As society in general became progressively more liberal in the 1970's, an entire genre of films rose up in reaction to the trend - movies in which an individual, frustrated with a legal system that seemed to be coddling criminals, took it upon himself to mete out his own brand of "frontier justice," usually involving personal vengeance and vigilante-style violence. The seminal films of this genre - "Billy Jack," "Dirty Harry," "Death Wish" and "Walking Tall" - all found favor with mass audiences, although critics tended to dismiss them as, at best, reactionary, and, at worst, neo-fascist in nature. Now, one of them, "Walking Tall," has been retrofitted to cater to audiences in the already far more conservative 21st Century.
The original 1973 "Walking Tall" was based on the true story of Buford Pusser, the sheriff of McNairy County, Tennessee, who won fame by single-handedly wiping out the criminal elements who had overrun his town. It was a one-man "crusade for justice" that came at great personal cost to himself and his family (his wife was murdered and Pusser died a few years later in a "mysterious" car accident). In this new version - which eliminates most of the grittier elements of the story and turns it into a rock'em-sock'em, live-action cartoon - Pusser's name has been changed to Chris Vaughn and the locale has been moved from the Appalachians to the Pacific Northwest. Chris is a recently discharged soldier who, upon returning to his small hometown, discovers that the place has become a hotbed of vice and corruption, its citizenry forced to live in fear under the tyrannical control of the local casino owner and all-around meanie, Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough). When Chris has finally had a bellyful of malfeasance and sleaze, he decides to run for sheriff, vowing to bring the criminals to their knees, and thus allowing the good folks of the town to reclaim their community.
This is a silly and shallow film whose only real purpose seems to be to give the perpetually self-righteous and outraged Vaughn an excuse to hurl endless bric-a-brac and breakaway furniture around the set while the local townsfolk look on in slack-jawed amazement. Never one to be deterred by such quaint and fusty notions as civil liberties or Miranda rights, Sheriff Vaughn chases down the bad guys one by one, smashing heads and busting bones as he goes. The plot is so underdeveloped that the final confrontation scene between Chris and his arch nemesis, Hamilton, feels like a mere afterthought. The film runs barely 75 minutes, yet boasts a 10-minute long closing credit sequence to pad it out to 85! It's as if even the filmmakers themselves had run out of interest in the project and figured they might as well just wrap things up as quickly as possible so they would be free to move on to bigger and better things.
Usually, in a film based on true life events, when the names are changed, it's to protect the innocent. In the case of "Walking Tall," it's more likely that the people who made the film were trying to protect themselves from being sued by the Pusser estate.
The original 1973 "Walking Tall" was based on the true story of Buford Pusser, the sheriff of McNairy County, Tennessee, who won fame by single-handedly wiping out the criminal elements who had overrun his town. It was a one-man "crusade for justice" that came at great personal cost to himself and his family (his wife was murdered and Pusser died a few years later in a "mysterious" car accident). In this new version - which eliminates most of the grittier elements of the story and turns it into a rock'em-sock'em, live-action cartoon - Pusser's name has been changed to Chris Vaughn and the locale has been moved from the Appalachians to the Pacific Northwest. Chris is a recently discharged soldier who, upon returning to his small hometown, discovers that the place has become a hotbed of vice and corruption, its citizenry forced to live in fear under the tyrannical control of the local casino owner and all-around meanie, Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough). When Chris has finally had a bellyful of malfeasance and sleaze, he decides to run for sheriff, vowing to bring the criminals to their knees, and thus allowing the good folks of the town to reclaim their community.
This is a silly and shallow film whose only real purpose seems to be to give the perpetually self-righteous and outraged Vaughn an excuse to hurl endless bric-a-brac and breakaway furniture around the set while the local townsfolk look on in slack-jawed amazement. Never one to be deterred by such quaint and fusty notions as civil liberties or Miranda rights, Sheriff Vaughn chases down the bad guys one by one, smashing heads and busting bones as he goes. The plot is so underdeveloped that the final confrontation scene between Chris and his arch nemesis, Hamilton, feels like a mere afterthought. The film runs barely 75 minutes, yet boasts a 10-minute long closing credit sequence to pad it out to 85! It's as if even the filmmakers themselves had run out of interest in the project and figured they might as well just wrap things up as quickly as possible so they would be free to move on to bigger and better things.
Usually, in a film based on true life events, when the names are changed, it's to protect the innocent. In the case of "Walking Tall," it's more likely that the people who made the film were trying to protect themselves from being sued by the Pusser estate.