Billy Green Bush Movies

Adapted from William Faulkner's final novel, The Reivers top-bills Steve McQueen, but the major character is feisty 11-year-old Lucius McCaslin, played by Mitch Vogel. Growing up in Mississippi in the early 1900s, Lucius finds himself (through a hectic series of circumstances) in a bordello, where he is nearly killed trying to defend the "fast lady" (Sharon Farrell) who has befriended him. He has been brought to the house of ill repute by ne'er-do-well farm hand Boon Hoggenbeck (Steve McQueen), with whom he has been tooling about the countryside in a vintage automobile, together with his very distant African-American relative Ned (Rupert Crosse). This adventure segues into the next, as the three man combine their resources to train a broken-down racehorse. Meanwhile, Vogel's grandfather (Will Geer), who owns the fancy automobile that the "reivers" hope to win back, threatens to reappear at any moment to tan Lucius's bottom. Not exactly as wholesome as a Disney film, The Reivers is nonetheless acceptable family entertainment, with Steve McQueen delivering one of his best and most laid-back performances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A disaffected man seeks a sense of identity in one of the key films of Hollywood's 1970s New Wave. Once a promising pianist from a family of classical musicians, Bobby Eroica Dupea (Jack Nicholson, in his first major starring role) leads a blue-collar life as an oil rigger, living with needy waitress girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black) and bowling with their friends Elton (Billy "Green" Bush) and Stoney (Fannie Flagg). Feeling suffocated by responsibilities, Bobby seeks out his sister, Tita (Lois Smith), and, discovering that his father is gravely ill, he reluctantly heads back to the patrician family compound in Puget Sound with a pregnant Rayette in tow. After a road trip featuring a harangue from hitchhiker Palm (Helena Kallianiotes) about filth, and Bobby's ill-fated attempt to make a menu substitution in a diner, he tucks Rayette away in a motel before heading to the house. There Bobby seduces his uptight brother Carl's cultured fiancée, Catherine (Susan Anspach), but Rayette shows up unexpectedly. As Rayette's crassness collides with the snobbery of the Dupea circle, Bobby loses patience with both sides. After trying to reconcile with his mute father, Bobby departs, unwilling to give in to either destiny. Director Bob Rafelson and screenwriter Adrien Joyce (aka Carole Eastman) used the creative control afforded by the low budget to craft a European-influenced character study, catching a cultural mood of anomie and resentment as it was embodied in Bobby. Neither older generation nor hippie, Bobby fits in nowhere, and his desire for independence conflicts with his emotional emptiness. Nicholson's nuanced performance of simmering frustration resonated with 1970 audiences caught between Nixon's "silent majority" and the troubled counterculture; a substantial hit, Five Easy Pieces was nominated for several Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor, and established Nicholson as a star. Offering no "easy" answers to Bobby's existential crisis, Five Easy Pieces is one of the pre-eminent films in the early-'70s cycle of alienated American art movies, as even the fantasy of rebellion is reduced to merely running away. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Pursued by police and rival gangs, a motorcycle gang, headed by Waco (Robert Porter) takes refuge in a convent located in a remote region of the Arizona desert. They smuggle heroin in their motorcycles. They capture one policeman (Billy "Green" Bush) who was following them, taunt him and let him go. This treatment inspires a brutal relentlessness on the cop's part, which serves them poorly. When they are forced to leave the convent, they take a novice nun (Elizbeth "Tippy" Walker) with them as a hostage. By the end of the film, she has fallen in love with Waco, and chooses secular life over monastic life. This film features numerous picturesque sequences of desert motorcycle riding. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Gary Grimes stars in this revisionist western as Ben Mockridge, a 16-year-old boy who has long dreamed of living the life of a cowboy. Wanting adventure, he persuades Frank Culpepper (Billy Green Bush) to take him along on a cattle drive, and Ben learns the hard way just how lonesome, exhausting, and violent the life of a cowhand can be. As one of the men on the drive puts it, "Being a cowboy is what you do when you can't do anything else." Hal Needham, who would later direct a string of successful films starring Burt Reynolds, can be spotted in a small role as Burgess, one of the cowboys. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Billy Green Bush guest-stars as Cowboy, a wonder chopper pilot. When Henry (McLean Stevenson) refuses to ship Cowboy home, the outraged pilot threatens dire consequences. Before long, the 4077th is plagued by all manner of weird calamities, ranging from a runaway jeep to an exploding toilet. But the worst is saved for last, when Henry is obliged to take a helicopter ride with the combustible Cowboy. This episode originally aired on November 12, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This anti-war drama centers on four Vietnam veterans who are driving cross country to California. By the time they hit New Mexico, they are down to $69. They started out with over $9,000 between them. To get some quick cash, they rob a gas station. The irate owner begins shooting at them and they in turn show him that they are carrying a veritable ammunitions dump in their trunk. Donning their Green Beret uniforms, they get revenge upon the town and then begin waiting for the authorities to show up so they can have a showdown with them too. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A police officer who would rather use his brains than his gun is put into a situation where neither can help him in this police drama. John Wintergreen (Robert Blake) is a sawed-off and street-smart Arizona motorcycle cop who dreams of climbing the ladder and becoming a police detective, but his ambitions are scoffed at by his partner, Zipper (Billy "Green" Bush). Wintergreen's superiors tend not to take him seriously due to his short stature, but when he stumbles upon the site of a murder, he digs up enough relevant evidence to insure his advancement to detective status. However, after a few days on the job, Wintergreen begins to realize just how corrupt his superior Poole (Mitchell Ryan) truly is after Poole attempts to frame a local hippie, Bob Zemko (Peter Cetera), for a crime he didn't commit. Adding fuel to the fire is Poole's discovery that he and Wintergreen have been dating the same woman, dancer-turned-barmaid Jolene (Jeannine Riley). Electra Glide in Blue was the first (and to date only) directorial credit for James William Guercio. Successful in the music industry as a manager and producer, Guercio was best known for his association with the top-selling jazz-rock group Chicago; several members of the band appear in the movie, as does a young Nick Nolte in a bit part. On a note of sad irony, Terry Kath, the longtime Chicago vocalist who died in 1978 from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head, plays a gun-wielding killer in this film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Martin Scorsese's first Hollywood studio production also marked his first (and only) foray into a woman-centered story. Alice Hyatt (Ellen Burstyn), a resigned Southwest housewife, takes advantage of her trucker husband's sudden death to hit the road with her bratty son Tommy (Alfred Lutter) and pursue her childhood dream of a singing career. She finds a job as a lounge singer, but after a horrific encounter with an abusive new beau (Harvey Keitel), she flees and winds up taking a waitress job at Mel's Diner, run by gruff cook Mel (Vic Tayback). With her career on hold, Alice soon finds strength and self-worth through her friendship with the other waitresses, saucy Flo (Diane Ladd) and spacy Vera (Valerie Curtin). When sensitive rancher David (Kris Kristofferson) starts courting her, Alice wonders if she wants to abandon her goals for domesticity again. To contrast Alice's dream life with her reality, Scorsese created a stylized opening sequence of Alice as a child reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz, Duel in the Sun and Gone With the Wind, before shifting into the present-day atmospheric immediacy of location shooting and scenes built out of improvisations. That opening sequence alone cost over twice as much as Scorsese's debut feature, Who's That Knocking At My Door?. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Attack on Terror: The FBI Versus the Ku Klux Klan is a fact-based, two-part TV movie. The film is a dramatization of the murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964. The FBI, personified herein by southern operative Wayne Rogers, is brought in to investigate the trio's disappearance. Upon the discovery of the bodies on August 2, 1964, the feds follow a trail of (admittedly skimpy) evidence which leads to the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, headed by the virulent Glen Tuttle (Rip Torn). The first part of Attack on Terror was originally telecast February 20, 1975. The film was based on the book by Don Whitehead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unlike the 1935 film version of Jack London's 1897 novel Call of the Wild, which devoted most of its running time to a romance between Clark Gable and Loretta Young, this 1976 TV-movie version wisely remains faithful to the source. The star is a magnificent dog--part St. Bernard, part German shepherd--which is kidnapped from its home in California and spirited away to the Yukon. The dog is sold to two greenhorn prospectors (John Beck and Bernard Fresson) who name the animal "Buck". Though faithful to his new masters, Buck shows inclinations of succumbing to the "call of the wild" and running off into the woods at any moment. James (Deliverance) Dickey adapted the London novel for this TV version, which was filmed in the Sierra Madres and the Grand Tetons. Call of the Wild premiered on May 22, 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The made-for-TV Invasion of Johnson County is based on a dark chapter in the history of Wyoming. As settlers pour in, a cartel of Wyoming cattle barons raise a private army to wipe the "interlopers" off the face of the Earth. Bostonian Bill Bixby teams with good ol' boy Bo Hopkins in warding off the villains. If the story for this TV movie strikes a familiar chord, it is because the same historical incident was used as the basis for Michael Cimino's 1980 megabomb Heaven's Gate. The principal differences: Heaven's Gate lasted three dreary hours, while Invasion of Johnson County zipped along at 100 rousing minutes; and while it didn't set fires in the ratings, at least Johnson County didn't destroy United Artists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sporting narration and a theme song by country legend Waylon Jennings and starring Tom Wopat and John Schneider as Luke Duke and Bo Duke, The Dukes of Hazzard was a hit throughout its six-year run in the late '70s and early '80s. Also featuring Catherine Bach as Daisy Duke, the show showcased the ongoing adventures of the Duke brothers as they attempted to avoid the crooked local law enforcement and the sleazy Boss Hogg. Originally airing on October 19, 1979, Dukes of Hazzard: Road Pirates finds the "good ol' boys" and their pal, Cletus, trying to clear their names after being framed for stealing a truckload of TVs. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide