Born Losers (1967)

Tom Laughlin's quasi-iconic character Billy Jack was not initially introduced to audiences in the self titled 1971 cult classic Billy Jack, but rather in the surprisingly racy 1967 action film Born Losers. At the time unable to get the money to make the Billy Jack film that Tom Laughlin wanted to make, the actor/writer/director instead decided to cash in on the then popularity of 'biker gang films' and made this film that takes its title from the name of the fictitious biker gang which constitutes its primary antagonist. The 'Born Losers' invade in mass a small California beach town around spring break time and proceeded to wreck general havoc as well as rape a number of young women. Recently returned half-Indian Vietnam war veteran Billy Jack gets caught up in events trying to stop the biker gang, but he arguably isn't the films main character, rather young college student Vicky Barrington (played by the films writer Elizabeth James) is.

Vicky and several other girls who have been rapped by the gang are to testify against their assailants in a trial, only the Born Losers go about intimidating them one by one  into dropping out. Billy Jack manages to save Vicky from assault after her police protection is lured away in a distraction, he proceeds to try and keep her safe with him until the trail comes and the two start falling in love. But things don't turn out as planed and Billy Jack and Vicky have several confrontations with the Losers and eventually Jack is severely beaten and Vicky surrenders her self to the gang to save his life. Billy Jack then must try to convince a not unjustifiably scared local police force to help him rescue Vickie. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the films ending is that Billy Jack dose not turn into the type of action superhero that Stallone did with Rambo, Billy Jack is reasonably skilled but nothing he does here seems like it would be impossible for a real person to do and hence the climatic solution is satisfying in being effective yet comparatively understated. I found I was routing for Billy Jack more then I might for other movie heroes because his victories felt more like real accomplishments then they typically do.

This movie can be a little hard to watch in places, it pretty frank about its subject matter, but its such an a-typical and I hesitate to say almost realist action film that I just found it kind of fascinating. Billy Jack the movie would later take things even further in a unique direction but Born Losers is a worthy introduction for Laughlin's classic character. ***