form of Billy Jack, to stand up to the gang and restore some sense of order.
The police throw Billy in jail and fine him heavily for discharging a rifle in public. He is treated with suspicion and hostility by the police. Meanwhile, the marauding bikers terrorize the town, rape four teenage girls, and threaten anyone slated to testify against them. One of the girls, played by Susan Foster, later recants, saying she willingly gave herself to the biker gang. (Foster would go on to play a larger supporting role in Billy Jack.)
Co-scriptwriter Elizabeth James plays Vicky Barrington, a bikini-clad damsel-in-distress who is twice abducted and abused by the gang. The second time, she and Billy are kidnapped together. After Billy is brutally beaten, Vicky agrees to become the gang's sexually compliant "biker mama" if they release Billy. At the police station, Billy is unable to get help from the police or the local residents and must return to the gang's lair to rescue Vicky by himself.
The bikers lair was once owned by silent film star Rudolph Valentino as a get-a-way from Hollywood. It is located in Seal Beach.
Billy, armed with an 1903 Springfield rifle, captures the gang, shoots the leader (Jeremy Slate) between the eyes, and forces some of the others to take Vicky, who's been badly beaten herself, to the hospital. As the police finally arrive, Billy abruptly rides off on one of the gang's motorcycles.
The anti-authority sentiment continues up to the end when a police deputy accidentally shoots Billy in the back, mistaking him for a fleeing gang member. He is later found, nearly dead, lying by the shore of a lake. He is placed on a stretcher and is flown to the hospital in a helicopter
as Vicky and the sheriff give him a salute.
Here and in its three sequels, Laughlin adopted the format of violent exploitation and martial arts films to comment on a variety of social and political issues. Although highly successful at the box office, critical response has been generally negative. A characteristic remark from film critic Leonard Maltin takes Laughlin's films to task for "using violence as an indictment of violence." The inescapable irony is that while his films center around a message of peace, tolerance, and understanding, the Billy Jack character spends an inordinate amount of time karate-kicking his opponents into submission in order to make his point.
Born Losers is a 1967 action
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
film and the first of the Billy Jack
Billy Jack
Billy Jack is a 1971 action film. It is the second, and highest grossing, in a series of motion pictures centering on a character of the same name, played by Tom Laughlin who also directed and co-wrote the script. Filming began in Prescott, Arizona, in fall 1969, but the movie was not completed...
movies. The film introduced Tom Laughlin
Tom Laughlin (actor)
Tom Laughlin is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, educator and political activist. Laughlin is best known for his series of Billy Jack films. He has been married to Delores Taylor since 1954. Taylor has also co-produced and acted in all four of the Billy Jack films...
as the half-Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
Green Beret
United States Army Special Forces
The United States Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets because of their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force tasked with six primary missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, direct action, hostage rescue, and...
Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
veteran Billy Jack
Billy Jack
Billy Jack is a 1971 action film. It is the second, and highest grossing, in a series of motion pictures centering on a character of the same name, played by Tom Laughlin who also directed and co-wrote the script. Filming began in Prescott, Arizona, in fall 1969, but the movie was not completed...
. Since 1954 Laughlin had been trying to produce his Billy Jack script about discrimination toward American Indians. In 1967 he decided to introduce the Billy Jack character in a quickly written script designed to capitalize on the then-popular trend in motorcycle gang movies. The story was based on a real incident from 1964 where members of the Hells Angels
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a worldwide one-percenter motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Their primary motto...
were arrested for raping two teenage girls in Monterey, California.
Production
The movie was filmed on location in California at Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Big Sur, and other coastal areas. According to Laughlin's DVD audio commentary, filming was completed in just 3 weeks on an operating budget of $160,000. To cut costs, a stunt scene of a biker crashing into a pond was taken from American International's 1966 comedy The Ghost in the Invisible BikiniThe Ghost in the Invisible Bikini
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini is the seventh of the American International Pictures beach party films and was released in 1966. The entire film takes place in and around a haunted house with no beach in sight, with the teenage gang instead cavorting in and around it and the adjacent swimming...
. The movie was not released until 1968 (according to the book "The Bible On Film: A Checklist, 1897-1980" by Richard Campbell and Michael Pitts, Scarecrow Press, 1981, the first hardcover book to write about the "Billy Jack" movies).
Despite its formulaic premise, it hit a note with audiences, and resulted in Laughlin being able to raise the funds to make its successful sequel, Billy Jack
Billy Jack
Billy Jack is a 1971 action film. It is the second, and highest grossing, in a series of motion pictures centering on a character of the same name, played by Tom Laughlin who also directed and co-wrote the script. Filming began in Prescott, Arizona, in fall 1969, but the movie was not completed...
. In 1974, after the sequel proved financially successful, American International Pictures
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
re-released The Born Losers with the taglines "The film that introduced Billy Jack" and "Back By Popular Demand: "Born Losers" The Original Screen Appearance of Tom Laughlin as Billy Jack". This re-release helped cement The Born Losers honor of being the highest grossing American International release until 1979 when The Amityville Horror
The Amityville Horror (1979 film)
The Amityville Horror is a 1979 American horror film based on the bestselling 1977 novel of the same name by Jay Anson. It is the first movie in the Amityville Horror franchise....
was released.
Although the screenplay has all the trappings of a typical motorcycle-gang exploitation film, director-writer-star Tom Laughlin added a layer of social criticism and a skeptical, anti-authority tone to the story (a formula he would expand upon in his next film, Billy Jack.) Here, bad parenting results in teenage girls cavorting with bikers and getting brutally assaulted. The police are ineffective in dealing with career criminals and protecting the innocent—and the local citizens lack the courage to take action themselves. It is up to the lone hero, in the form of Billy Jack, to stand up to the gang and restore some sense of order.
Plot
Billy Jack is introduced as an enigmatic, half-Indian Vietnam War veteran who shuns society, taking refuge in the peaceful solitude of the mountains. His troubles begin when he descends from this unspoiled setting and drives into a small beach town. A minor traffic accident in which a motorist hits a motorcyclist results in a savage beating by members of the Born Losers Motorcycle Club. The horrified bystanders (including Laughlin's wife, Delores Taylor, and their two children in cameo roles) are too afraid to help or be involved in any way. Billy Jack jumps into the fray and rescues the man by himself. At this point the police arrive and arrest Billy for using a rifle to stop the fight. (The irony here is that, unknown to Billy, the motorist is the one who starts the fight by inexplicably insulting one of the bikers.)The police throw Billy in jail and fine him heavily for discharging a rifle in public. He is treated with suspicion and hostility by the police. Meanwhile, the marauding bikers terrorize the town, rape four teenage girls, and threaten anyone slated to testify against them. One of the girls, played by Susan Foster, later recants, saying she willingly gave herself to the biker gang. (Foster would go on to play a larger supporting role in Billy Jack.)
Co-scriptwriter Elizabeth James plays Vicky Barrington, a bikini-clad damsel-in-distress who is twice abducted and abused by the gang. The second time, she and Billy are kidnapped together. After Billy is brutally beaten, Vicky agrees to become the gang's sexually compliant "biker mama" if they release Billy. At the police station, Billy is unable to get help from the police or the local residents and must return to the gang's lair to rescue Vicky by himself.
The bikers lair was once owned by silent film star Rudolph Valentino as a get-a-way from Hollywood. It is located in Seal Beach.
Billy, armed with an 1903 Springfield rifle, captures the gang, shoots the leader (Jeremy Slate) between the eyes, and forces some of the others to take Vicky, who's been badly beaten herself, to the hospital. As the police finally arrive, Billy abruptly rides off on one of the gang's motorcycles.
The anti-authority sentiment continues up to the end when a police deputy accidentally shoots Billy in the back, mistaking him for a fleeing gang member. He is later found, nearly dead, lying by the shore of a lake. He is placed on a stretcher and is flown to the hospital in a helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
as Vicky and the sheriff give him a salute.
Themes and format
The story is reminiscent of a traditional Western, particularly High Noon and Shane. A lone hero stands against a gang of outlaws in a town where both lawmen and townspeople are unable or unwilling to help. This image is reinforced by the cowboy hat Billy wears (his trademark Indian hat was introduced in the 1971 sequel, Billy Jack). Billy's half-Indian heritage also leads to gang members taunting him with racial slurs (racial intolerance, especially toward Indians, will become the central theme of Billy Jack).Here and in its three sequels, Laughlin adopted the format of violent exploitation and martial arts films to comment on a variety of social and political issues. Although highly successful at the box office, critical response has been generally negative. A characteristic remark from film critic Leonard Maltin takes Laughlin's films to task for "using violence as an indictment of violence." The inescapable irony is that while his films center around a message of peace, tolerance, and understanding, the Billy Jack character spends an inordinate amount of time karate-kicking his opponents into submission in order to make his point.
External links
- Billy Jack, Laughlin's official Billy Jack web site