Walking Tall (1973)

I didn't recall hearing about this cult movie when YouTube suggested it, but it got two sequels, a TV series, a TV remake, and a big-screen remake trilogy starring Dwayne Johnson. It also takes inspiration from real events, tho they've since been disputed enough that I won't add my "true story" tag. Indeed, last year, investigators accused the long-deceased protagonist of uxoricide. That would not affect my feelings about the film version.

In 1964, ex-wrestler Buford Pusser (Joe Don Baker) moves back from Chicago to Adamsville, Tennessee, with his wife (Elizabeth Hartman) and kids (Leif Garrett and Dawn Lyn Nervik), planning to work as a logger for his dad (Noah Beery Jr.). His mom (Lurene Tuttle) cryptically warns him to ignore changes in town, but that's not easy when an old buddy (Ed Call) invites him to a casino. He catches the staff cheating, and they beat him within an inch of his life and steal his car. Then he discovers that the sheriff he used to look up to (Gene Evans) is worse than useless and the local judge (Douglas Fowley), while apparently staying within the bounds of the law, is not much better. So much for Buford's promise not to fight anymore....

Corruption does run deep in the county, but this isn't one of those stories with no good guys. Quite a few relatively innocent locals throw their support behind Buford, whether he's running for sheriff or taking on criminal elements without the color of law. Of course, those who forsake justice for unrestrained hedonism will go to any length to keep it that way, and Buford's life isn't the only one on the line.

I have to warn you about the racism. It's most open among the villains, but even Buford, who seeks fairness, uses the N-word once as if there's nothing controversial about that. He treats his one Black co-worker and later deputy, Obra (Felton Perry), like a friend much of the time, but Obra repeatedly complains that Buford expects an awful lot from his abilities. Whether Buford would do the same to a White guy is unclear. At least he seems to go equally hard after crooks of each race.

Bigotry isn't the only reason I thought of Dirty Harry at several points. Buford tends to regard police protocol as mere guidelines, when he bothers to learn it at all, which can be a problem in court. He's fluent in the only language he trusts scoundrels to understand, whether bare-fisted, packing a gun, or -- his fictional signature -- swinging a wooden cylinder he whittled himself. Alas, he's not prone to quotable lines like Harry.

The R rating is primarily for brutal violence by '70s standards. We also get plenty of swearing and some indecent exposure at a brothel, despite no unambiguous sex scene. I would not let kids as young as Buford's watch.

I can't say there are great performances -- hardly any names involved rang a bell, after all -- but neither did WT disappoint me. It's cathartic for anyone with concerns about creeping depravity and anarcho-tyranny. Sometimes I even felt a little tickled. Just bring enough patience for 125 minutes at a '70s pace.