QT4: Good Ol Boy Night... The WALKING TALL Trilogy

Remember those key movie going summers of your youth? Well, on this eve of the last night of QT QUATTRO.... Quentin decided to bring us the series of films that to those folks living in Tennessee.... when he was 9-10 years old in 1973... that captured him and his friends.

Let’s look at 1973 real quick... this was the year of EXORCIST, THE STING, AMERICAN GRAFFITI, PAPILLON, MEAN STREETS, SERPICO, ENTER THE DRAGON, THE PAPER CHASE and WEST WORLD.... But in 1973... in the state of Tennessee... there was a living legend... A big ol burl of a man... He’d become a thing of legend... a law enforcement Paul Bunyon wielding a gigantic stick and beating the living shit out of evil in dem dar hills of Tennessee.

His name was Buford Pusser... And the entire state was excited about his film.... WALKING TALL starring Joe Don Baker as the biggest meanest most upright uprooter of evil....

That year, WALKING TALL played all summer long... never budging from it’s Drive-In screen.... other films came and went... on the double-bill... but one of them... was ALWAYS the man that kicked ass and knocked the teeth out of evil doers. And all summer long, Quentin and his friends went to the drive-in and watched Buford Pusser on the big screen... and then saw films like DETROIT 9000, CLEOPATRA JONES, WICKED WICKED, LITTLE CIGARS, THE ARENA and so on... He didn’t name those titles... but those are 1973 drive-in titles...

At the concession stands according to Quentin... they had 8x10 glossies of the Real Buford Pusser for sale... and other law enforcement memorabilia. You see... Buford Pusser was a modern day Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone type.... a down home hero who’d been shot 8 times and knifed 7 times all in the line of duty. And was alive to tell his tale!

This was high folk hero art... and Quentin... well, he and his friends went to the drive in constantly to see their hero whoop evil’s ass.

The funniest part of Quentin’s intro was that he saw the film... Night Number One.... Everyone who was anyone was there... A classic night at the drive-in... squeaking suspensions... couples making out.... people leaning on their horns as a sound of applause... crickets chirping.... the sky up above... and Buford Pusser kicking ass on the screen.

Well, in the first WALKING TALL there is a scene where Buford decides to get what’s coming to him... He’s hightails it to this little den of sin... armed only with what looked to be 4 feet of some form of hard wood that he swung like a baseball bat.... Unhinging jaws, breaking femurs, landing devastating concussions to the tops of heads... Breaking up gambling tables and landing the men in hospitals... all justifiably mind ya... BUT YOU MUST SEE THIS SCENE TO BELIEVE IT... It is HARDCORE VIOLENT... Well... Quentin saw this scene... and the next night he returned with his group of friends and... the scene wasn’t there. It was gone.

All summer long these highly innocent kids.... Quentin amongst them... went over and over again, hoping to see THAT scene. They didn’t understand about editing or about the concept that a projectionist can sometimes cut out material that they find to be... too much. Instead... they just started doubting themselves... and this scene became something of an urban legend.

When all was said and done... The movie began and folks... This movie kicked my ass. I was expecting some sort of sweaty southern fable about crime and punishment... but dudes... this thing was brutal. When the film was over there was this cathartic rush to the lobby... where various folks began group consultation and psychological care for one another. This one girl... she was so strongly affected by the film, that she was in continual sobbing mode.... so much so, that she bummed a cigarette and began smoking for the first time in 7 months... FOLKS... this film is SO POWERFUL, it drove this poor lady back to the clutches of the tobacco industry.

Now... at the beginning of the film... Quentin mentioned that the WALKING TALL trilogy... should be seen all at once, because there is something quite unique that happens over the course of the three films... something he didn’t want to get into till the introduction of the third film.

But... this film alone throws soooo much pure tragedy at ya, that by the time it is done... you’re just exhausted and a bit shell-shocked. I found myself convinced that his children were going to be blown up while fishing... concerned about a trip outside to grab the holiday turkey.... EVERYTIME HE TURNED THE IGNITION in the last hour... I just knew he’d blow up.

This was the sort of world they’d constructed and it was a scary, real and brutal world.

Now... between the first film and the second film there was a major casting change.... After WALKING TALL succeeded the way it did, Buford Pusser was all set to step in and star in a sequel called.... BUFORD... but he died in a mysterious ball of GM fire in the night as his corvette burst into flames and left Pusser a dead man on the side of the road after signing autographs all day at a fair.

The circumstances were mysterious... the death so violent and random... and after so many attempted auto deaths... this just went beyond coincidence, though nothing was ever proven.

Well... when Buford was going to play.... Joe Don had walked away from the project and wasn’t headed back... So instead, they cast Bo Svenson... and as Quentin explained it... because of the way the first film ends... you almost need a new actor for the second film.

You see, Buford’s jaw was blown off with a shotgun, and at the end of WALKING TALL... he’s in the hospital in bandages.... and in PART II: WALKING TALL it picks up right there with the bandages being removed and it being... Bo Svenson.

Now here’s the thing... I knew nothing about WALKING TALL or Sheriff Buford Pusser. I thought this was Redneck/Good Ol Boy night..... I wasn’t expecting a backwoods Elliot Ness version of THE UNTOUCHABLES. I was stunned.

Just like with Elliot Ness stories... I was entranced... I mean, this stuff is all based on ‘true’ stories... and as such, I just begin accepting at face value. With this film... I knew... the dude is gonna be dead. He’s dying man... They are going to kill this man. And there was a complete sense of dread.

Also... Joe Don Baker felt like Joe Don Baker... and for me, I’m just not as used to seeing Bo Svenson, so he just stepped in and ruled the part... On top of that, he didn’t a second film and apparently some early eighties TV series based on Buford. Which I can only imagine being the exact opposite of DUKES OF HAZARD.

Again the second film ends... and there is no death... Just strange and bizarre... the story grows beyond his little county... we learn of a larger Hick Mafia that controls the stills of Tennessee, the gambling and the whoring. We learn about the state government politics... they begin to try and assassinate Buford throughout the film... always hitting someone.... but not Buford.... always missing their target. And as the film went on and on... he didn’t die... That would be the third film.

The highlights for me in PART II, was the bringing in of Angel Tompkins (which could very well of shared the screen with WALKING TALL in 1973 when she starred in the midget gangster con game flick... LITTLE CIGARS, which showed at last year’s fest) to seduce Buford.... The scene where Buford let’s her know the jig is up... FANTASTIC. It highlighted the character arc of Buford from being a dumb hick, to being an educated lawman. He became a quick study... and I imagine he would have to, right after all them shootings.

Also... Libby Boone was fantastic as the secretary with a crush on Buford.

And then Quentin introduced the FINAL CHAPTER: WALKING TALL.... which was directed by Jack Starrett... who’s CLEOPATRA JONES might very well of played some screens along with this film.... but... now he’s winding up this trilogy with... a bit of a surreal moment.

Quentin gets really funny here a bit, but not really... He’s dead serious. What I mean by funny is... You know when you are a fan of a series... and there is some sort of weird disruption of continuity... how as a fan, you always come up with a theory to explain it.

Well, Quentin feels that when you watch all three WALKING TALL films in a row... by the time you are done... Bo Svenson IS BUFORD PUSSER... and the proof of that is in the FINAL CHAPTER, because part of that film is the actual filming of the first film... And while they don’t show Joe Don Baker... we know that those scenes from the first film... that the shadowy driver.. well, our memory has Joe Don Baker... but because we have Bo Svenson watching those scenes... and watching the filming of those scenes... Well, we know... THIS IS REAL, because he’s watching that Hollywood version we saw earlier.

The third film is the final sad part of the whole tale.

Overall, THE WALKING TALL trilogy... is vastly improved when having someone hold your hand and walk you through the history behind the true stories of Buford Pusser. At least I feel so. The film series worked and prompted a strong emotional response with the audience.... something that I didn’t think was possible in the Good Ol Boy genre. I figured these would be get drunk films... but instead they were a tear in my beer set of films.

Now... there was a surprise fourth film this night... Mo neuih aka DEVIL WOMAN. The movie came out in 1970 from the Philippines, and.... is just one damn weird fucking movie.

As best I can tell there were three equally weird movies mixed into this one. There was the story about the angry mutant girl with snakes for hair and the ability to command serpents. There was the story about roving kung fu gangs and the all-white-clothed martial arts gentleman... and then there was the Philippino Travelogue inserted for padding.

Had my brain not been completely fried by Buford Pusser’s big stick... this movie could’ve hurt me. Instead I was in an emotionally numb state... where I merely watched... and under my breath made comments about the absolute insanity of the film.

Again, this is one of those films... that requires an exhausted and deathly dwindling supply of upper level neurons. The kung fu was way better than it needed to be, the snake stuff was just... bizarre... and I still don’t understand the ending. I just don’t... It’s beyond me... Maybe it holds the secrets of the universe... But I can’t read the language to decipher.

Overall... a really fun night of film... The next night was the triple bill of Kung Fu Flicks!!!