Billy Jack Goes to Washington

Plot synopsis:
Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin) is appointed a United States Senator to fill out the remaining term of another senator. It is hoped that he will quietly vote the party line, but his term in the Senate runs into trouble when he proposes a bill to fund a national youth camp which happens to be on the property where a nuclear power plant is also being proposed. His fellow senator, Joseph Paine (E. G. Marshall), claims to oppose nuclear power but is secretly taking graft to influence his votes in favor, and moves to try to keep Billy Jack out of the way when the bill is being debated.
Seeking to keep Billy out of the Senate on a day when a controversial energy bill is being voted on, Senator Paine suggests he should meet with a grassroots group that day instead. The group is working to pass a national initiative and Billy Jack becomes convinced of their cause.
Billy is invited to meet with a group of lobbyists attempting to offer him bribes and other perks if he will vote their way. Up against a man named Bailey (Sam Wanamaker) who wields a powerful influence in his home state, Billy Jack has his political career and reputation at stake if he does not cooperate. Billy responds with anger at their threat.
The next day in the Senate, he tries to speak on the floor in opposition to the nuclear power plant. Paine responds by proposing to expel Billy from the Senate as unfit for office. Billy's assistant quits after the murder of a lobbyist, fearing for her own safety, but returns after Billy Jack is about to be expelled from the Senate, to help him learn Senate procedure in order to filibuster. Billy collapses on the Senate floor in the effort, whereupon Paine confesses to his colleagues that every word Billy spoke was the truth.

Tags: cult, murder, violence

Review:
Having seen the original Billy Jack a few years back I figured it might be worth a few laughs if it was anything like the original.
It had some decent scripting and Laughlin is not that bad an actor, especially when working with a seasoned veteran like E.G. Marshall.
Despite a somewhat contrived plot the movie did get it's point across showing the corruption in Washington and how one man can make a difference.
The movie is no Mr. Smith goes to Washington, but then Laughlin is no Jimmy Stewart and for that matter Jimmy is no Billy Jack..
Other than to provide unintended laughs, I just can't see the Billy Jack films as capable of earning anything close to these very respectable scores--even this one, which is probably the best in the series.This film starts on a very, very poor note.
Instead of storytelling, there is a long exposition by Pat O'Brien as he explains much of the setting for the film--and it's way too much!
This long diatribe about the evils of nuclear weapons and nuclear power just seemed like sloppy film making-- like a political speech instead of a proper prologue.
Having this prologue just seemed like they forgot to film these scenes and instead chose to sum it all up this way!As for the rest of the film, it sure showed a lot of hubris for director/actor Tom Laughlin to consider remaking the Jimmy Stewart-Frank Capra classic film (currently #101 on IMDb's top 250).
In this version, however, instead of appointing Jefferson Smith to the Senate (a beloved icon of children across America), the powers that be decide to appoint a man with a long history of manslaughter and possibly justifiable homicides!!
Well, it was finally nice to see Delores Taylor (Laughlin's wife and co-star in the Jack films) stop being the perennial victim.
Finally, after three films, Billy apparently finally taught her martial arts and she, as well as Billy, deliver some well-earned butt-kickings in one scene!
Also, while the film stuck VERY close to the original material (too close if you ask me), the basic story, no matter how bastardized, is still very good--so good that Laughlin couldn't help produce a reasonably entertaining film--provided you turn off your brain and don't think too much about putting Billy Jack in this locale.
Plus you gotta admit that Laughlin sure seemed sincere--and infused the film with some nice energy late in the film--and not in the form of butt-kickings (I half expected him to do this on the Senate floor)!
This section of the film was, at times, too intense, but at least it was NOT an exact copy of Jimmy Stewart.However, despite some good intentions, the premise of Billy Jack taking on and winning against the evil special interest groups is silly--and also way too idealistic--and probably will result in a few laughs.
Apparently audiences felt pretty much the way I did, as this film never even made it past preview audiences and so it never received a normal theatrical release--though the film was definitely better than THE TRIAL OF BILLY JACK (which made "The Fifty Worst Movies of All Time" book).
Luckily for lovers of the bizarre and bad films (like me), BILLY JACK GOES TO WASHINGTON was finally released on DVD some time back.By the way, because the film was never released until recently, this might explain the poorly executed edits and choppy transitions.
Not The Best Of The Billy Jack Films.
This was fourth and last of the Billy Jack Era however, this picture never made it to the theaters for any length of time.
Tom Laughlin resumes his role as Billy Jack and Delores Taylor resumes her role as Jean Roberts.
Tom Laughlin was an adequate actor, he and his wife were always the best actors in any of the other movies.
If you want to enjoy this story line, get Mr Smith goes to Washington.
The movie was pretty well-received and even I was surprised that Billy Jack was a better fit in the old Jimmy Stewart role than I had expected.
It wasn't great, but serviceable, and certainly better than THE TRIAL OF BILLY JACK.
Long scenes that helped the flow of the film and made it less --well, "Billy Jack-ish" had been cut.
If Laughlin had used the cut I saw nearly thirty years ago, the film would still have worked.
His movie BILLY JACK foretold the way action movies would go (ie.
RAMBO, STEVEN SEIGAL, CHUCK NORRIS, etc.)  In this particular installment of the Billy Jack Saga,the emphasis is on Washington and the way the special interest groups and power brokers have corrupted our government.
There is an eerie fortelling of the Vince Foster espisode.BILLY JACK GOES TO WASHINGTON is a re-make of the Jimmy Stewart classic MR.
SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, except using nuclear reactors as the hub of the plot.
Tom Laughlin, as the character Billy Jack, really has a chance to prove his acting skills in this one;  there is more depth of character in his performance of the lead role.
Remake of the 1939 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington..
The only differences between this film and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington are to update it from 1939 to 1977 and to fit it into the context of the Billy Jack character.
If you're a Billy Jack fan it's worth a watch.
If you're not a Billy Jack fan watch Jimmy Stewart in the original instead..
I rented this thinking it was going to be another fun Billy Jack movie (i.e. strong on social message but inarticulate enough and just enough over the top to be a good camp experience).
Shortly into watching this I realized I was watching a remake of Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and I immediately fell in line with the story's passion.
Thankfully, this film knows where its passion lies, because it stayed clear of the romantic angle between Mr. Smith and his aide.
And fans of movies with a social conscience are going to cringe at a scene that looks like it was lifted from Mannix (BJ looks cool doing his fight stuff on the reservation, but against big city thugs?
We do have CSPAN to record filibusters today, but we have no Mr. Smiths or Mr. Jacks with the ability to make it to the senate in the first place.
As a Washington, D.C. native who saw this film when it was first released (and, contrary to some other comments, it WAS released in DC, playing in several area theaters), I was interested to see how Laughlin would portray the city and its political institutions.
The debt to Jimmy Stewart is obvious throughout but, having said this, his film reflected the political temper of the city in the late 1960's-early 1970's very well indeed.
Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977) was the last film in the Billy Jackseries.
Unlike the other films where the political posturing was kept in check, Tom Laughlin goes full tilt boogie into the subject.
In this virtual remake of the classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Billy Jack isappointed the vacant senatorial seat after receiving a full pardon from theGovernor.
But they did and he tries to do his best to let the whole nation know thathe's the last and only honest man in Washington D.C.Why do we watch Billy Jack movies.
I remember, as a kid, running into a bit of advance promotion on "Billy Jack Goes to Washington" in one of my teen magazines and readying myself for its release.
It is an almost fully literal remake of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" made in full cooperation with Frank Capra, with Laughlin in his Billy Jack character taking the place of James Stewart.
The excellent cast plays the property professionally, but invariably the piece comes off like a sub-TV Movie of the Week affair, and way too long.
I haven't seen the re-edited version for DVD, but I would think that reducing the film's length would reduce comprehension of the story as well.
Nevertheless, it is to be preferred over the bathetic and ridiculous "The Trial of Billy Jack," which can be seen as reflecting the screeching halt of the 60s counterculture; "Billy Jack Goes to Washington" may likewise reflect their attempt as reintegration into the system, but that's a bit of a stretch.
They decide on Billy Jack, currently sitting in prison after being sent to jail at the end of his previous film.First of all, the premise is pretty silly.
But it is necessary to move the plot forward.Unfortunately, the plot is pretty weak and is really just a ham-handed confrontation between Billy Jack and some corrupt politicians who are obsessed with building a nuclear reactor on a fault line.
The plot idea is not bad, but the execution is so sloppy it seems like an amateur movie-of-the-week, not a theatrical release.
this fourth and final film in the Billy Jack franchise was never released theatrically.i thought it was a better film the the previous one,the T4ial of Billy jack,which i found tedious,bloated and preachy.this one is not as heavy.there is very little action.it/s more drama than anything.basically.billy jack become a senator and quickly realizes how corrupt things are in Washington.i'll leaver the plot at that.on a side note,i noticed that the run time is listed as 155 minutes,which is interesting since the version i watched was about 111 minutes or so.i also noticed on message boards that someone had seen the original cut at a preview some thirty plus years ago,and had noticed that the DVD version was cut to pieces.it would be interesting to see that version.maybe some day,that version will see the light of day.as for this version,it was decent enough.for me,Billy Jack Goes to Washington is a 6/10.
Senator Billy Jack.
Tom Laughlin returned once again as both director and star of this film, both the fourth(and last) Billy Jack film, and a remake of "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington".
After one of his state senator's dies, Billy is chosen by the governor and surviving other Senator(played by E.G. Marshall) to replace him(!) For some reason, they think fiercely independent Billy will follow the party line(huh?) while attracting younger voters(Perhaps!) Of course, as soon as Billy gets wind of the political corruption in his state, he goes into Martial Arts fighting, then filibustering mode...
Well-intentioned but misguided film tries to shoehorn Billy into Jimmy Stewart's Mr. Smith role(and costar Delores Taylor as Jean, his adviser of sorts).
Former convicted criminal from the first Billy Jack movie and focal point of a riot where a few dozen people were killed now gets an appointment to the US Senate via Governor Richard Gauthier.
Only in the movies.Tom Laughlin felt that Jimmy Stewart's character of Jefferson Smith was a proper vehicle for the expression of his ideas and so Billy Jack Goes To Washington was born.
And if you've seen Mr. Smith Goes To Washington you know pretty much what happens here.
Whole chunks of dialog from the original is lifted into this film.Another idea that had me reeling though was included, that being a national initiative that the young folks who Billy Jack is an icon want.
Billy Jack Goes To Washington is a bad idea of misplaced populism..
watch the billy jack "franchise" crash and burn.....
In 1967, Laughlin produced Born Losers a film so obscure, even at the time, that if you wanted to see you had to -- not making this up -- find the nearest drive-in, and even at that date the drive-in was starting to fade into history.
Laughlin cast his wife in the main supporting role (a performance so subdued that critics, who did not know the lady, could not tell if she was acting or simply running lines) and grabbed warm bodies off the street (so it seemed) for every other part.
(Nonetheless the one scene in Billy Jack where Laughlin points to the bully's face and tells precisely where he is about to kick him, and how nothing can stop it, will live on in film history, it's brilliant).
The success of BJ led to The Trial of Billy Jack which to be fair was at least as good as the preceding film, though not much better.
Then Laughlin, never comfy in the role of producer or deal maker, disappeared amid rumours that he was having trouble getting financing for Billy Jack Goes to Washington.
The charming amateur acting so obvious in the first three is completely inappropriate in a film that is demonstrating the hubris of remaking a Jimmy Stewart role.
There is an EXTREMELY MISGUIDED attempt to insert into the film the trademark "Billy Jack" brand of violence.
As the title clearly suggests, BILLY JACK GOES TO WASHINGTON is a remake of the Jimmy Stewart film- only with a bit more kick...
The prostitution of the Constitution is beautifully summed up at one point when one of the thugs working for one of the politicians who has auctioned off his seat to the highest bidder says, "Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered." Although Laughlin seems a bit TOO laid back in the early scenes, looking like he's about to nod off at a presidential debate, he DOES eventually get to doff his boots and kick some ***.
(In an odd little scene near the end of the movie, Dolores Taylor congratulates Billy Jack for not "taking his boots off" during the course of events.
It's an odd observation because not only does HE take off his boots to kick some ***, but SHE does, too- literally.) The message Laughlin's trying to get across- about the built-in uncertainties of using nuclear power- are still valid today (look at GE's Fukushima meltdown, if nothing else).
Billy Jack has always been the Patron Saint of Lost Causes, which is one of the things that makes the character so enduring: we're ALWAYS going to be at the mercy of the 1%; but at least Laughlin stood up and said something that most of the spineless cowards in Hollywood wouldn't DARE.
As for the movie, Billy Jack does his on-the-level best, but Bernie Sanders (or Jimmy Stewart) he ain't: he literally collapses during his filibuster and has to be rushed to the hospital (where it's touch-and-go for a while).
Needing a puppet they can control to complete their deal, and concerned about populist opposition to the senator's replacement, these corrupt politicians and lobbyists appoint a person totally disinterested in politics--Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin).
Yet even though the appointment is only supposed to be for a couple of months, what the insiders don't realize is that Billy Jack has his own code of values and he doesn't bend to political pressure that easily.
Remake of classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington doesn't get MY vote!.
I stumbled across this movie on the late, late show and recognized Laughlin and wondered if this might be one of those "Billy Jack" movies I'd heard about but had never seen.
It didn't take me long to realize the movie I was watching was a remake of the classic Mr.Smith Goes to Washington as it follows the scene structure pretty closely.
Laughlin was so wooden in the film that I was shocked that he had enough popularity to HAVE this role.
In this film Billy Jack is appointed a Senator, and despite all that we've seen in the past films where he raves against the Government, he goes to Washington and discovers that politicians are crooked.(?????) There is only one real action scene where Jean is being accosted by some knife wielding black dudes and Billy shows up just in time to kick the crap out of them.
All four of the Billy Jack films, the first two very good, seem to have a disjointed story line.
It doesn't appear to be that way, and now he's gone off into the limbo of obscurity - I will have to agree that this may have been the film to end Billy Jack entirely.
strange, silly, force-fed, and filled with unrealistic portrayals of the people we know and share this world with.The third film in the Billy Jack trilogy is, as you may have guessed it, a remake - if one could so be inclined to call it that - of the Jimmy Stewart film 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'.
Surprisingly, he actually has his shoes on this time and does very little of 'boots-to-faces' than the previous films; rather, he decides to let his speeches do the butt-kicking.I don't consider this film a remake of a classic and more like one man's quest to take a classic and spin it 'his' way.
If the fates had their way we might've gotten something from John Denver, but sadly Laughlin won the bid to take the directorial bid to make this film and it shows.
I think the only generous compliment I can really give is that he at least tried to give me, the viewer, a decent adaptation of Washington and the Senate at best.
instead, that did not come to be, and we have this obscure directorial mess.As in my previous review, I don't think I had to have been born in the 60's and 70's to have 'understood' this film.
I guess Tom Laughlin thought he was as good of an actor as Jimmy Stewart which he isn't anywhere close to.
High school actors are MUCH better than Laughlin and his wife.
I can't believe the owners of "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" let such a bunch of amateurs do a remake of such a great movie that had professional/talented actors.
I should have known how bad the movie was going to be as I thought the original "Billy Jack" movie was also terrible due to the amateur acting.
Don't waste your time watching this movie or any other of Tom Laughlin and his wife's pathetic movies!