I attended this movie when it was first released and though times have changed, some of the movies elements are still being copied in films today. You have to take into account that back then we called the police "Fuzz" and long hair and bell bottoms were the dress of the period. Karate movies were popular but few and far between and the awful Bruce Lee knock offs were too much to stomach with all that bad dubbing. Enter an American who could take his foot and hit the town's leading redneck upside his face with it, Dance with rattlesnakes and save the hippie commune on a bad day. During the Ice cream parlor scene when Billy Jack's Jeep came into view, The theater crowd went into a frenzy. Though the movie was meant to be a sort of propaganda film for the peace movement, it gave mixed signals due to the violent nature of the main character.
Review of Billy Jack
