10 Films That Were Blatant Propaganda

One would think blending the ways of a Native American Warrior with hardcore action hero philosophy would make for a suitably kick-ass picture, but so far we've only been given the worst of the two; first, with Billy Jack and later in the spectacularly failed career of Steven Seagal.

Like Seagal would do with On Deadly Ground, Tom Laughlin wrote and directed Billy Jack, basing the script off a character in his previous film The Born Losers. Loughlin had written Jack as a half-Native American Vietnam veteran and had been attempting to give him his own feature since 1954 with little interest.

Billy Jack managed to secure funding during the spate of revenge films such as Dirty Harry, Walking Tall and Death Wish, but it differed greatly from those films.

While ultimately being about Jack taking on the son of a crime boss who raped and murdered a Native American, the film is less focused on revenge and more on peaceful resolutions and preachy lectures. That the film's theme, "One Tin Soldier", survived for years on those Sounds of the seventies CDs advertised between Murder, She Wrote reruns says more about the film's tone than it should.

Jack managed to be a hit but was certainly a film of its time. Laughlin spent the rest of his life with the character, making four films, including the unbearably long Billy Jack Goes To Washington.

Laughlin would run for the White House twice. He died in 2013.