Synopsis:
The wife (Elizabeth Hartman) of a wrestler-turned-sheriff (Joe Don Baker) is dismayed when she sees him taking on increasingly corrupt townsfolk, at the risk of his own and his family’s safety.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Corruption
• Elizabeth Hartman Films
• Phil Karlson Films
• Sheriffs and Marshalls
• Vigilantes

Response to Peary’s Review:
As Peary writes, “this once controversial box-office smash is a highly fictionalized account of real-life Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser (Joe Don Baker), a former wrestler who used club (literally) and fang tactics to clean up crime and corruption.”

He notes that “Phil Karlson’s hard-hitting action film is a throwback to old-style westerns in which well-intentioned lawmen never had to make excuses for ringing up a high body count each day,” and he points out “it also recalls Karlson’s Phenix City Story, in which a crusading lawyer cleans up corruption, and vigilante-with-badges urban melodramas like The Big Heat and Dirty Harry.”

He asserts that while “initially, leftist viewers [at the time] joined the rednecks in applauding Pusser’s efforts, figuring he was a populist figure who hated corrupt authority figures as much as they,” “in retrospect this film helped start the unfortunate Hollywood trend in which thuggish lawmen who shoot first and ask questions later are presented as appealing ‘rebels’ because they’re willing to risk their jobs and promotions by circumventing the law to make our streets safer.” He points out that “nowhere to be found are the moral citizens who take a stand against vigilante justice,” and notes that this “modestly budgeted film is crude, brutal, and manipulative.”

I agree with Peary’s overall review: given that most people these days won’t have heard of Pusser, the biopic relevance of this picture is much lower, and we’re left instead with simply an action-packed vigilante flick set in the south, with plenty of violence and a sad ending (not to mention a ridiculous-looking face-cast on Baker that I just can’t imagine being a real thing).

With that said, fans of Hartman — who died by suicide 14 years later, at the age of 43 — will want to check this out for her appearance as a wife who knows her husband is playing with fire, but can’t do much to stop him.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Good use of Tennessee location shooting
  

Must See?
Nope; you can skip this one.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• DVD Savant Review
• NY Times Original Review
• Spinning Image Review
• Village Voice Review