Walking Tall (1973/ Walking Tall (2004) Compare and Contrast

 Walking Tall (1973/ Walking Tall (2004) Compare and Contrast

                The original Walking Tall Trilogy was based on a true story about Sheriff Bufford Pusser in McNairy County, Tennessee from 1964 to 1970. Sheriff Pusser was played by Jon Don Baker. In the original Walking Tall movie Bufford Pusser movies back home with his family. Bufford Pusser is a former professional wrestler in this movie. He barely got home and got unpacked until he joined one of his friends at a local casino. This casino wasn’t run by Disney. It was run by a bunch of swindlers and the Casino Management cheat Bufford and his friend out of the money they won which let loose giant brawl where Bufford Pusser’s chest is carved into and he is tossed out in the interstate to die.

            Bufford Pusser tries to get the current law enforcement of his town to handle the situation but it was clear that the local law enforcement was just as crooked as the faction that was running the backwoods casinos, and running the moonshine services in the area, and all things illegal that were going on around Bufford Pusser’s old town since Bufford was no longer a resident of his town.

            Time passed before Bufford had enough of the run around from local law enforcement and he had a very large stick made at the lumber yard which he planned on putting into action. The phrase "lead with a big stick" is commonly associated with Buford Pusser. This saying as always been popularized by the film Walking Tall because Buford Pusser, took on criminal gangs in McNairy County, Tennessee, only to become a legend, with the catchphrase "lead with a big stick!" encapsulates his aggressive approach to law enforcement that started when Bufford went back to the casino where his stomach was carved into and he was thrown out like a piece of monkey crap and his rights being stepped on by local law enforcement.

            So, Buford Pusser took his big stick after having enough and returned to the casino that cheated him and he used that big stick to level down everyone in his way until he had a one-on-one conversation with the cashier who submitted to Bufford Pusser handing over everything that the sleeze bag casino owed him. Then Buford Pusser found himself back home but not long because before he knew it the two face law enforcement arrested Mr. Pusser and Bufford found himself in front of judge representing himself on trial for his actions of taking law into his own hands to get what was rightfully his since the town’s law enforcement wasn’t going to make good on things for Bufford Pusser.

            Pause right here regarding the 1973 Walking Tall Original Movie.

            In 2004 Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson starred in a Walking Tall reboot and it was right when The Rock was first beginning to become known as being an actor. The Rock starred as Military Man Chris Vaugn who returned to his hometown only to find out tat the popular Mill everyone worked at was out of business and the main popularized place on employment was the new giant casino that was ran by his friend.

            Chris Vaugn found himself in front of a judge for a similar reason like Buford Pusser did inside the 1973 Walking Tall movie only there was a difference. Yes, Chris Vaugn was cheated at the casino and then heavily roughed up and even got his chest cut up with a blade like Bufford Pusser. Also the sheriff and his sheriff department were crooked in the 2004 Walking Tall movie starring The Rock so they had no in intentions of pressing charges against the bouncers who injured Chris Vaugn and Chris placed it all behind him until his nephew and his nephew’s friends were peddled drugs from the casino in town, and that was when Vaugn went up to the casino to extract revenge and also caused Chris Vaugn to become arrested right away and he too in the 2004 Walking Tall Reboot like Bruford Pusser did in the 1973 Walking Tall original sat in front of a judge representing themselves in their criminal trial!

            Both speeches from 1973 and 2004 begin with Bufford and Chris exposing their scarred chest and ending their speech which was highly against court’s regulations by saying they would run for sheriff inside the town they live in.

            Then the next area of the action movies begins where in both the 1973 and 2004 Walking Tall movies Buford Pusser and Chris Vaugn are both now sheriffs. Sheriff Buford Pusser is going after moonshiners and going after the group of uppity ups that are behind the casino operations. As the same people inside the Hatfields and McCoys feud fire back and pull their weight to go towards Sheriff Buford Pusser.

            Meanwhile inside the 2004 Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Walking Tall remake Chris fires all the former Sheriff’s old deputies and hires his best friend as his lone and trusted deputy. Chris Vaughn starts immediately investigating the drugs at the casino and quick into this action movie the former sheriff and his deputies attempt to gain their revenge on Sheriff Chris Vaugn.

            Spoiler Alert: The 1973 Walking Tall movie goes through its ending stages and Sheriff Bufford Pusser about loses his life. In fact he has one last shootout at the casino where he nearly lost his life earlier in the movie. Sheriff Pussor was able to shut that casino down, putting forth a journey for Part 2: Walking Tall as Bufford bled out of multiple holes with his chin in some sort of cast.

In the climax of the 2004 Walking Tall movie, after Sheriff Chris Vaugn took out the deputies and the old sheriff, he made his adventure to take his former friend and the casino owner into custody, which was exactly what he did.
            Walking Tall 1973 ended with the perfect set-up for a sequel while Walking Tall 2004 ended without the guarantee of another Walking Tall movie with The Rock in it.

            Both movies had similarities about them. The Walking Tall movie from 1973 was truly guided based from Bufford Pusser’s life, and the Chris Vaugn Walking Tall movie was based from Bufford Pusser’s life. The account that both Bufford and Chris got attacked inside a house of ill reputes and the fact that law enforcement was crooked are two must have additions to these stories to have a real action adventure because without either of these movies it just wouldn’t be the same.

            Even though the 1973 Walking Tall Trilogy is less violent than the 2004 Walking Tall movie. I don’t know why they didn’t make a sequel to the 2004 Walking Tall movie starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson but later rebooted the Walking Tall movie serious again with Kevin Sorbo playing in the main action role. I don’t know much about those two movies yet because I haven’t watched them yet as I said.

            The Walking Tall 1973 movie was the beginning of a biopic trilogy bour Pusser and the 2004 Walking Tall movie would remind you of Rambo in the beginning. They are a like and not a like in various ways and if I was going to tell someone which set of Walking Tall movies to watch first, I would say it all depends on your frame of mind because even though these movies are similar, they are also very different The topics are similar and situation are similar but they are very different inside the storytelling of what both Walking Tall stories are about!

Which all the Walking Tall Movies are about being proud and confident to walk with a big stick and behave in a way that shows that you feel proud and confident!