Episode 985 - Martial Discussions on Billy Jack
In this episode, Andrew is joined by Sensei Brett Mayfield and Sifu Tommy Given to talk about the influential movie, Billy Jack.
Martial Discussions on Billy Jack - Episode 985
SUMMARY
In this episode of Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, host Andrew Adams is joined by Sensei Brett Mayfield and Tommy Given to discuss the influential film 'Billy Jack.' They explore the film's impact on the martial arts community, personal connections to the movie, and its cultural significance, particularly in representing Native American heritage. The conversation also delves into Tom Laughlin's journey as a filmmaker and martial artist, the sequels to 'Billy Jack,' and the lasting legacy of the film in cinema and martial arts history.
TAKEAWAYS
'Billy Jack' had a significant impact on the martial arts community.
The film resonated with audiences due to its cultural representation.
Tommy Given's personal connection to the film stems from his Native American heritage.
The portrayal of Native Americans in 'Billy Jack' was groundbreaking for its time.
The sequels to 'Billy Jack' expanded on the martial arts themes introduced in the original.
The film was not just an action movie but a statement on social injustices.
The humor in 'Billy Jack' added depth to its serious themes.
The film's marketing changed how independent films were promoted.
'Billy Jack' influenced future filmmakers and actors in the martial arts genre.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction to the Episode
02:29 The Impact of 'Billy Jack' on Martial Arts
12:34 Personal Connections to the Film
18:49 Cultural Significance and Representation
23:35 Tom Laughlin's Journey and Martial Arts
27:53 Sequels and Their Influence
31:13 Closing Thoughts and Reflections
After listening to the episode, it would be exciting for us to know your thoughts about it. Don’t forget to drop them in the comment section down below!
SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Jeremy Lesniak (00:07.863)
Welcome, you're listening or watching to Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. My name is Andrew Adams, your host for the day. And I'm excitedly joined by two very good friends of mine, Sensei Brett Mayfield. Thank you for being here, Sensei. Thank you. And well-known guest of the show, Tommy Given. Tommy, how are you? good to see you.
So today we're going to talk about an interesting movie, but before we do, I want to make sure to remind all of the viewers and listeners of the show that you can check out Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio for photos from this episode. In fact, every episode has its own page there at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com, but you're going to find some really interesting photos from our chat today, some photos from the movie.
There'll be a transcript of this episode. Anything you could possibly think of. might want to know more about this episode. You can go there and find that information. You also can go to whistlekick.com to find out all of the things that whistlekick does, because we do more than this podcast. This podcast is a small portion of what whistlekick does at whistlekick.com. can find apparel for sale. Maybe you want to buy, maybe you want to buy a whistlekick hat. Maybe you want to buy a sweatshirt.
Maybe you want to buy some of the world's best sparring gear. Maybe you want to buy a training program and you want to be more flexible or you want to be faster. You want to be stronger. Maybe you want to purchase one of the many books that we've published. Whistlekick.com is where you can go to find all of that info. And if you use the code podcast one five, you can save yourself 15%. And who doesn't like to save money? mean, why not?
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Jeremy Lesniak (02:29.826)
that came out in, I wanna quiz you guys now. Do you know what year it came out? It's 72, I believe. Yeah, Born Losers came out in 72 and then Billy Jack came out after that. That's right. And then the trial, Billy Jack and then the- it's not often that I get to teach people who have been influential in my training, but Born Losers came out in 67. Yeah. wow.
And Billy Jack came out in 1971. Well, I'm, you know what? That's what they post. I'm a little curious because we've, it was filmed in 71. Yep. So I, know, it might've been an early release or something. Wikipedia is not perfect by any stretch.
They could be wrong, but they list the release date as May 1st, 1971. So I heard it was re-released because, and being an independent film, they allowed it to be re-released. And I think that's where the 72 number comes in. That could be. You know what? You are right. It was filmed in 1970. So May 71 would have fit. You're right.
Yep, yep, and so yeah, it wasn't completed until 71 it says. yeah. It was the summer of, I mean the spring of 1970. Yeah, yeah. So it came out in May of 71, which is pretty cool. So four years, four years before I was even born, just to give you a little hint of how young I am, but this, this movie, as I understand it, because I did not, I was not training
when it came out, like I said, it wasn't even born, but it had, as I understand it, a huge impact on the martial arts community, even though it really wasn't a martial arts movie. And you we have some, of you, you you have ties to the movie, but I wanna talk a little bit before we get there about what the movie meant to you when it came out or when you first saw it. So Tommy, can we start with you? What, do you remember seeing it when it first came out?
Jeremy Lesniak (04:51.415)
I do remember seeing it. older cousins took me to the film. They had to sneak me in. But they thought, because they knew a little bit about it, that the hero was a martial artist. And I was just getting into martial arts, probably studying about a year. But I was totally into it. I drove my family nuts. And then I'm half Native American. So and the character is half Native American. And then my older cousins were all hippies. So.
And my dad was a hardcore biker. So the whole cultural part was that they had to take me. it was so, and that's where my intro came in. That's great. Brett, what about for you? Well, the martial arts had nothing to do with it. And nobody knew, at least in Santa Fe, where I went, Don Laughlin. I mean, they were pretty much on somewhat. Now his wife,
She was a little better known. Yeah. Dolores. Yeah. Dolores, yeah. But so here's how I'd been in the martial arts for quite some time by that time. I was an EQ. And the reason I know that is that in those days and some schools are still like that. You had to be 18 to be a show don. And that was a bare minimum. But
and I was not 18. So I was an EQ, oh, I remember it was years. It was like, I was like, oh my God. So, this was my second film, I believe, second film that I had been a extra person on at that time. And my family had actually was,
in the movie business. But it was the reason I got involved is I was a member of the Key Club, which is a junior Kiwanis organization. And they came to Santa Fe High and asked, I don't know why the Key Club was chosen, but they asked the Key Club to come and be part of the school kids.
Jeremy Lesniak (07:17.031)
And so that's that was a know, neat thing. I to be honest, the biggest thing for us, we were getting out of school. I mean, and and and really, we had somewhat of an idea of the movie, but I didn't know. And so Bung Sohan actually came to the dojo, I think a few nights on and off for the few weeks they were in the general area.
because they were using two or three areas close to Santa Fe, Santa Fe as well as a couple other areas, both North and South of Santa Fe. and he talked, you know, he said he was there filming, but that's not unusual for Santa Fe, even back in those days. And really nice guy, but we didn't really know, we knew sort of what the native American, you know,
the school, what you'd call it, what kind of the alternative school, is freedom. Yeah, you know, sort of free open school in those days. that was just, you know, like you said, you're hippie, you know, that was just coming in. So that's what we mainly knew. And then at the time, my girl, just my girlfriend, or just being
Her sister Lisa Gilgason, she goes by Eliza think professionally, was also in the movie as she was a singer. And so that's how I came about, knew the movie. It wasn't until it came out that I knew it had really that much martial arts stuff to it. Yeah. So you were in the movie, but had nothing, you weren't in the movie for martial arts at all.
And in fact, your involvement had nothing to do with the fact that you knew martial arts. No. Interesting. Now, do you remember seeing it for the first time? That you are you are right. think it was so that was 1970 and in seventy one or two was, think, the first time I went. No. You know what? Well, they we didn't.
Jeremy Lesniak (09:38.223)
I didn't make it. They did have a showing, like a premiere or something. I think they had two or three, but they did have one in Santa Fe. And I didn't make that showing. I can't remember why, but I didn't make it. it was, like I said, probably maybe 71, maybe. remember seeing it in the movie. And it was a big deal because there were a lot of...
Santa Fe locals in the movie, even in background shots and stuff, know, are sort of our famous odd people. And I'd say, geez, a quarter of the movie was filmed in Santa Fe and then up in Bandelier, which was just north of Santa Fe. And then just south of Santa Fe was where that big fight scene was in a, and I'm gonna forget the name of the little ranch town down there.
And that's where the plaza down there was where they filmed the big fight scene. Yeah. So Tommy, you had a connection to the movie because you felt this personal connection because of your Native American heritage. know, Brett, you had a connection because you were in the movie. So, you you're watching it had a slightly different, you know, connection for you because you could see and
Often I hear this all the time, people who are extras in movies, their scene gets cut out. If you were to watch the movie today, would you see yourself and be able to say, that's me? Yeah, the one scene, of course I know where I'm at, because I know all the scenes. So the one scene where there's a clear facial with a group of people was done in the auditorium scene when Teresa was singing up on stage.
And that took forever to put on my head. But that scene, yeah, I'm hard to recognize with full hair and big size, you but I can, mean, you can, know, sort of, if you look through the 70s, the 70s stuff, you can see it. That's the scene I've actually, you know, can see myself in. And I was thinking, I,
Jeremy Lesniak (12:04.296)
was in three other different locations. But they were crowd scenes. I know where I was, but other people wouldn't. So that was what the movie was to you guys. I'll say right now that the first time I watched the movie was probably this evening. I have not seen the movie.
Can you believe that? No, I cannot. So when we when I say we, Jeremy and I found out, Brett, that you were in the movie. We were like, my gosh, that's that's really cool. And, you know, Jeremy and I talked last week and we said, you know what? Let's do an episode about it, a podcast episode about it. And I said, sure, I'm happy to get you, meaning Jeremy, Jeremy, I'm happy to get you.
and and brett mayfield and and tommy on the show because we knew tommy had a really strong personal connection to the movie because of his heritage i i he said well why don't you do it i said well i haven't seen the movie and he said that makes you the best person to do it because you don't know the movie and what it's about and what it meant to people so so maybe maybe i'll record a reaction afterwards and i'll i'll clip it at the end of the episode
But I've heard that the movie was influential for a lot of people because it was the first time a, and I'm putting this in air quotes for the people listening, a white person was doing martial arts on screen. I put it in air quotes because he was half Native American as well, right? But that was, at the time in 1971, that was a big deal. Tommy, do you have any, not inkling, that's not the right word, but.
you know, it meant something to you because of your heritage, but were there others around you as well that felt the same way and was it as impactful for them? So my martial art friends liked it a lot because the closest we had before that was Elvis doing a little move like in Ross about or other movies that came out in the sixties. Robert Conrad on TV and while while West once in a while, you know, you would see a flash of it.
Jeremy Lesniak (14:29.535)
But wasn't centered around this guy's a fighter, right? So it was, in that sense, was very strong. For me, being Native American, I got like, I was waist deep into it pretty, pretty quickly. I mean, here's a couple of rough scenes as a young boy to kind of stomach through.
I don't know if that will come up later or not. You haven't seen the yet. You'll get what I'm saying. But other than that, it was really well. My family that was not martial artists, but were Native American or hippies went and they had different impact. So it was kind of funny. You'd go to the family, get her in the odds are, and I know this sounds very stereotypical, but they made baskets, right?
we would have gathering and they would actually, they would sell baskets at the gas stations and that kind of thing. It was what they did. And they would talk about it and how being a New England Native American, because we're all Goklin, versus the Midwest, that brought up other cultural things as well. We don't have a snake dance. There was none of that. There was some of the ceremonies.
It showed Native Americans in a positive light. in the early, late 60s, early 70s, that was huge because there was a lot of prejudice going. I even had an aunt that when she was having her kids told the doctors that the kids were French because they didn't want Native American on the birth certificates. mean, it was, there was a lot of, and I'm sure Brett can probably attest to that. There was a lot of prejudice, harm back then.
that people don't see today. It's just not relevant. But it was also kind of cool to be called Half-Bread because all the Westerns and stuff like that. in that sense, was okay. Martial arts wise, looking back on it, that was very impactful too because he stood for something. There was meaning behind why he was fighting. There was a cause for it.
Jeremy Lesniak (16:54.357)
He just, the guy didn't like violence. He hated the war, but he would violently stop it, right? So, you know, was a, he was a Vietnam war hero, was part of the background. He was, I think a green beret, you know, according to the script. so, you know, decorated. The only part that kind of, that kind of hit a lot of us funny was that he had really, really short hair in the film.
really short hair. And the only time Native Americans, my culture generally cut their hair is either in grieving or like in my case, I donate it to lots of love and that kind of thing. Hair is, you know, real culturally kind of, you know, an established thing, you know, like a kilt in your background, you know, it's a big part of it. So, but yeah, I, yeah, very, yeah. Now, go ahead, Brad, please. No, no, Tommy.
Please finish. No, I'm finished. just, you know, I'm getting a little emotional because looking back on it now, I have no idea what my aunt went through. You know, I couldn't even imagine what it was. mean, as a little kid, didn't bother us. And again, that was when the turn started where it was cool to be Indian. You know, I get teased about that. Like a lot of people, oh, what was your grandmother princess? And I'm like, no, but my aunt was, you know, so you get that kind of...
To tell you how bad it was, my grandmother, Andrew, was taken off the reservation. They cut her hair. They sent her to Pennsylvania to make her learn English. Wow. And she ran away at 16 back up north again and found herself in Fall River Mass. So there's a lot there. It's not that long ago. No, no, no, You're always looking at 1930s.
when she was a little girl. So, go ahead, Brett, please. Well, you know what? Here's the thing. I've lived out East here since 1982, three. But I grew up in the Southwest on ranch, ranches all my life. And I was around Native Americans all my life. I was a minority. People don't realize that.
Jeremy Lesniak (19:17.12)
in New Mexico, especially in Santa Fe or other towns and places. We were all minority white. But Native Americans out there, very different during that time period in the 70s, 60s, 70s. Very, very seldom did you see, except out on the Navajo reservation, which he played a half-breed Navajo.
Yeah. Which was very unusual. Yeah. In that he never did any shooting on the Navajo reservation at all. Not even close. It was all on Pueblo reservations or up at Bandelier, which is a, you know, are the, Bandelier would sort of, they're the old people. So. Quick question, but how did they get permission to go to Chaco Canyon?
Well, both Chaco Canyon and Bandelier, because they're national monuments, in those days you just paid. Yeah. mean, the restrictions were very, very limited at that time. But they were, you know, they're quiet areas. weren't big. Bandelier a little more in Chaco, but
They weren't huge tourist spots, meaning, you know, you could go out there and maybe. they're still gone. Right, right. Yeah. You know, there aren't a lot of people. But it's really funny, a lot of, there were in those, in those school scenes, there were Native Americans, and you wouldn't have been able to tell the Native Americans from the Hispanics in any of those scenes, none of the scenes. You know, no Native American, you know, the only people that had long hair in those.
times were the hippies out there. Native Americans did not have long hair. Now, there were some, like I said, on the reservation, the older people, a lot of them, remember the generation before this, they'd come back from World War II, and a lot of those people served in military, and they were used to, like Billy Jack, they were used to keeping their hair short. So a lot of those things went away.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:41.557)
And, you know, and it's very funny that even though people were polite, many of the tribes out or the tribes, I guess we can use out there, they weren't best friends by any means. no. Navajos and Pueblos, you know, they would do business, but they were not what you'd call like today a much more organized, you know, group together.
those days, most of them, they were very independent. And because they had been fighting each other for generations. That's the thing too. This comes up, for example, like Thanksgiving, the Algonquin tribe was part of the tribes that helped the pilgrims out. But people don't realize that when you like watch a lot of the older movies.
The Iroquois was the Algonquin's arch enemy. That's why the Iroquois helped the British. So even during the Revolutionary War and the French and Indian Wars and things like that, the Indies were too busy fighting each other to even, you know, so that's pretty big. But I will say growing up in Santa Fe and Arizona and a place is that the prejudice was extremely low at that time.
You know, it's too bad that times have changed, but I think during that 60s, 70 time period, and probably a little bit because of the Vietnam War and all those things going on, people were much more caring about each other than they were who they, know, their backgrounds. Interesting. Switching gears a little bit, one of the things I found interesting was Tom Laughlin,
had never studied martial arts until six months before the movie. He and his wife, Dolores, who they were the two main characters in the movie. Like they wrote the movie, they directed the movie together, they produced the movie. It was created as an independent film. They basically made it themselves. And I found it really interesting that he would make a character that
Jeremy Lesniak (24:02.094)
you know, involved martial arts as much as he did when he wasn't a martial artist himself. And I found that really, really interesting. I'm assuming, you know, he was calling on, you know, memories or things that he had from his own past experience. I didn't see, was he, do you know, involved in, was he in the military as an actual Green Beret? I know his character in the movie was, but.
I didn't find that he was himself. I don't know. No, I don't believe there was a military record. I mean, it could have been, but the reason why the martial arts came up was that if you listen to the movie, he learned that in the army. Yeah, I knew that in the movie, that's where he got it. Right, right. So he wrote this arts movie. was his thought pattern. And I actually was able to
when I actually probably met the guy, he came out and said, they didn't really, in the first, in that one, such, because there's no martial arts in Born Losers, right? It's just that he was a war hero, but a war hero should be able to fight, and that's how that progressed. Interesting. So, and then when they brought in the martial artists, you know, be it Vietnam, that's where they, the Asian connection there is not supposed to.
I do know that Bong Sohan and later when, so I'd met Bong Sohan and then it was at, I'm trying to think where it was, maybe Arizona, California. I don't remember. And I reintroduced myself to him and then over the years, you know, we became chit chatty and it was sad towards the end, you know, we were a little more, you know, we would exchange.
Actually, he mailed it, come out by that time and stuff, you know, all that. But he always was very, I don't know if it just, he was a really nice person, very good martial artist, but he always said that Tom Loughlin was a really good student. Yeah, he did, you know, I heard him say it both in general public and even when I just would be talking to him that he put a lot of time into doing.
Jeremy Lesniak (26:25.217)
You know, and again, they were only the really big close ups that he was having to do. You know, yeah. So for the for those that don't know, so Bong So-Han was the fight choreographer for the movie and also was Tom Lawson's stunt double for the few the few scenes that he needed to. But that's really cool. And, you know, if you are watching the episode on YouTube, you will have seen that I had put in a picture. So, Brett, you sent me a picture of you and Bong So-Han. So I
I spliced it in so everybody got to see that picture. But if you're only listening, you missed out. I think that picture and I think that one, mean, that we had already, I'd already seen him since the movie before then, but I think that was in Miami, Florida. I think either that or it was in Houston, Texas or Miami. And I can't remember which one, but one of those two spots. So is it true that that famous Crescent kick?
That's not Tom Loffman. That's Buncho. That's Buncho. Yeah, OK. Makes sense now. Yeah. And after the movie, so the movie came out in 71, titled Just Billy Jack. In my head, I thought it was the legend of Billy Jack, but it wasn't. The movie was Just Billy Jack. But it spurred a couple of sequels. Did either of you see the sequels? Yeah, so I own all four movies.
and seen him multiple times. Billy Jack has probably memorized. And you know how like some of my background, I actually got to do a show where Coven, who sang the song once in Soldier was the actual act. So they were older and way past, you know, it was like, you know, one of the oldie shows that they put on. But it was kind of cool.
that that movie, being an independent film, really affected a lot of genres. It affected music. It affected, you know, the culturals, martial arts. Well, how movies are marketed was changed because of the way Tom Laughlin marketed the movie. And, you know, the music was as famous or more famous at first than the movie itself. Right. By far. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (28:53.348)
So yeah, 110 Soldier was a huge hit, right? Yeah. can share, get a remake of it, you know, for her show, The Sonny and Cher Show. wow. Yeah, it's a cartoon. You can bring that up on YouTube. Cher singing that song, and it's cartoon that comes out. And I mean, it was big. Interesting. Now, did the sequels portray martial arts in the same sort of way, or were they completely different? They got bigger, actually.
There's martial arts and the trial of Billy Jack and then Billy Jack goes to Washington. And Billy Jack goes to Washington, actually, Dolores and his daughter are in a fight scene together, taking on some hoodlums kind of thing. wow. Yeah. And it's kind of funny because they all take their shoes off. It's kind of hysterical. But it is what it is, right? So yeah, so they actually got more and more.
involved from my perspective. Yeah. And Brett, did you see the sequels as well? yeah. I've seen them all since then. I've seen them all. Yeah. Yeah. I'll have to check it out. So I heard they planned to make another Billy Jack movie in the eighties, the return of Billy Jack. It never happened. I got to tie in with that too. yeah. What's that? So when they were doing that,
Keanu Reeves came up as an idea to win that could play it. And my friend Rick Meyer and some other people that kind of knew, they all told, you need a martial artist. You gotta have a guy that could pull it off. And I was suggested as a body double for that. So I got to meet them, but the movie never materialized at all.
Tom Loughlin put up, I guess, lot of roadblocks. It didn't come out the way he was wanting it. And then he was going to have his son play them. So I don't know. That's Hollywood. I don't... Interesting. Yeah, it is interesting, though. But you're right. You never did materialize. Brett, is there anything you want to close out with here? Well, I just, you know, just talking about the martial art and again, that...
Jeremy Lesniak (31:13.614)
That's not, you know, it's not the big part for either of us per se. But I think the big thing is one, the cameras did a really great job in those shots concerning what they had in those days. And two, the skill level of some of those techniques was for its day really good. I mean, really.
You know, if you look at the Kung Fu TV show and stuff like that, some are great and some are not so good, you know? But Billy Jack, especially in Billy Jack, and then I think the second one, the third one got a little messy, I think a little bit martial art wise, but the first two were quite good martial arts, you know? So I think that's really something to say with all the
You know, the new Karate Kid movie now gonna be coming out. There's two scenes in the Billy Jack that you'll really appreciate when you watch it, Andrew. One is in the ice cream shop. It's fairly straightforward self-defense. There's nothing real fancy about it. It's emotional. And then from that scene, it carries into the famous park scene that you see all the clips on.
where he's taking on multiple people and that and you could tell it's choreographed but it's really pretty good. And the one that Brett just mentioned, the trial building jack, he's actually there with his teacher in one of the fight scenes. They fight side by side and the karate tank sudo and the half keto part of it is really, really amazing. Especially for those days. We said with the camera angles.
Yeah, that's that's cool. mean, I'm excited to watch. You know, like I said, this what I'll probably do is I'm going to watch the movie probably tonight or tomorrow, and then I might come on and record a little like reaction, just just me. And I might put it at the end, which will be interesting for the people that are watching and and listening. So that'll be cool. I also found it, you know, in the research that I did before recording today.
Jeremy Lesniak (33:38.779)
that it wasn't marketed as an action film necessarily because it really was a movie about the plight of Native Americans during the civil rights era. And it got a lot of following from younger audiences because it was youth oriented. It had an anti-authority message, which was big then with the hippie movement of the time.
And obviously the Native American people, you know, seeing that prejudice that some of them had. But I also found it interesting that Quentin Tarantino apparently and Brad Pitt discussed Loughlin's performance in the movie and modeled Brad Pitt's character Cliff Booth from the movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood on Loughlin's performance of Billy Jack, which I found really interesting.
Just kind of a neat little like even though there wasn't a fourth movie like it was it definitely influenced a lot of stuff. So there were four movies though. Yes, I know you're right. The first one Borg Losers. Yeah. So that's right. But there was never a return of Billy Jack. Yeah. Kind of thing where he's an old man that has a young student or yeah. Nothing like that. So well thank you guys so much for being here. I really appreciate it. Anything else you want to
close with before we wrap up. Well you I just want to say one thing we had talked about it is there was some great comedy in that no really yeah yeah you'll see I mean there's small scenes but they were good well I mean it for for an independent film it was it was done pretty well so yeah yeah it was a well the guy from WK RP's in it yeah yeah.
the DJ Howard Hessman, think. Yeah. And I, was that, uh, that they did a comedy skit out on the Plaza in Santa Fe, one of those scenes I was in, but you know, it was good. It, you know, they had good timing and, and even in the courthouse scene, there's some good time or the, not courthouse, but the, was in the courthouse, but in the city council meeting. So yeah, it's, it was a well done.
Jeremy Lesniak (35:58.071)
movie for a small independent that went on to make history. Wow. That's awesome. I'm looking forward to it. I want to thank you both so much for being here. I really appreciate it. Well, thank you for inviting me. Thank you, Tommy. Loved hearing your stories. They're really great. And for everybody listening or watching, just a reminder, whistlekick.com for everything that we do. Use the code podcast one five to save yourself 15 % on almost anything.
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If you have thoughts on this episode and you want to send them to me, you can reach me at andrew at whistlekick.com. And until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day. Thank you. Thank you.
Jeremy Lesniak (37:16.222)
Hey everybody, Andrew here giving you my reaction after having just watched the movie Billy Jack. It actually took a couple of weeks before recording with Tommy and Brett. Again, a huge thank you to them for coming on the show and talking about it. So my wife and I sat down and watched it yesterday and I wanted to make sure that I viewed the movie through the lens of when it was recorded.
It was filmed in 1970, came out in 71, and I was very much surprised at how much of essentially a statement movie it was. The statement being that there are a lot of injustices happening to people. The movie itself was about people of Native American ancestry.
And some Hispanics were there and some people of color as well. But it was not a martial art movie, which I grew up hearing about. This movie was such a big martial art movie. And maybe that's just how I heard it, even though that wasn't what it was being said. It was influential in terms of it was the first time a non-Asian person was doing martial arts in a movie. And so it seemed to me be accessible.
But it was, I'm gonna say, I liked it. It was a good movie. I liked the message that Tom Loffelin was trying to get through the movie. There were some scenes that were, on one hand, might be hard to watch, but again, when you're looking at the statement that they're trying to give, it was pretty well done. And it was funny. There were a lot of funny scenes. I was surprised at the number of really good one-liners.
I thought Tom Loughlin's performance of being, for lack of a better word, deadpan in his delivery of things I thought was really good. So I hope you enjoyed this episode with myself, Brett and Tommy, and those are my thoughts. All right. Train hard, smile, and have a great day.