Billy Jack is a 1971 action film. It is the second in a series of motion pictures centering on a character of the same name which started with the movie The Born Losers (1967), 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 until 1971. American International Pictures pulled out of the production, halting filming. 20th Century-Fox came in and filming eventually resumed but when that studio refused to distribute the film, Warner Bros. took over.
The film lacked distribution, so Laughlin took it to theatres himself in 1971. The film died at the box office in its initial run but took in more than $40 million in its 1973 re-release, which was supervised by Laughlin.
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