Ambitious actor Tom Laughlin first invented his persistent Billy Jack character for the 1967 exploitation feature The Born Losers (1967), in which a taciturn black-clad loner defeats a biker gang in a California town. The character is an amalgam of trendy elements: he's a part- Navajo Native American, a master of martial arts and a disillusioned Green Beret veteran of the Vietnam War. Laughlin's follow-up feature Billy Jack (1971) took so long to complete that American-International Pictures dropped out; 20th Century-Fox saw the production to completion but declined to release it. Warner Bros. took over distribution, but Laughlin was so unhappy with the token release given to his film that he petitioned for the right to take it on the road himself. The subsequent success of Laughlin's 'grass roots' distribution campaign made Billy Jack into a national phenomenon.

With his wife Delores Taylor, Laughlin continued the story of the Billy Jack character through more sequels, increasing the populist political sermonizing with each. The second sequel Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977) is far more famous for its stormy production and contentious financing squabbles, which Laughlin publicized to promote his self-image as a David conquering the Goliath of Hollywood. Other voices argued that the Billy Jack character was unworthy of the controversy he generated; ostensibly a committed pacifist disillusioned by massacres in Vietnam, Billy uses his lethal kickboxing skills for childishly simplistic acts of vigilante retribution. In other words, his main appeal is that he beats up bad guys.

While Laughlin was trying to establish himself as a Western hero in his unsuccessful The Master Gunfighter (1975), producer Frank Capra Jr. interested him in the idea of remaking his father hit film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). Another recent proposal for a remake of the classic picture had imagined a musical version, starring singer John Denver in the role played by James Stewart. Laughlin decided that a trip into mainstream politics would be a fine next step for the Billy Jack character, who had just been cleared of murder charges in The Trial of Billy Jack (1974) after continuing to defend a school for troubled runaway kids against a hostile local community. Billy would come to Washington as a junior senator, to single-handedly clear up a corrupt nuclear power swindle back in his home state.

Billy Jack Goes to Washington extends the unsubtle paranoid populism prevalent in The Trial of Billy Jack. Billy promotes his wholesome 'Freedom School,' but just as in the Capra original, he slowly learns that he has been set up as the dupe for grafters pushing through a bill to build a nuclear power plant. The venal Beltway politicos that oversaw the slaughter of reservation Indians and counterculture hippies, now try to silence the new Junior senator. To their surprise, Billy Jack transforms from a monastic outsider distrustful of all social interaction to a long-winded speechmaker quoting Jefferson.

Framed for corruption, Billy delivers a long filibuster scene, in which Laughlin drops his pseudo Brando tics and pauses and instead adopts James Stewart's halting speech patterns. Washington politics are not merely corrupt, they are grotesque. Billy Jack's response is to call on 'real Americans' to help him retake control of their government. To find an equally paranoid political delusion, one must go back to the Great Depression and to William Wellman's Gabriel Over the White House (1933). In that film, a divinely-inspired president responds to Depression-era unrest by disbanding the 'dysfunctional legislature' and steering the nation toward fascism.

Laughlin's production values are reasonably high, and the competent actors Sam Wanamaker, Pat O'Brien, E.G. Marshall and Lucie Arnaz assay roles firmly associated with the likes of Claude Rains and Jean Arthur. Delores Taylor served as Billy's pacifistic conscience in the earlier Billy Jack films, and here she returns to contribute a weeping scene or two. Laughlin's daughter Teresa reprises the One Tin Soldier song over the end credits.

Billy Jack Goes to Washington was making news long before its belated release. As if running for office, Laughlin staged junkets to show off the set and to raise more money for the independently financed show, a showboat move that a skeptical trade paper greeted with the headline, 'Mr. Laughlin Goes to Washington.' He even promised investors the perk of bit parts in the picture. Laughlin posed for photos against Washington, D.C. landmarks in his black Billy Jack costume to generate more press attention.

After investing $18 million on the reputation of the first two Billy Jack movies, Laughlin's backers sued when the production dragged on long enough to overrun his overly optimistic repayment schedule. Laughlin argued his case in full-page ads in Variety, blaming delays on obstruction by Washington insiders. He also invited investors for an ambitious schedule of future productions from Billy Jack Enterprises. By the time the financial smoke had cleared, the company had been evicted from its lavish set of offices and Laughlin's Brentwood house had been seized by creditors.

Ironically, Billy Jack Goes to Washington was brought down by the same financial forces that had ended the independent producing career of Frank Capra back in 1947. Capra's independent company Liberty Pictures couldn't avail itself of tax breaks afforded by the major studios, and his film It's a Wonderful Life accrued more debt than it could pay off. Tom Laughlin's arrogant posing won him few friends in Hollywood or Washington, and his creditors didn't like that he spent their money on full page ads explaining why they couldn't be repaid. Laughlin definitely did put himself in a David vs. Goliath situation, but conventional wisdom preached that he had misled his investors while spending too much of their money on self-promotion.

The film was finished but remained tied up in litigation for months. Although it did find playdates, it never received a full release and ended up a financial bust. A later version for home video was cut by half an hour; it is said that Laughlin added some dialogue referencing the Three Mile Island nuclear accident that occurred in late March of 1979.

Tom Laughlin directed all of the Billy Jack movies under pseudonyms. His work here was criticized as clumsy and amateurish. Critics were quick to note that his version of the story is half an hour longer than Capra's but lacks Capra's humor and emotionalism. Critics also theorized that Billy Jack Goes to Washington displeased audiences because it drops the martial arts battles desired by fans for speeches about 'our broken government.' Variety noted that the formerly all-wise Billy Jack character has been rebooted as naive and inexperienced, falsely equating the idea of 'unsophisticated' with 'real and honest.' Some critics reviewed the movie from a political angle, noting the virulent anti-government attitude of both the fictional Billy Jack and his iconoclastic creator. Are the Billy Jack films early evidence of the destructive 'tear down Washington' movement? Attending a D.C. showing in April of 1977, newsman Walter Cronkite avoided committing himself to an opinion, saying, "I don't endorse the movie wholeheartedly, you understand."

By Glenn Erickson