''The Born Losers'' is a 1967 American
outlaw biker film
The outlaw biker film is a film genre that portrays its characters as motorcycle riding rebels. The characters are usually members of an outlaw motorcycle club.
History
Outlaw biker clubs formed in the late 1940s on the West Coast after the en ...
.
[Gary A. Smith, ''The American International Pictures Video Guide'', McFarland 2009 p 32] The film introduced
Tom Laughlin
Thomas Robert Laughlin Jr. (August 10, 1931 – December 12, 2013) was an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, educator, and activist.
Laughlin was best known for his series of ''Billy Jack'' films. He was married to actress D ...
as the half-
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
Green Beret
The green beret was the official headdress of the British Commandos of the Second World War. It is still worn by members of the Royal Marines after passing the Commando Course, and personnel from other units of the Royal Navy, Army and RAF wh ...
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
veteran
Billy Jack
''Billy Jack'' is a 1971 American 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'' (1967), played by Tom Laughlin, who directed and co-wrote the scr ...
. Since 1954, Laughlin had been trying to produce his ''Billy Jack'' script about discrimination toward
American Indians. In the 1960s he decided to introduce the character of Billy Jack in a quickly written script designed to capitalize on the then-popular trend in
motorcycle gang
An outlaw motorcycle club is a motorcycle subculture generally centered on the use of cruiser motorcycles, particularly Harley-Davidsons and choppers, and a set of ideals that purport to celebrate freedom, nonconformity to mainstream culture, ...
movies. The story was based on a real incident from 1964 where members of the
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is a worldwide outlaw motorcycle club whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporati ...
were arrested for raping two teenage girls in
Monterey, California
Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bo ...
. The movie was followed by ''
Billy Jack
''Billy Jack'' is a 1971 American 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'' (1967), played by Tom Laughlin, who directed and co-wrote the scr ...
'' (1971), which saw AIP pull out of production midway through before others stepped in.
Plot
Billy Jack is introduced as an enigmatic, half-Native American
Vietnam veteran
A Vietnam veteran is a person who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War.
The term has been used to describe veterans who served in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States Armed Forces, and oth ...
who shuns society, taking refuge in the peaceful solitude of the California Central Coast mountains. His troubles begin when he descends from this unspoiled setting and drives into a small beach town named Big Rock. A minor traffic accident in which a motorist hits a motorcyclist results in a savage beating by members of the Born Losers Motorcycle Club, led by Danny. The horrified bystanders are too afraid to help or be involved in any way. Billy Jack jumps into the fray and rescues the man by himself. At this point the police arrive and arrest Billy for using a rifle to stop the fight.
The police throw Billy in jail and the judge fines him $1,000 for discharging a rifle in public (the assaulters get a $150 fine or thirty days in jail), which leads him to sell his jeep. He is treated with suspicion and hostility by the police. Meanwhile, the marauding bikers terrorize the town, rape four teenage girls, and threaten anyone slated to testify against them, with the kid brother of the leader being fingered as part of the rape. One of the girls later recants, saying she willingly gave herself to the biker gang after the gang goes to her house and turns the power off before breaking into the house to spook her. Despite the efforts of the police to get her to not recant, her mother (Jane Russell) defends her decision to not testify.
Vicky Barrington, a bikini-clad damsel-in-distress, is twice abducted and abused by the gang. The first time, she goes along with the idea of being a biker mama if she can get drugs from her bike to take as a way to sneak up on a biker to knock him out and flee. Her supposed plan of ditching her bike to flee on foot results in her being caught and raped to the point where she is put in hospital. The second time, the bikers steal a cop car and try to steal her from the hideout after she agrees to testify for the trial. Her attempted escape has her run into Billy, who takes a swing at the bikers and takes Vicky to his location on her bike; she is spooked enough to not testify. The gang comes back to his place when the two are out for lunch and steal his money. Little by little, the other victims are spooked out by the bikers and ineffective sheriffs. In the night, Billy drives out to see the bikers to talk to their leader about his stolen money. He gives them until tomorrow to get it back before leaving. The next day, the bikers confront the two at a gas station. Billy fights Gangrene and beats him before getting some of the money back and taking one of their bikes. Danny offers Vicky to serve as the sexually compliant "biker mama" the easy way rather than being there by force, which she declines. The gang comes to the hideout to ask them to see Danny by their hideout, which reveals they have kidnapped one of the rape victims. The dad tries to intervene, but he fails. Billy is hit from behind with a tire iron and beaten after trying to distract long enough for Vicky to escape, but each fail. It is then that Vicky agrees to be a biker mama to get them to let go of Billy.
At the police station, Billy is unable to get help from the police or the local residents and must return to the gang's lair to rescue Vicky by himself, particularly when the last victim recants. Billy, armed with a bolt-action rifle, captures the gang, shoots the leader (
Jeremy Slate
Jeremy Slate (born Robert Bullard Perham; February 17, 1926 – November 19, 2006) was an American film and television actor, and songwriter. He is best known for Larry Lahr in ''The Aquanauts'' (1960–1961), Chuck Wilson in ''One Life to Li ...
) between the eyes in cold blood, and forces some of the others to take Vicky, who's been badly beaten, to the hospital. As the police finally arrive, Billy abruptly rides away on one of the gang's motorcycles.
The anti-authority sentiment continues up to the end when a police deputy accidentally shoots Billy in the back, mistaking him for a fleeing gang member. He is later found, nearly dead, lying by the shore of a lake. He is placed on a stretcher and is flown to the hospital in a helicopter as Vicky and the sheriff give him a salute.
Cast
Production
The movie was filmed on location in California at
Seal Beach
Seal Beach is a coastal city in Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 25,242, up from 24,168 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 census.
Seal Beach is located in the w ...
,
Huntington Beach
Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 during the 2020 census, maki ...
,
Rancho Palos Verdes
Rancho Palos Verdes (Spanish for "Green Sticks Ranch") is a coastal city located in Los Angeles County, California atop the bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, neighboring other cities in the Palos Verdes Hills, including Palos Verdes Est ...
,
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
,
Big Sur
Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big Sur ha ...
,
Morro Bay
Morro Bay (''Morro'', Spanish for "Hill") is a seaside city in San Luis Obispo County, California. Located on the Central Coast of California, the city population was 10,757 as of the 2020 census, up from 10,234 at the 2010 census. The town ...
,
Playa del Rey
Playa del Rey (Spanish for "Beach of the King") is a seaside community in the Santa Monica Bay and the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It has a ZIP code of 90293 and area codes of 310 and 424. As of 2018, the community had a populat ...
, and other coastal locales. The bikers' lair in Playa del Rey was once owned by
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...
star
Mae Murray
Mae Murray (born Marie Adrienne Koenig; May 10, 1885 – March 23, 1965) was an American actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Murray rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "Th ...
.
According to Laughlin's DVD audio commentary, filming was completed in just three weeks on an operating budget of $160,000. To cut costs, a stunt scene of a biker crashing into a pond was taken from American International's 1966 comedy ''
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini
''Ghost in the Invisible Bikini'' is the seventh and last of American International Pictures' beach party films. Released in 1966, the film features the cast cavorting in and around a haunted house and the adjacent swimming pool. No beach appea ...
''..
Laughlin ran out of money during post production, but showed the film to
American International Pictures
American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...
who bought out the original investors and gave Laughlin $300,000 to finish it.
[Mark McGee, ''Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures'', McFarland, 1996 p252]
The film was commercially successful, and resulted in Laughlin being able to raise the funds to make its sequel, ''
Billy Jack
''Billy Jack'' is a 1971 American 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'' (1967), played by Tom Laughlin, who directed and co-wrote the scr ...
''. In 1974, after the sequel proved financially successful,
American International Pictures
American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...
re-released ''Born Losers'' with the taglines "The film that introduced Billy Jack" and "Back By Popular Demand: "Born Losers" The Original Screen Appearance of Tom Laughlin as Billy Jack". The film was the highest grossing American International release until 1979, when ''
The Amityville Horror
''The Amityville Horror'' is a book by American author Jay Anson, published in September 1977. It is also the basis of a series of films released from 1979 onward. The book is based on the claims of paranormal experiences by the Lutz family, b ...
'' was released.
Reception
Critical response was generally negative. Film critic
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...
criticized Laughlin's films for "using violence as ''an indictment of'' violence'.
In 1967, ''Born Losers'' earned an estimated $2,225,000 in
theatrical rentals in the United States and Canada. It was re-released by AIP in 1974, following the success of ''Billy Jack''. AIP issued ads which proclaimed 'THE ORIGINAL BILLY JACK IS BACK!' which led to a lawsuit from Laughlin; following this, the advertising for the re-release of ''Born Losers'' was changed. All newspaper advertising had to include the disclaimer 'This is a Re-Release' to make viewers aware that the film was not ''Billy Jack''.
By 1977, ''Born Losers'' had earned $12.5 million in U.S. and Canadian rentals. It set a record in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
playing at the
Teatro Metropólitan
The Teatro Metropólitan is one of Mexico's best-known movie theaters. Before being the Teatro Metropólitan it was known as the Cine Metropólitan, and was built as a movie palace. The architect was Pedro Gorozpe E. with interior decorations by A ...
for more than 26 weeks, the longest run for a
35mm 35 mm may refer to:
* 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film
* 35 mm movie film, a type of motion picture film stock
* 35MM 35 mm may refer to:
* 135 film, a type of still photography format ...
film, selling over 500,000 tickets.
Banned Hungarian version
''Born Losers'' was released in
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
as ''Halálfejesek'' ("Death's-heads")., dubbed by cult Hungarian actors like
Zoltán Latinovits
Zoltán Latinovits (9 September 1931, in Budapest – 4 June 1976, in Balatonszemes) was a Hungarian actor.
Early life
His mother divorced his father Oszkár Latinovits in 1941 and married István Frenreisz, a medical doctor, with whom she had ...
,
Gábor Agárdy
Gábor Agárdy ( hy, Գաբրիել Արկալիյան, 2 August 1922 – 19 January 2006) was a Hungary, Hungarian actor, also known as Gábor Agárdi. He was born Gábor Arklian in Szeged of Armenian people, Armenian descent. He was award ...
,
Gyula Szabó
Gyula Szabó (15 July 1930 – 4 April 2014) was a Hungarians, Hungarian actor. He won two Mari Jászai Prizes. He appeared in forty movies between 1953 and 2002. He is best known for appearing in movies such as ''Ifjú szívvel'' (1953), ...
, and
Éva Almási. The film caused a sensation in Hungary, registering a full house at the Pushkin Cinema in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
and at other cinemas in capital city. A month later the film was banned in Hungary. Forty years later, the film has become very popular among Hungarian Internet circles and on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
.
Halálfejesek (youtube.com)
/ref>
See also
* List of American films of 1967
References
External links
Official Billy Jack site
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Born Losers
1967 films
American International Pictures films
1960s exploitation films
Outlaw biker films
Films about Native Americans
Films directed by Tom Laughlin
Films about United States Army Special Forces
American exploitation films
American thriller films
American vigilante films
1960s English-language films
1960s American films