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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 6032
Released: November 20, 2007 |
| Our Price: $7.92 |
| Used Price: $7.80 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Based on true events in the life of Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser, who "removes" corruption in his county with a four-foot-long wooden club. When the criminals attack his family, Buford shoots a whorehouse manager in the head and runs hillbilly gangsters over with his car.
Description of Walking Tall:
Weirdly marketed as a right-wing screed upon its initial release in 1973, Walking Tall is really a tragic, shockingly violent post-noir film based on various legends surrounding real-life Southern sheriff Buford Pusser. Joe Don Baker (The Natural) gives a powerful performance as Pusser, who took on determined forces of crime and corruption in his town at great personal expense. Directed with an intentionally crude force by Phil Karlson (Kansas City Confidential), one of the toughest filmmakers of the 1950s, the film's grimness does not let up, but in the end it is more likely to break hearts than turn stomachs. --Tom Keogh
Walking Tall Reviews:
fooled 
2009-10-26 - I thought I was buying the original with joe baker, but instead recieved a copy of the new one starring The Rock. I am pissed. Their description is a lie. I heard the original is awesome, but now I dont know how I'm going to find a copy of it. And now I have 2 copies of the stupid one with the Rock.
very good. 
2009-10-02 - My son thought the Rocks version was good, didn't know it was based on a true movie, even though I like the Rock version this one is a lot better with more detail. It makes you feel more emotions and gets you to want the justice that is needed.
Walking Tall, Buford Pusser, Part 1
2009-09-05 - I recently purchased the original WALKING TALL movie (part 1) which is about Sheriff Buford Pusser. The DVD and its box are in great condition. This movie is sometimes a hard movie to find. I was able to locate it here on Amazon and purchase it for a good price.
Buford: "I got tired of being a trained animal in somebody else's circus." 
2009-07-24 - In 1973, WALKING TALL was huge summer box office stuff.
It has since spawned sequels, a TV series and a remake (with 'The Rock').
Lot of curious contradictions with this one. For example, at the outset we read that "Walking Tall" is based on the life of Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser, yet when this violently bloody picture is over a new disclaimer says it's a work of fiction and any similarity to persons living or dead, blah blah blah...
Also after Sheriff Buford (Joe Don Baker), who looks like a mummy in his gauze mask, crushes two mortal enemies with a Dodge police cruiser and a bonfire is held using the gambling club's furniture, he sheds a poignant tear as a more poignant Johnny Mathis warbles the movie's balladic theme song. This syrupy tune comes after TWO women (Elizabeth Hartman and Rosemary Murphy) get shot in the head, Pusser's chest is carved into shreds with a switchblade, a sheriff toasts to a crisp in a car crash, the family dog is murdered and Pusser's buddy is found bobbing in the lake like a lily pad.
Ah yes, a nice family movie!
THE STORY:
Retired wrestler Buford Pusser returns to his small Tennessee town to find that it's changed for the worst. Moonshine still operators are rampant and a cheesy roadhouse called the LUCKY SPOT is a hotbed of crooks. To the unwary they offer loaded dice, slot machines that never pay and other fixed games, plus a backroom filled with illegal booze disguised as Jack Daniels.
After Pusser catches a guy at the craps table with four dice in his hands, he's beaten, kicked and sliced up like a tomato. Once healed, Buford returns to the club with a huge stick and beats hell out of his attackers. Then he demands back the money his friend lost at the fixed crapgame, as well as payment for doctor bills (hundreds of stitches).
He's arrested and tried for assault, strong-arm robbery and other crimes. Judge R.W. Clarke (Douglas Fowley) would love to see him convicted, and Buford's only witness mysteriously drowns, so he just may be found guilty at that. But Buford removes his shirt in the courtroom to show the jury what these thugs did to his chest (dozens of scars) and tells them they could be next. The jury acquits him of all charges.
Buford decides to run against the town's corrupt sheriff and when intimidation doesn't deter him, Sheriff Al Thurman (Gene Evans) tries forcing our hero's car off the road. Thurman's cruiser instead careens down an embankment, crashes and burns. He doesn't survive, yet his cohorts at the Lucky Spot STILL run Thurman's ghost for re-election!
Pusser campaigns and wins the sheriff job on a promise to clean up local corruption-- the Lucky Spot tops his list. With no help from a crooked judge and with an unknown on-the-take cop working at odds against him, Buford's task is no easy one.
It's a well-done picture (that a certain useless film critic with the initials LM pooh-poohs), a bit on the bloody side true, but audiences *like* this honest country boy and root for him all the way.
I recommend "Walking Tall."
Walking Tall
2009-06-27 - I have always liked this movie, and would like to have the one that came after this. Jeanne Link
