The stick remains the same

Back in 1973, no one expected “Walking Tall” to be a hit. It was a stripped-down, ultra-violent revenge drama, based on the true story of Buford Pusser, the crusading Tennessee sheriff who defended justice swinging a serious piece of lumber.

But the film became a phenomenon with audiences, “a response to people being sick of crime and politicians like Richard Nixon,” says Joe Don Baker, who played Pusser. “They just wanted to take a stick and beat up on the government.”

Now another group of filmmakers is hoping to catch the public in the same ticked-off frame of mind with the release of a new “Walking Tall” on Friday.

Today, director Kevin Bray says, “there is a feeling of not being able to control gas prices, you do or do not want to be in Iraq, and all this lack of control seems to be at the foreground in a lot of people’s perspectives.

“So we long for a character who is very clear about what he does and does not believe in. We deal with lies coming from the political and corporate world, and this dude is very clear about where he stands.”

Bray’s remake of the “hicksploitation” classic stars The Rock as a former member of the U.S. Army’s Special Forces who returns to his hometown to find it a cesspool of drug dealing and violence.

The film is still a one-man-against-the-crooks story. But otherwise, it strays far from the original. Just a few examples: The location has moved from the rural South to the Pacific Northwest. Moonshine and prostitution were the bad guys in the first film; crystal meth the scourge of the remake. Pusser isn’t even called Pusser: He’s Chris Vaughn.

The real Pusser, source material for the whole “Walking Tall” phenomenon, was a 6-foot-6, 250-pound hulk of a man, a former pro wrestler known as “Buford the Bull” who became sheriff of rural McNairy County, Tenn., in 1964. He died in a 1974 car crash at age 37.

During his six years in office, Pusser, known for carrying a big hickory stick he used as a weapon, fought a gang of bootleggers and con men who were operating along the Mississippi-Tennessee state line. He was shot and stabbed on several occasions, killed a thieving female motel owner who ambushed him, and, in 1967, was waylaid in his car by criminals who shot him and murdered his wife, Pauline.

Thanks to a CBS News report about his exploits, Pusser became nationally known, and Bing Crosby Productions decided to make a film about him. Directed with ruthless efficiency by B-movie veteran Phil Karlson (“The Phoenix City Story,” “Kansas City Confidential”), “Walking Tall” portrays Pusser as a strong family man who becomes politically involved only after he is cheated at a local casino, beaten and left for dead. Elected as sheriff, he becomes driven and monomaniacal, fighting the local criminal syndicate, corrupt judges and state government officials. Even though it takes the usual Hollywood liberties with Pusser’s life, the film plays like a pure piece of American neo-realism and still packs an emotional wallop.

But it was not an instant success. Baker says the film initially opened in urban grind houses patronized primarily by minorities, where it was sold as a good-old-boy Southern law-and-order drama. “The initial ads had me coming out of a swamp with slime coming off me,” he says, “and I had this little stick in my hand. They were just terrible ads.”

But, says Baker, after “Walking Tall” opened in some Asian markets, where it was wildly successful, the film’s producers retooled the marketing campaign, emphasized the one man swinging a big stick aspects, and re-released it.

“Walking Tall” became a huge hit. The film took in $40 million in the U.S. ($168 million in 2004 dollars). It also spawned two sequels (starring Bo Svenson as Pusser), a 1978 TV pilot called “A Real American Hero,” featuring Brian Dennehy, and a 1981 “Walking Tall” TV series, also starring Svenson.

“I think my dad’s story came around at just the right time,” says Buford’s daughter Dwana, who runs a museum dedicated to her father in Adamsville, Tenn.

“We usually know what the right thing to do is, but the hard part is doing it,” she says. “I think because he stood up, and he fought against those people, that is what made ‘Walking Tall’ such a commercial success.”

The ROCK, a fan of the original film and ‘70s action stars such as Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood, says he “wanted to bring back the rawness, the intensity of the movies of that era. And I really appreciated what Buford Pusser went through. It’s that reluctant hero, that true reluctant hero. I’ve always loved guys like that.”

The new version maintains the basic “Walking Tall” template but is, says director Bray, a “more tamed version.”

“The original was unforgiving,” he says, “and the realism was more acute. And the Buford Pusser character in the movie was a complete and utter maniac.”

There are other key differences. The original features the ambush that killed Pusser’s wife (played by the late Elizabeth Hartman), but Bray believes today’s audiences wouldn’t put up with such a tragedy, so in the new version The Rock has a girlfriend (Ashley Scott) who does not die at the end.

The 1973 film also paid homage to the civil rights era: Pusser is shown hiring the first black deputy (Felton Perry) in his county, which actually happened. But because The Rock is of Polynesian-black heritage, the new “Walking Tall” features a 21st century attitude. “We were adamant about the fact that I am of mixed race,” says The Rock. “I believe that’s what America is, it’s a big melting pot. In the opening scene I return home and you see that my mom is white, my dad is black, and we don’t make an issue of it.”

Yet whatever appeal the new film has, it will largely be determined by the mythic qualities of its elemental story. “Walking Tall” remains the tale of one man who takes on some clearly defined villains in an attempt to clean up his town.

“The theme of the movie is one that resonates with everybody,” says The Rock. “You realize one person can make a difference.”