walking tall

Pusser, at his wife Pauline's behest, retires from the professional wrestling ring and moves back to Tennessee to become deputy under his father, Carl Pusser and then the police chief of Adamsville, Tennessee. But when he wins election as sheriff of McNairy County, Pusser becomes aware of the rampant corruption and decides to clean up the county. Buford Pusser became famous for being incorruptible, intolerant of crime, and his array of four foot hickory clubs which he used to great effect in destroying clandestine gambling dens and illegal distilleries, and even against criminals.

Some residents praised Buford Pusser as an honest cop in a crooked town; others denounced him as a bully willing to break some laws to uphold others.

On August 12, 1967, he and Pauline were ambushed near the New Hope Road church in McNairy County. Pauline was killed, and Pusser was seriously injured.


[edit] Title
The title of the movie comes from one of the real-life Pusser's favorite sayings "the measure of a man is how tall he walks."[1]


[edit] Sequels
The original Walking Tall was a hit, but the sequels, Part 2, Walking Tall and Final Chapter - Walking Tall, both starring Bo Svenson, were far less profitable. A short-lived 1981 television series (again starring Svenson) further dramatized Pusser's life and career. Buford Pusser himself was signed to star in Part 2, Walking Tall, but on August 21, 1974, after a press conference in Memphis, Tennessee to announce the film, Pusser's Corvette left the road about six miles from his Adamsville home and struck an embankment, ejecting Pusser. He died upon impact or shortly afterwards.


[edit] Factual inaccuracies in Walking Tall
It is no surprise that the movie takes license with reality, but a number of the best-known scenes in Walking Tall are fictional. For example, Pusser never went into a roadhouse with a stick and beat up everyone inside. He did, however, take two friends and beat the owner of the Plantation Club in 1961 (Morris:1971). The prior McNairy County sheriff, James Dickey, did not die trying to run over Pusser in a confrontation, he fell asleep at the wheel and died in a car crash less than one month before the 1964 Walking a dangerous line

The lack of safe routes, transportation an issue for schools.

It was frightening to watch, even sitting in a car on the sidelines.
Kristey Simpson and her 5-year-old daughter Alexus Young had to cross the junction of two farm roads walking home from McBride Elementary School on Monday. On one side, bushes and small trees jutted from the corner so that cars had trouble seeing the two, and Kristey and Alexus had trouble seeing the cars from that direction.

For much of the way, they walked in a shallow ditch filled with tall grass. Sometimes they were lucky enough to go through residential yards. But those were their only choices because there was nowhere else to walk except the road. At two or three places on their trek home, the two did have to get off the grass and onto the streets. Around them ― as it was when they left the school and waiting parents jammed up against each other and spilled out onto the street ― cars piled up, in a hurry to get where they were going.

"I've even had people honk at me, like they want me to get out of the way," Simpson says. "I'm thinking, 'Where is it they think I can go?'"



Since school started, no one has stopped to ask them if they wanted a ride. None of the parents leaving McBride in the afternoon has seemed to notice the two walking as they drive to nearby neighborhoods, or if they did, still no one offered them a ride. Ironically, Wilson's Creek Elementary is just around the corner from their home, but it only accommodates fifth- and sixth-graders.
When they were drawn amongst fiercely intimidating company in Group B, the prospect of Scotland qualifying for the finals of Euro 2008 was about as imaginable as seeing the players walk on water. Now, though, the Scots may be permitted a certain buoyancy.

Scottish football fans' forum
With four wins from five - and three on the spin since succeeding Walter Smith eight months ago - Alex McLeish has been able to absorb, with some degree of equanimity, three withdrawals from the group assembled for the qualifying double-header against Lithuania and France.

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Russell Anderson was ruled out yesterday, victim of a leg injury, and his withdrawal followed that of Kenny Miller and Gary Naysmith. However, nobody was conscripted to make up the numbers, a reliable sign that McLeish has confidence in the strength of his group.

Roy Aitken, the Scots' first-team coach, confirmed as much when he said: "The manager is quite happy the way things are because we've got over 20 players to pick from - 18 outfield and three goalkeepers.

"There is still a lot of quality within the group and in the positions all of these lads play in."

Barry Ferguson's absence through suspension may be more keenly felt against Lithuania at Hampden Park on Saturday, but Aitken was similarly sanguine about the Rangers captain's unavailability.

"Barry has been instrumental as captain but the thing about football is that there are so many variables like loss of form, suspension and injuries, and we have Darren Fletcher, Paul Hartley, Scott Brown and Stephen Pearson and others - all central midfielders who can play in that area - so although we'll miss Barry Ferguson, we have good cover," said Aitken, who hinted that Saturday's starting line-up is already lodged in the manager's mind.

"It will be an attacking formation but with that need to be guarded. Lithuania have picked up only seven points in the group but they feel their performance level is worthy of a better reward, so we don't underestimate them.

"It's up to our players to stir up the crowd and get them going. Alex has stamped his personality on the team since he took over. He likes them to play on the front foot, to go forward and create chances.

"The fans have responded, as you'll remember from the Georgia game, which was very much an up and at 'em approach - we want that Scottish passion this time because it's a home game."

In a comparatively youthful squad, it is a novelty to find a player pushing 30 who can claim to be a rising talent, but Barry Robson fits both bills. With one cap to his name, Robson is an improbable starter, but the ease with which he handled his substitute appearance against South Africa last month suggests that he will certainly be an asset on the bench.

"You need to make adjustments in your game at international level. You need to be clever and cute but the main thing is to be calm and composed on the ball and to make something happen," said Robson.

"It's well documented that I have been a late developer in my career. I think my body has developed a lot better in later years, because I had a lot of injuries as a young player and it took its toll, but I'm feeling better every year and every pre-season I feel stronger.

"I think you'll find a lot of players can run all day at 21, but at my age I'm just starting to feel that and it's great, so I'm looking forward to the next five years."

Fifteen minutes after the duo got home, the sunshine stopped and the skies poured. They were glad to be home. Kevin Sorbo (Walking Tall: The Payback, TV's Hercules) stars in this action-packed sequel to the hit film, Walking Tall: The Payback. After cleaning up his hometown, Nick (Sorbo) retires as county sheriff and heads to Dallas where he hopes to start a new life with an FBI Agent and her twelve-year old daughter. Just being "the boyfriend" is tough enough for Nick. When a ruthless drug lord targets several key witnesses to a Federal case, Nick finds himself in the middle of a war with nobody to trust. This time Nick is on their turf and he is pitted against a ferocious army of gang bangers. Nick's brand of country justice just doesn't seem to cut it on the rough city streets but he will stop at nothing to protect his own.

Nick's girlfriend, Kate, has been working on a huge case against Octavio Perez, one of the biggest narcotics traffickers in the region. On trial, Perez faces certain conviction until the state's two key witnesses are assassinated in a brazen attack on a Federal Safe House. Kate and three of her colleagues are now the only witnesses that can keep Perez behind bars. But Ciro and his gang will stop at nothing to free their leader. Even with the help of some trusted locals no one can match for the heavy firepower of the ruthless bangers. With his back against the wall, Nick must break every rule to save the ones he loves.

Simpson and Young live just past the Springfield school district's cut-off for children to get free bus service. To get the free service, a child must either live over 1.5 miles from the school or have to cross a "barrier street" ― one where an average of 30,000 cars travel per day or there is a speed limit of at least 45 mph.

Across the city Monday morning, I watched kids try to get to Hickory Hills Elementary and Middle School. Just trying to get off U.S. 65 in my car was scary enough ― cars and even one semi blew past me on the off-ramp, and the drop-off line at the school was filled with impatient parents who had their own places to go. Seeing small children walking past, around, in back, in front of me was treacherous: They're little, and they take the path of least resistance to get to where they're going, hazards be danged.

In the Hickory Hills district, Suzanne Nimmo and Chuck Lick are paying $600 a year for their three children, ages 8, 8 and 5, to ride the bus. "If we weren't eligible for reduced lunches, it would be $2,400 a year," Lick notes.

Any way you cut it, that's a chunk for anyone. Lick manages a water bottling plant and Nimmo does in-home child care.

Simpson's cost would only be about $100 a semester, but she says she can't even get that together. She is living with a friend so she can afford to take paralegal training.

Lick's and Nimmo's kids walk up their street a quarter-mile to an intersection where people are whizzing by to go to work and drop off their kids, even though the bus goes past their house on its way to turn around at the end of the street and go the other way. The couple doesn't need afternoon pickup, but there's no option for only one-way bus riding.

One of the reasons their children are riding the bus is that there are no crossing guards on busy Chestnut Expressway or Cherry Street, where the children have to pass to reach Hickory Hills. Then, there are no sidewalks on several of the streets they'd have to travel in peak travel hours.

School Board President Kris Callen says she's traveled several of the areas where parents have concerns, including Hickory Hills which is being closed so a replacement school can be built, in part because of the dangerous traffic around the school. But she hasn't been there in peak traffic times, she says. "I've been out to see the (Hickory Hills) crosswalks, but I can't remember the time of day. Probably not when school's starting."

We've beaten the school transportation horse so long its back isn't just bent, it's to the point of breaking. But if you drive or walk the streets when the children are walking, you'll understand we haven't come very far despite all the jaw flapping and small changes. There but for the grace of God goes your child or grandchild in this Bohemian traffic, just a step away from the brutal accident that left fifth-grader Tommie Stephenson disabled last year while she was crossing National Avenue trying to get to Rountree Elementary.

Drive the streets and watch the children. Then watch the stunningly selfish way drivers behave, no matter how close they are to the kids. Decide how you'd want your kid or grandkid to have safe access to his or her school, and pay close attention to the close calls you see. Then pick up your phone and call your school board members, show up at school board meetings, phone in to local radio talk programs and write letters to the editor.

I'm ashamed we haven't done more sooner.

election (Morris, "State Line Mob," 1990).

In the movie, Pusser kills two characters, Callie Hacker, the female bar owner, and a fellow thug who tries to kill Pusser but winds up killing the family dog. In real life, Pusser did kill two individuals, Louise Hathcock and Charles Hamilton. Callie Hacker was loosely based on Louise Hathcock although Pusser actually killed her out of the presence of other witnesses (in the original movie, he kills her after she shoots at him across a bar) in a side room of the Shamrock Motel. The 'family dog killer' episode never actually happened but was added to spice up the movie. Pusser did kill Charles Hamilton in a shootout in Tennessee on Christmas Day, 1968. The shooting of the character Ray Henry in Walking Tall, Part Two was loosely based on Pusser's killing of Hamilton.

Pusser is shot at point blank range in one scene, supposedly by 'a couple of boys from Alabama' as one character says. In reality, Pusser was shot by his mistress, Pearl, after a quarrel (Morris: State Line Mob, 1990) although his arch nemesis, Towhead White, had in fact escaped from prison in Alabama during the same time frame.

Obrah Eaker, played by Felton Perry, was loosely based on Pusser's only black deputy, Dave Lipford. After his wife's killing, Pusser did not leave the funeral and crash his car into a bar. Pusser never attended his wife's funeral. He was still in the hospital when she was buried.

The portrayal of his children contains a few inaccuracies as well. Leif Garrett portrays Mike, an eight-year old at the beginning of the movie. He barely ages during the show, but Pusser's stepson, Mike Vance, was actually 18 years old when Pauline Pusser was killed. Dwana, however, was fairly accurately represented throughout all three movies, including being the first one to reach him upon his fatal car crash.

Pusser's father was actually the Adamsville police chief when Buford first ran for election as sheriff.

According to a 1973 newspaper on the wall of the Pusser Museum, Buford said that the movie was 'sixty percent true.'

The original 1973 movie was filmed in the summer of 1972 in West Tennessee, but not in McNairy County. Town scenes were filmed in Henderson, county seat of Chester County, 19 miles to the north of Selmer, using Chester County locals as extras and in some minor roles. Scenes were also filmed in nearby Jackson and in rural Madison County. The scene where Callie Hacker was killed was filmed in the Pine Ridge Club in Medon, which is still in operation.


[edit] Controversy
In some circles, the name Buford Pusser has become synonymous with police brutality. This is bolstered by the fact that Walking Tall was marketed, perhaps erroneously, as a right-wing film upon its original release. [2] Whenever a character parodies Pusser, he is generally violent and overzealous.


[edit] Remake
Main article: Walking Tall (2004 film)
In 2004, a remake starring professional wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was made. Although it took many elements of Pusser's life and the original Walking Tall, many things were changed, such as Johnson's character's name (Chris Vaughn) and setting the film in semi-rural Kitsap County, Washington. The film was a Metro Goldwyn Mayer picture. A sequel to the remake has been made in Dallas, Texas and is now on DVD. It's titled Walking Tall "The Payback' and it stars Kevin Sorbo as the son of the town's Sheriff who takes the law into his hands when the Father is killed in an alleged car accident.