Final Chapter: Walking Tall

You don't have to agree with its message to enjoy the first "Walking Tall". Certainly not as violent as the "Dirty Harry" pictures, but just as unsubtle, it was a powerful movie with a totally convincing, appropriately square performance by Joe Don Baker.

The first sequel, in which Baker was replaced by Bo Svenson, was a boring, by-the-numbers follow-up, with none of the force of the original.

The second sequel is even worse; talky and drab, it exploits (in an almost cannibalistic way) the first movie by lifting and recreating the most famous sequences from it. There are a few good moments (when Pusser picks up his trusty bat), but they are very scarce.

"Final Chapter: Walking Tall" is a solid finale to an excellent trilogy. "Finale Chapter" wraps things up in a sad but very satisfying way. Family is a very important element to all three movies. The family part of the saga takes center stage in this movie. The scenes between Bo Svenson and Forrest Tucker are excellent. The rest of the cast isn't far being. This movie is not a stand alone film. It's actually the final chapter of an amazing story. I first saw "Final Chapter: Walking Tall" in the theater (Glen Oaks, NY). Over the years I've seen this movie a bunch of times. It always hits the spot. Honorable mention: a dreamy Margaret Blye.

The Final Chapter Walking Tall. Is perhaps the most fictionalized chapter in the series Bo Svenson once again picks up the big stick. The film goes into detail as it's one year to the day Pauline Died and Buford is still fighting his war.

Buford is filled with gulit and remorse. If he had not been Sheriff his wife would still be alive. But Buford only knows one thing and that's action. He continues his war and dries up the county and breaks the back of the state line mob. Soon Re Election comes up and Buford is voted out of office. It seems the people want change. and Buford's violent war is something they want to put behind them.

So Buford decides to fix cars up and sell them. However some people have a hard time in accepting the fact that Buford is no longer sheriff and call him for help. His enemies attack him. And Buford tries to move on with his life. A Hollywood producer sees a news story on Buford and decides to make a film based on Buford's life. This leads to Buford helping out with the film in telling his story. the end of the film comes with the tragic death of Buford Pusser just days before he was to step in front of the cameras to film Buford. a film continuing his story. A fitting end to the legend of Buford Pusser.

A movie trilogy between 1973 and 1977, a TV-series in 1981, and another made-for-TV movie in 1978... I don't mean any disrespect towards Mr. Buford Pusser, but maybe there are slightly too many tales revolving around the Real American Hero from McNairy County, Tennessee? The first "Walking Tall" movie was great, but perhaps they shouldn't even have started with the second movie, considering Pusser passed away a mere days after he sealed a deal for starring as himself.

Chronologically, the first "Walking Tall" deals with Pusser's time as Sheriff between 1964 and the tragic death of his wife in 1967. Part two picks up immediately after that, and this final chapter supposedly starts exactly one year after the fatal accident, and abruptly ends with Pusser's own suspicious death in a car accident in 1974.

Part III isn't boring but it's not exactly very exciting, neither. You know there's something wrong when one of the most intense and action-packed moments of the entire two-hour film is the Sheriff chasing three rebellious teenagers because they stole his car. Besides that, Buford Pusser bulldozes an illegal gambling/prostitution house just outside of his jurisdiction, and he unexpectedly loses the re-election for Sheriff. The last half hour is very interesting, though, because it closes the circle and covers how the first film came into existence. It's somewhat paradoxical, and I like that.

They had pretty much run out of story by the end of the second film, so making a movie with what was left was kind of redundant. Yet they somehow manage to stretch what was left to an unbelievable length (116 minutes), a lot of which is made of endless and unnecessary footage of people walking from one place to another. A competent editor would have been able to prune not only this filler, but a lot of scenes that don't do anything to the plot, or start subplots that go nowhere.

There was promise in the sequence when Pusser sells his life story to the big screen (including when Pusser tells why he is reluctant to do so) but they don't spend much time in this sequence.

If you don't care about this, and just want to see Pusser swing his bat at heads, you should know there isn't much of that this time around. Most of the movie is just people talking, and it's not interesting talk. If you know what happened to Pusser, then there's no reason for you to see this movie.