Walking Tall

Walking Tall is a 1973 American neo-noir biographical vigilante action thriller film based on the life of Buford Pusser, a professional wrestler-turned-lawman in McNairy County, Tennessee, played by Joe Don Baker. The film was directed by Phil Karlson. It has become a cult film with two direct sequels of its own, a TV movie, a brief TV series, and a remake that had its own two sequels. Plot Buford Pusser, at his wife Pauline's behest, retires from the professional wrestling ring, and moves back to Tennessee to start a logging business with his father, Carl Pusser. With a friend, he visits a gambling and prostitution establishment, the Lucky Spot, and is beaten up after catching the house cheating at craps. Pusser is seriously injured with a knife, and receives over 200 stitches. He complains to the sheriff, but is ignored, and soon becomes aware of the rampant corruption in McNairy County. Later, working at his father's lumber mill, Pusser makes a club out of a tree branch. Late one night, Pusser waits until after the Lucky Spot is closed, and beats up the same thugs who left him for dead. The next day, Pusser is arrested; he represents himself at trial. At one point, he rips off his shirt and shows the jury his scars. He informs them, "If you let them do this to me and get away with it, then you're giving them the eternal right to do the same damn thing to any one of you!" The jury finds Pusser not guilty, and he decides to clean up the county, and runs for sheriff. The campaign is contentious against the incumbent sheriff, who is killed trying to run Pusser off the road. Pusser is elected, and becomes famous for being incorruptible and intolerant of crime, and for his array of four-foot hickory clubs, which he uses to great effect in dispatching criminals and destroying their clandestine gambling dens and illegal distilleries. Some residents praise Pusser as an honest cop in a crooked town; others denounce him as a bully willing to break some laws to uphold others. Pusser is betrayed by one of his deputies, and is attacked several times. Finally, Pauline and he are ambushed in their car. Pauline is killed and Pusser is seriously injured. He is admitted to the hospital after being shot, and while still in a neck-and-face cast, attends his wife's funeral. Afterward, he rams a sheriff cruiser through the front doors of the Lucky Spot, killing two of his would-be assassins.