Billy Jack is the nicest surprise of the year, and my own feeling is that it ranks among the top half-dozen American films so far in 1971.

The movie has as many causes in it as a year's run of the New Republic. There's not a single contemporary issue, from ecology to gun control, that's not covered.

one of the distinctive aspects of Billy Jack is that it openly addresses its hero’s violent tendencies, portraying them as a war zone between idealism and the all-too-human desire for vengeance and justice, whatever that might look like

The film works in spite of itself, in primitive fashion and because its locale, its odd mixture of pros and real local nonprofessional talents