Review: Walking Tall

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019
Images from the Internet

Walking Tall

Directed by Kevin Bray
20 Century Fox / MGM / MVD Marquee Collection
86 minutes, 2004 / 2018
www.mvdvisual.com

I like Dwayne Johnson as an actor. He’s versatile with good chops in many genres, including action, drama, and even his comic timing is top notch. But this remake of the 1973 film of the same title (though the characters’ names change here) does not star Dwayne Johnson; rather, it is wrestling superstar The Rock. Yes, there is a difference, and it all comes down to money, i.e., who is doing the financing.




The real Buford Pusser

This film is based also on the life of Buford Pusser (d. 1974) though more glitzy than the original in which stoic-yet-slow-burn Joe Don Baker played him as a man finally fed up and seeking revenge, as his town is turned into a Pottersville, if you will, and his wife is killed by the mob. Here, The Rock plays him as Chris Vaughn, a U.S. Army Special Forces Sergeant with combat training, who is highly skilled in the art of killing. And he certainly does plenty of it here.

Many of the key scenes are redone from the ’73 release, which is somewhat more accurate to Buford’s real life, but here liberties are definitely taken (e.g., Vaughn is unmarried). Actually I don’t have a problem with the re-vision of the original story, as that’s common practice in cinema history. It’s the level of the amping of testosterone in a video game world that I find, well, kinda meh. Back in Tennessee when the real story happened, one could possibly get away with the things that Buford did, never mind the mob. I can’t really imagine Vaughn in then-modern 2004 sneaking out of getting jail time. All the mob had to do is donate minimal money to a right-wing cause, and as we’ve seen in real life, people will follow blindly.



The Rock, Johnny Knoxville

See, this here version was produced by Vince McMahon, head of the wrestling association that The Rock is affiliated with, so it’s going to amp up the machismo and violence because they want to market their product (i.e., The Rock). What they ended up with was a film that basically has no character, no sense of proportion, and in which women are there to be mainly strippers and hookers, with zero personalities. His new girlfriend (Ashley Scott) is a pole dancer/call girl who works for the casino, and spends much of her screen time in red bra and panties.

As in the wrestling ring, it’s essentially mano-a-mano as The Rock goes against ex-friend and now drug dealer/casino owner Jay (seemingly perpetual villain Neal McDonough). Rounding out the group is the “comic relief” of The Rock’s sidekick, played by the ever annoying Johnny Knoxville.



Neal McDonough

Everyone gets the crap beaten out of them at some point or another, but you know who will prevail in an apparently never ending string of fights between The Rock and any number of Jay’s henchmen. And who will be the final victor? Follow the funding.

The bonus material, which I honestly did not watch, includes subtitles, an audio commentary by The Rock, and another one with the Director, Film Editor and Director of Photography, a “Fight the Good Fight” stunts featurette, deleted scenes, blooper reel, an alternate ending, a photo gallery, and the original theatrical trailer.

I don’t mind films with fighting. The Kung Fu craze of the ‘70s and ‘80s was fun and I still get a kick (pun not intended) out of those. Imaginative ones like Die Hard and Fight Club prove that it can be quite interesting, but this is just a bunch of nothing set pieces that are there to serve the purpose of promoting a product (again, The Rock), rather than telling a story. The film did well, financially, and helped The Rock become Dwayne Johnson, out of the banner of the wrestling venue. So in the long run that’s a good thing, right?