Tom Laughlin Has Passed On

Tom Laughlin has died at age 82. I remember the first time I saw him in Billy Jack and thinking "this isn't very good...but it is really earnest." I think that is the thing that stands out about Laughlin's films. He saw them as vehicles for his politics, but also made them entertaining, more or less. Although he faded from the movie scene after the Seventies, his Billy Jack movies - Born Losers (a biker flick that introduces the character and my favorite of the series), Billy Jack, The Trial of Billy Jack and Billy Jack Goes to Washington - are an interesting footnote in movie history, a quirky action/activist series. Check out the first two, at least.