Remake of 'Walking Tall' foolishly rips out story's Southern roots
By BOBBY BRYANT

"You got a warrant?" someone asks Sheriff Buford Pusser in 1973's "Walking Tall," and that is not a question you want to ask this sheriff in this movie.

"Yeah, I keep it in my shoe!" growls Pusser (Joe Don Baker). SMASH! The bad boys in Tennessee are hurting again.

Made fast and shot cheap, the bloody, R-rated "Walking Tall" electrified Southern drive-in audiences, grossing a reported $17 million on a small investment. Part of its power came from its simple story of a lawman cleaning up a county with a big stick and a big fist.

But audiences also knew it was, at heart, a true story about a real man who nearly died in his war on crime.

"Walking Tall" is coming back to theater screens again, as a 2004 remake produced by MGM. They're keeping the big stick - but foolishly throwing out the real man, and turning one of the most fundamentally Southern films ever made into just another action flick. In the remake:

The Joe Don Baker role goes to wrestler-turned-actor The Rock (Dwayne Johnson).

The story takes place not in Tennessee, but in Washington state.

The main character, the crusading sheriff, is not named Buford Pusser, but instead will be called the fictional "Chris Vaughn."

The movie's title will stay the same, cashing in on 30 years of name recognition.

But the story's Southern links are being severed - it's being reshaped into a generic actioner, with a generic (although popular) action star. There's little that Pusser's relatives can do. "MGM owns the rights to 'Walking Tall,' so I have no say in what they choose to do," Pusser's daughter, Dwana Pusser Garrison of Adamsville, Tenn., said. "I have expressed my opinion to them."

The real story: Buford H. Pusser, a big man who once worked as a wrestler, was sheriff of McNairy County, Tenn., from 1964-70. He was in his 20s when first elected. He soon began targeting gambling, prostitution and moonshine rings operating along the Tennessee-Mississippi line.

In 1967, Pusser and his wife, Pauline, were driving in McNairy County when someone in another car fired a fusillade of shots at their vehicle, killing Pauline Pusser and severely wounding the sheriff. He recovered, but no one was ever charged in the attack.

Pusser died in a single-car crash in 1974 after leaving office; his death was ruled accidental.

The 1973 movie: Pusser's crusade brought him fame and a movie deal. The '73 film, directed by B-movie journeyman Phil Karlson and starring Baker as the sheriff and Elizabeth Hartman as his wife, was a huge hit at drive-ins all over the South. (Vanity Fair magazine recently noted its influence in the trend of '70s vigilante movies.)

The filmmakers made no attempt to conceal Pusser's identity - he's referred to by his real name throughout the movie. In the film, Pusser's signature is clobbering criminals with a big stick. The real Pusser carried a gun as well. "Walking Tall" sequels followed in 1975 and 1977, both starring Bo Svenson as Pusser.

The remake: Since the MGM film is still in postproduction for a release in spring 2004, details are hard to come by. From all accounts, it's "inspired by," but no longer "based on," the real story.

According to Cinescape magazine, the remake relocates the story to Washington state, severing its Southern roots and dropping all references to Pusser. The Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com ) also indicates the action has been moved to the Northwest. (The movie was filmed this summer in Vancouver, British Columbia, which could pass for Washington state but probably not for Tennessee.)

IMDB says The Rock's character has been renamed Chris Vaughn, a former soldier returning home to run his family's lumber mill. Otherwise, the remake seems to play out much like the original - The Rock becomes sheriff, finds his county has become corrupt, and proceeds to clean things up, violently. The big stick is expected to keep its starring role.

The Rock will earn at least $15 million for his work on the film.

"I can't play, or be, Buford Pusser," The Rock has been quoted as saying. "Buford was in his 40s and white.... I've got a great makeup artist... (but) he cannot make me look like that." (The Rock is of African-American and Samoan-American descent. He is 31; Pusser was about 26 when elected sheriff and 36 when he died.)

One Internet movie handicapper has already begun slamming the film for its fecklessness to the Pusser legend. Greg Dean Schmitz, at Yahoo! Movies, writes: "This remake doesn't involve anything from the original movie except the idea of a man seeking vengeance against criminal influence in his small town.... Why bother calling it 'Walking Tall' at all if this isn't the Buford H. Pusser story?"

Commercially, these decisions make sense. A movie that takes place in the Great Northwest probably will appeal to a wider audience than a movie that takes place in the rural South. An action hero named "Chris Vaughn" probably will appeal to a wider audience than an action hero named "Buford Pusser." (This is called "customizing" the role for the star.)

Pusser's daughter isn't giving up on the movie, despite all the changes. On her Web site (www.sheriffbufordpusser.com ), Garrison reports that MGM invited her to the set to meet The Rock and the rest of the cast. She found The Rock "sincere" and says she might help promote the remake.

But if you tear out this story's deeply Southern roots, if you tear out the real struggle and pain behind it, do you still have "Walking Tall"? Or do you just have a movie about The Rock beating up bad guys with a stick or a baseball bat or a 2-by-4?

Pusser's "big stick" will survive intact in the remake. But Pusser himself won't. The studio only wants to borrow the sheriff's fame, not his name.