Walking Tall: The Trilogy

A sensation when it was released in 1973, Walking Tall is a low-budget cop-drama-turned-revenge-thriller based loosely on the true story of Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser. Joe Don Baker plays the stock good ol' boy maverick lawman who carries a big stick, the better to bash in the dens of iniquity polluting his small hometown. He's beaten, shot, and assaulted by car, surviving every attack and coming back for vengeance against a crime syndicate. The original film was directed rather bluntly by Phil Karlson, and it spawned a Southern subgenre of vigilante action films as well as two direct sequels with Bo Svenson taking the club from Baker. But where the first work is a minor piece of 1970s pop culture history, the follow-ups simply rehash the basic plot line with drastically diminishing returns. Director Earl Bellamy's Walking Tall, Part II: The Legend of Buford Pusser (1975) picks up where the original left off without any real sense of direction or purpose beyond excuses for more violence and destruction (Pusser tears up an assassin's sports car with his bare hands to make a point), while Final Chapter: Walking Tall (1977)—directed by Jack Starrett—rewinds to some vague time period in the middle of the second production and is even more sloppy and shapeless. Released on DVD and Blu-ray, extras include a new retrospective documentary, a vintage featurette, and trailers and TV spots. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)