The Born Losers - Production

Production

The movie was filmed on location in California at Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, UCLA, Big Sur, Morro Bay, and other coastal locales. According to Laughlin's DVD audio commentary, filming was completed in just 3 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. The movie was not released until 1968 (according to the book "The Bible On Film: A Checklist, 1897-1980" by Richard Campbell and Michael Pitts, Scarecrow Press, 1981, the first hardcover book to write about the "Billy Jack" movies).

Laughlin ran out of money during post production but showed the film to American International Pictures who bought out the original investors and gave Laughlin $300,000 to finish it.

Despite its formulaic premise, it hit a note with audiences, and resulted in Laughlin being able to raise the funds to make its successful sequel, Billy Jack. In 1974, after the sequel proved financially successful, American International Pictures re-released The 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". This re-release helped cement The Born Losers' honor of being the highest grossing American International release until 1979 when The Amityville Horror was released.

Although the screenplay has all the trappings of a typical motorcycle-gang exploitation film, director-writer-star Tom Laughlin added a layer of social criticism and a skeptical, anti-authority tone to the story (a formula he would expand upon in his next film, Billy Jack.) Here, bad parenting results in teenage girls cavorting with bikers and getting brutally assaulted. The police are ineffective in dealing with career criminals and protecting the innocent—and the local citizens lack the courage to take action themselves. It is up to the lone hero, in the form of Billy Jack, to stand up to the gang and restore some sense of order.