Billy Jack: The Complete Collection (1967-1977)

[Crimson King]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

Now that would have been awesome... the climax would have been Billy Jack fili-busting heads.

"Billy Jack Goes Berserk in Washington"
LOL!

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by Crimson King

Washington went into political territory, not to mention a remake of an all time classic film.
The film was chock full off great actors, and it misfired.
It hold a soft spot with me because it was filmed in DC, pretty close to where I live.
It would be interesting to see if a workprint of the 155 edit ever surfaces, just to see it once, even in SD.

I had not seen 'Billy Jack' til the early 1980's and not seen the sequels til just recently (yeah, I'm late to the party in that respect), but the DC scenes really brought back a nostalgia

speaking of running times, I find it fascinating that all of the Billy Jack movies seem widely inconsistent: "Born Losers" for a genre pic, it needed to be around 90 minutes - it felt unnecessarily paced at times to me. "Billy Jack" felt like you were watching a rough cut - even though the Howard Hesseman, park robbery scene is bizarre and funny, it does nothing to advance the plot and seems a tad awkward. 'Trial' while the longest of the movies, and my personal fave, felt like it was slightly overachieving in plot but in the realm of it all, just let the narrative flow at it's own devices. While 'Washington' never feels like it's missing scenes, the lack of 'action' does seem defeatist and I wonder what 40 minutes of story was hacked away at.

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by SpacemanDoug

Has there ever been a home video release of the 155 minute version?

and why was it even edited down in the first place?

that's what I'd like to know too - Wiki seems to suggest that the cut version only appeared when the first DVD edition came out, what about the Ventura VHS edition of "Billy Jack Goes to Washington" ?

[Crimson King]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

that's what I'd like to know too - Wiki seems to suggest that the cut version only appeared when the first DVD edition came out, what about the Ventura VHS edition of "Billy Jack Goes to Washington" ?

It will be the same too.

[yellowcakeuf6]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

that's what I'd like to know too - Wiki seems to suggest that the cut version only appeared when the first DVD edition came out, what about the Ventura VHS edition of "Billy Jack Goes to Washington" ?

I know I've read somewhere that the cut footage from Billy Jack Goes to Washington was lost before home video. The original VHS tapes that Laughlin sold had the short cut.

[yellowcakeuf6]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

I had not seen 'Billy Jack' til the early 1980's and not seen the sequels til just recently (yeah, I'm late to the party in that respect), but the DC scenes really brought back a nostalgia

speaking of running times, I find it fascinating that all of the Billy Jack movies seem widely inconsistent: "Born Losers" for a genre pic, it needed to be around 90 minutes - it felt unnecessarily paced at times to me. "Billy Jack" felt like you were watching a rough cut - even though the Howard Hesseman, park robbery scene is bizarre and funny, it does nothing to advance the plot and seems a tad awkward. 'Trial' while the longest of the movies, and my personal fave, felt like it was slightly overachieving in plot but in the realm of it all, just let the narrative flow at it's own devices. While 'Washington' never feels like it's missing scenes, the lack of 'action' does seem defeatist and I wonder what 40 minutes of story was hacked away at.

I'm sure you've heard the lore living near there.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...53e_story.html

I saw the first two in the mid 70s at our local second run (and beyond) theater, and I think BJGTW played at one of the drive-ins in the B'more area in the late 70s/early 80s, but I missed it.
Billy Jack Goes to Washington really is a timeless movie, a corrupt Senate never goes out of style.

[gimmeshelter]

Just FYI- the travesty that is TRIAL in the Shout set is cutting the emotional heart of the movie out by eliminating 'Give Peace a Chance' at the end. Everyone in the cast is crying, especially Tom's daughter in the wheelchair, the viewers start blubbering, it was a climax of pure catharsis that in the Shout version PULLS THE RUG OUT FROM THE VIEWER BY ABRUPTLY CUTTING THE ENTIRE THING OUT LEAVING A GAPING HOLE AT THE END OF THE MOVIE, likely because they didn't want to pay for music rights. Easily the most disappointing movie purchase I have ever made in my life, and I buy lots of crappy movies.

[KMR]

Gee, it wasn't bad enough that they cropped the picture on Trial of Billy Jack, but they truncated the ending too? That's way worse! Sure glad I have the 5-disc DVD set, even if it is only standard def.

[Zillamon51]

I watched the first two recently. Will finish the series soon. (I've only ever seen Billy Jack before.)

That ^ is unconscionable, just lopping off the ending. SF has a lot of QC issues as a label, but they seem to have really half-assed it with this set.

[KMR]

I have no idea what was behind the cropped picture for The Trial of Billy Jack, but it's possible they were limited in what masters were available. As for the music, however--it could very well be that the amount requested for music rights was well beyond what would be reasonable and would have made the entire release financially unviable. If that was the case, the release should have been canceled. That being said, it's also possible that money had already been sunk into the project that couldn't be recovered otherwise. Nevertheless, I find such a destructive edit to the film to be an incredible disservice to the customers. (To be fair, I'm only going by reports in this thread; I've not seen the BD myself.)

[LanceL]

Glad I read this thread before adding this set to my possible future cart with SF. Thank you all for explaining the problems here.

[scorsese1]

How has Shout NEVER addressed the MANY issues with this set? It’s been years, people have been consistently complaining about the issues, yet it’s still in print and being sold, so they presumably still have the rights to the films to obtain better or corrected prints/take the time to fix the encoding errors, and they’ve replaced many other discs since this set was released so they’re obviously capable of setting up a replacement program for this. Wwwwwhhhhyyyyy??

[thatguamguy]

Originally Posted by scorsese1

How has Shout NEVER addressed the MANY issues with this set?

I think all of the problems are baked into the masters that the Laughlin Estate gave them.

[jrcasey1960]

Yeah, they claimed that the TRIAL transfer was what the Laughlin estate provided to them. The full 2.35:1 transfer was correct on the DVD set.

[Crimson King]

Originally Posted by jrcasey1960

Yeah, they claimed that the TRIAL transfer was what the Laughlin estate provided to them. The full 2.35:1 transfer was correct on the DVD set.

Two dvd sets, the Ventura, and the Image.

[scorsese1]

Originally Posted by thatguamguy

I think all of the problems are baked into the masters that the Laughlin Estate gave them.

My problem with all this is that them even providing that answer of “these are the masters we were given” means that before they even authored them to disc, they KNEW there were issues…botched aspect ratios, major/incomplete cuts…and THEY AUTHORED AND SOLD THE DISCS ANYWAY. They’re STILL selling them…

That’s before even getting to the issue of the encoding errors like the stuttering framerate that they ALSO know about…

In other words, they are continuously, knowingly and intentionally selling an incomplete and faulty product to consumers!!! For years.

They should have taken this out of print by now if they cannot correct the issues, or are unwilling, and should have performed a recall of the remaining sets. They have the money to do so considering their high sales and major titles they’re able to acquire. That can’t be cheap. They most certainly have the income to invest in fixing this set, no matter the cost to obtaining the rights to the extra footage or better masters from elsewhere, while still acquiring and releasing new titles.

[Rayjg]

Despite the goofs I had to pick up The Billy Jacked Collection after seeing that crazy kick in the second film. These films are victims of being family owned after the person who actually did all the work dies.

[Darth_Pinhead]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

Despite the goofs I had to pick up The Billy Jacked Collection after seeing that crazy kick in the second film. These films are victims of being family owned after the person who actually did all the work dies.

"The Billy JACKED Collection", LOL!! Was that a typo, or intentional?!

If the reason for this movie collection not being properly remastered, because of who owns the rights... you have to wonder, "Who is being the tight-ass on the license"??! This isn't a huge franchise like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. Why is it so hard to obtain ABSOLUTE access to the best of what's out there, and produce something of quality (especially with the BD debacle), and do it right??!

It's time for a PROPER remaster of the Billy Jack Collection, in a 4K release. Once they do that... I don't think anyone will care if they do a 8K version (or 3D version, LOL) down the road. We just want a new HD collection... done right!!

As for the 114 vs. 155-minute version of Goes to Washington... I've never seen the long version and find it hard to believe there isn't ANY copy of it anywhere (other than in the heads of the people who saw it). Maybe Suzanne Somers has the rights or the only copies, and doesn't want it out there!