After five years serving in the U. S. Marine Corps and another five years performing as a professional wrestler, "Buford Pusser" (Joe Don Baker) returns to his home town in McNairy County, Tennessee with his family to start a new life. However, once he arrives, he soon discovers that things have taken a dramatic turn for the worst because of rampant corruption by city officials due to the influence of organized crime. To that effect, after being badly cut up and left for dead during a scuffle at a local bar, he makes it his mission to clean up the town once and for all. What he doesn't quite realize, however, is just how entrenched the local mafia is and the lengths they will go to in order to stay in business. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I first heard of this movie during my high school days when a good friend happened to see it when it first came out at the local drive-in here in southern Kentucky. Yet, even though he was quite impressed with it, I never really got around to actually watching it for myself until just recently. Having said that, I have to admit that my friend was right on the money as this turned out to be a really good movie which captured the local environment of this area in an outstanding manner. Admittedly, there is some creative license taken with some of the actual events, but even so the overall story is still quite compelling and I have rated this film accordingly. Above average.
Review of Walking Tall
