What tickled me today was the gap that I noticed when I mentioned one of my generation's "cult" movies, namely "Billy Jack". They all went, "Huh? Never heard of it. Must not have been any good or we would have at least heard the name." I was dumbfounded. During the '70's, "Billy Jack" was huge. Well, at least for me it was.
I became enthralled with martial arts during my junior high school days. Hopefully, I'm not bragging when I say I was one of the best Shotokan stylists in my heyday. No, I couldn't open up a can of "whoop-ass" and pour it on a full-grown man back then; but, for my age, I was quite adept at the fighting style. Plus, I have trophies to prove it. (Presently, they're up in my attic sucking dust away from my plenum box.)
Well, since Billy Jack was on my mind today, I thought I'd let Angie and Daniel watch it with me tonight. Seeing that it was Halloween, you'd think we'd put a scary movie in, but noooooo. We don't buy scary movies. Someone might be frightened!
We made it through the opening sequence and about five minutes of the movie before Angie turned downed the volume. (I forgot that "Billy Jack" had some language issues...especially back in the '70's.) She went over to our movie collection and started thumbing through other selections. "Billy Jack" was over for her and she was looking for a replacement. I tried to salvage the movie by fast forwarding to the "good" part. You know, when Billy Jack has to take on the town's folk in a free-for-all...hapkido style. It didn't faze her. I lost my battle.
Afterwords it made me wonder. Why do the hoards of people that loved the independent film "Napoleon Dynamite" turn their noses up at something like "Billy Jack"? They were both independent films that connected with an audience. Back during the late '60's, America was in the middle of race tensions...desegregation...civil rights wars...establishment vs. anti-establishment. "Billy Jack" spoke to those issues...albeit, primative in production. For me, it was my first taste of liberalism vs. conservatism. In the movie, it seems like they painted the conservatives to be the "bad" guys and the liberals to be the "good" guys. But from my perspective, neither side was really right. Both had holes in their arguments. If anything, it made me understand the significance of Jesus' teachings. (I promise it's not my intention to preach. God knows I need more help than most folks.)
What's my point? The kids today...and that includes anyone 35 and under, have a different mindset than we did back in the '60's and '70's. Kids these days probably have more stimuli from more sources than ever before. I'd hate to be trying to formulate my opinions with all of these different voices screaming "Think this! Think that!" I'm just grateful that I had parents grounded in the Truth...and conscientious to keep pointing me in the right direction.
Thanks Pa and BB!
1 comment:
Ah Billy Jack. See, if I were in that group I would have known what Billy Jack was. Not that I have actually seen the whole movie, only bits and pieces, but I would have known what it was.
But then I'm wired when it comes to movies. I can't talk about some movie that came out last year because, chances are, I haven't seen it. But something 30, 40 years ago, I can probably at least give you a plot.
Post a Comment