The Born Losers

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The Born Losers
Promotional movie poster for the film
Directed by	Tom Laughlin
Produced by	Tom Laughlin
Written by	Elizabeth James
Starring	Tom Laughlin Elizabeth James Jeremy Slate Jane Russell
Music by	Mike Curb
Cinematography	Gregory Sandor
Editing by	John Winfield
Distributed by	American International Pictures
Release date(s)	1967
Running time	113 min.
Country	U.S.
Language	English
Followed by	Billy Jack
IMDb profile

The Born Losers is a 1967 film and the first of the Billy Jack movies. The film introduced Tom Laughlin as the half-Indian Green Beret Vietnam war veteran Billy Jack. Despite its formulaic premise, it hit a note with audiences, and resulted in Tom 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 this movie is considered in the subgenre of '60s motorcycle-gang exploitation films, in terms of character development, plot structure, and social commentary, The Born Losers is far more ambitious. Here the familiar "biker gang" format is not an end in itself, but is used as a framing device for telling a larger story.

The typical biker film centers on the gang itself, portraying them as scruffy, freedom-loving anti-heroes rebelling against straight society—while being unjustly harassed by the authorities. Although these films revel in exploiting lawless mayhem, sex, and violence, there is usually a sympathetic member in the group (e.g., Peter Fonda in Roger Corman's The Wild Angels) to root for.

What separates The Born Losers from the pack is its depiction of a mysterious, near-mythic hero pitted against a motorcycle gang of utterly unredeemable degenerates — with a script infused with a sharply anti-establishment agenda. (Director, co-writer, star Tom Laughlin would expand on these themes in the three sequels that followed.) Although this story is as bloody and violent as its contemporaries (many brutal beatings and sexual assaults), Laughlin uses its premise to comment on the ineffectiveness of law at dealing with career criminals, how the justice system fails to protect the public in criminal proceedings, and how ineffectual parenting breeds the very problems society would like to avoid.

The character of Billy Jack is introduced (via narration by Delores Taylor, Laughlin's wife) as an enigmatic, half-Indian Vietnam War veteran who shuns society, taking refuge in the peaceful solitude of the mountains. Significantly, intercut with idyllic scenes of bathing in a waterfall and strolling through the dense forest are grisly closeups of hawks tearing apart their prey (showing "acceptable" bloodshed in the context of Nature).

His troubles begin when he descends from this unspoiled setting and drives into town (i.e., re-enters society). A minor traffic accident leads to a hapless motorist being savagely beaten and chased by the sadistic, degenerate motorcycle gang. His cries for help are ignored by the terrified "don't get involved" bystanders (including Delores Taylor and her two children in a cameo role). It's up to Billy Jack to rescue the man by himself, shooting one of the gang members in the process.

The police throw Billy in jail and fine him heavily for discharging a rifle in public. He is treated with hostility by the police at every turn. In order to rescue "Vicky", a bikini-clad damsel-in-distress (played by co-scriptwriter Elizabeth James), Billy is again forced to battle the biker gang by himself.

The structure of the film is reminiscent of an old-fashioned Western, particularly High Noon. A lone hero stands against a gang of outlaws in a town where the lawmen are ineffective and the locals are too frightened to help. This image is reinforced by the cowboy hat Billy wears (his trademark Indian hat was introduced in the 1971 sequel, Billy Jack). Ever the outsider, Billy's half-Indian heritage leads to various gang members taunting him with racial slurs. Although lightly touched upon here, racial intolerance will be the central theme of Billy Jack.

The anti-authority sentiment continues up to the very end when a police deputy nearly kills Billy. Mistaken for a fleeing gang member, he is shot in the back. He is later found, nearly dead, lying by the side of a lake. It is notable that this element of near-martydom is used again in Billy Jack where he is seriously wounded during the climactic shootout with the police. Also in both films Billy is overpowered by a gang of thugs and receives a severe and sadistic beating.

In this film and its three sequels, Laughlin adopted the less-than-subtle format of violent exploitation 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 irony being while all his films are a sincere plea for peace, tolerance, and understanding, the Billy Jack character spends an inordinate amount of time karate-kicking his opponents into submission.