Sorry, this movie sucks

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

For anyone out there who might be thinking about "walking tall" themselves - Here's my advice - (If you carry a big stick) - You sure as hell better know how to use it!1973's "Walking Tall" (which was a fictionalized account of real-life incidents) was truly something of a novelty for a Hollywood film. Instead of overplaying all of the violence that Sheriff, Buford Pusser encountered in McNairy County, Tennessee - This story actually downplayed it.Anyway - This intense, hard-hitting drama (whack! whack! whack!) about revenge and cleaning up corruption and lawlessness actually suggests that the only way to do so is through the act of excessive violence. There seems to be no other way around it.*Note* - After viewing this brutal movie - I definitely urge you to "Google" the real-life Buford Pusser in order to find out what sort of ordeal he really had to go through by taking on the white-trash folks of McNairy County.And, what's even more interesting than that is what eventually happened to Pusser less than a year after this film was released.

In 1955, Phil Karlson directed "The Phenix City Story" about crime corruption just after the real facts happened in the city. After some violent crimes, the situation became under control, some were arrested, and some disappeared. Those who disappeared arrived in McNairy County, Tennessee, and the sad story began again. But Sheriff Buford Pusser was there, and he used the same weapons as the gangsters. And Phil Karlson made this tough movie, "Walking Tall", just after the real facts. Buford Pusser was the technical consultant and the huge Joe Don Baker played realistically his character. I have a picture with both of them, and Joe Don Baker doesn't seem to be so huge compared to the mountain Buford Pusser. I hope one day "Walking Tall" will get released again in theatres, I saw it at the french retrospective of Phil Karlson, and people were puzzled, a lot of people never saw it.

Unfortunately the IMDb allows only comments up to 1000 words and I was so much taken in by WALKING TALL that my comment got longer, so please go to my entry in the message board, if you want to read the whole review! :-) ... :-)) I love movies with balls and brains and this is one of 'em! :-) OK, I know this movies has its small shortcomings, because it does not belong to the category of over-financed Hollywood-junk (which is a movie-category established by the film industry (!) in the later 80ies and beginning 90ties consisting of movies costing anywhere from 50 to 200 million bucks and which look like most designer-stuff: well crafted but hollow), but to the category of a small independently financed B-picture. Don't get me wrong, this ain't a movie financed on a shoestring-budget, this is just one of those movies, where the producers did not have million's to burn. It's very decently made and 95% perfect, just here or there you think, well, they could have tried one more take or something similar. But anyway, are you going to the cinema to see a technically perfect movie and receive joy from seeing designer-tailored action-scenes, or do you go to the movies or buy a DVD to enjoy yourself with a movie full of balls and brain? If you belong to the 1st category, I suggest you save the time reading this and forget about watching this flick. But if you belong to the later category, then this is something for you, you gonna enjoy this roller-coaster-flick! Especially if - as is the case with me - 70ies B-flicks are your cup of tea. They certainly are mine! I won't dwell here on the storyline of WALKING TALL (you can find details elsewhere here), it's probably enough to point out that the title is the program and that our hero's tag-line is "walk softly and carry a big stick" (or - as the old Latins said - "suaviter in modo, fortiter in re"). Yeah, that's what he does and he uses that big stick to clean house very properly. I do not know, which part of the story is actually "fact" (based on incidents in the life of Buford Pusser) and which parts are fiction (that could be a lot, since the disclaimer reads that this picture is based on "incidents suggested by the life of BP", which sounds like something, but in fact can mean nearly everything or nothing at all), but IF just 50% of the story-line happened in some way or another, this guy must have had enormous luck and 7 lives. Already the incidents, when somebody tries to kill him, amount to at least 5! The movie is quite brutal, at least for a flick made in the middle of the 70ies. Quite a lot of dead and quite a high number of severely beaten-up bodies, but there ain't that much of it on-screen. Just the first beating of our hero is really tense and was probably only outdone by Mel Gibson's Christ a couple decades later. Of course it looks a bit unrealistic to see Joe Don Baker in a T-shirt so soaked with blood, because anyone loosing that much of it would certainly be dead, but then again Phil Karlson had a point to make and wanted to make sure we'd get it: our hero had been severely wounded by the villains of the town and now he had a task to handle, do what a man has to do, simply WALK TALL! This movie is pure 70ies magnetism, a wonderful ride into rural Americana, with so many classic (partly stereo-)types, wonderful original characters, hardly any cardboard ones, and actors indeed looking like someone you could meet at any corner of such a town. This is what lifts such classic productions over the Hollywood-product we get today: we do see real people doing things, that could at least be possible (while when we watch Die Hard IV everybody should know that 90% of the action-scenes there could simply never happen, because they are against the laws of physics). Here you got a lot of beat-ups, car-chases, shoot-outs, more beatings, cars driving in houses, all things that normally don't happen if the police does its job, but things that COULD happen, that are physically possible. And they are staged with zest and verve by a veteran director in the twilight of his career, who took this job at the age of 66 and wanted to give it a last (which then was his penultimate) try. And he does deliver ALL the goods, pulls all triggers. He certainly knew this could very well be his last effort, so why not give the best. With 4 decades (!!) of movie-making experience, Phil Karlson (who also directed THE SILENCERS and THE WRECKING CREW-entries in the lovely Matt Helm-series and quite a couple very good noir's and western) certainly knew how to build up a good storyline and how to stage it as well as possible with whatever budget he had available. ...ATTENTION ! This comment here is NOT COMPLETE, because the IMDb allows only 1000 words and I wrote more, so please go to my entry in the message board (if you liked to read my few cents) to get the whole review and to be able to comment on it! :-)

This movie was the true story of the life of Buford Pusser who was a nobody who run for sheriff against Al Thurman the current sheriff and won. Joe Don Baker plays the role of Sheriff Buford Pusser, Elizabeth Hartman plays the role of his wife Pauline Pusser and Gene Evans plays the role of Sheriff Al Thurman. When Pussor is beaten to with in an inch in his life that's when he decides to run for Sheriff. Pussor did things different then Sheriff Thurman and the biggest thing was that he didn't have a ***. When Pussor starts to clean up the town the mob gets very upset and tries to get even with the sheriff. Does the mob go to far in their effort to stop the sheriff from interfering in their own personal business. Since there's no main actress in this picture, I can't give it 10 weasel stars but I can give 8 weasel stars.