BILLY JACK
Billy Jack is a 1971 action/drama independent film; the second of four films centering on a character of the same name which began with the movie The Born Losers (1968), played by Tom Laughlin, who directed and co-wrote the script. Filming began in Prescott, Arizona, in the fall of 1969, but the movie was not completed until 1971. American International Pictures pulled out, halting filming. 20th Century-Fox came forward and filming eventually resumed; but when that studio refused to distribute the film, Warner Bros. stepped forward. Still, the film lacked distribution, so Laughlin booked it into theaters himself in 1971. The film grossed $10 million in its initial run, but eventually added close to $50 million in its re-release, with distribution supervised by Laughlin. (More from Wikipedia)
Powerful lead singer Jinx Dawson (by then based in California) performed a song for the 1971 Tom Laughlin film, Billy Jack called “One Tin Soldier” that was originally recorded by a Canadian band called the Original Caste. The song was released as “One Tin Soldier (The Legend of Billy Jack)” – in fact, that was the original name for the film as well – under her old band name Coven and made it to #26 on the Billboard Hot 100.
(June 2016)
