CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Wizard-8 The three original theatrical "Walking Tall" movies eventually lead to a short-lived television series in 1981, but three years earlier there was apparently an attempt by the makers of the theatrical movies to bring the legend of Buford Pusser as a TV series. It was with this made-for-TV movie, a series pilot in disguise. After seeing it, it's probably best these guys didn't get the green light to make a series. It's a really slow and dull movie. Though the movie starts off with Pusser's pursuit of moonshiners, it soon forgets to focus on this plot, and instead focuses on unnecessary characters and subplots. There is also a lack of action; after the opening car chase and disco smash-up, there's no more action for the next hour or so. That previously mentioned action, as well as the climatic action sequence, are flatly directed and have no excitement at all. And while Brian Dennehy may seem like a good choice to play Busser, his performance here lacks spark. He seems very uninterested in every scene he is. The 1981 television series (made by different people) was far from a great show, but it was still a lot better than this sorry TV pilot!

Chase_Witherspoon Tame TV version of the "Walking Tall" Sheriff with the name you don't forget - Buford Pusser - played by renowned tough guy Brian Dennehy in one of his first screen appearances. Dennehy finds himself on his last warning after unlawfully conducting a search of a local disco in which he believes illegally distilled liquor is being sold. Told to shape up or ship out by the local magistrate, Dennehy elects to become the law's most abiding exponent, and enforcer, penalising anyone for the most trivial and often antiquated infringement to make his point and mete out a unique brand of justice by a thousand cuts.Dennehy is okay as the one-man band, essentially no different to most of his characterisations, Ken Howard also watchable as the smarmy local bootlegger who finds himself the target of Dennehy's vendetta. Most notable amongst the cast is the sultry Sheree North, who had a string of memorable roles in her later career, here playing a former prostitute who served time for murdering her pimp. Dennehy takes on her cause as she struggles to re-adjust, shunned by the local ladies' club who treat her as persona non-grata.Low key TV drama is light on violence (nothing more than a bit of fisticuffs, intimidation and jukebox smashing), but heavy on the noble causes proffering the justice to those who deserve it, and comeuppance for those don't approach to law enforcement. If you like that sort of thing, or have some regard for the minor cult hero Buford Pusser, then "Real American Hero" could be worth the watch.

InjunNose "A Real American Hero" looks and feels like what it is: a late '70s telefilm. But it benefits from strong performances by Brian Dennehy as the legendary (or infamous?) Sheriff Buford Pusser, Forrest Tucker as Pusser's father, and Sheree North as an ex-prostitute trying to start over after serving a prison sentence for killing her pimp. Ken Howard is okay as Pusser's moonshining nemesis, but he lays on the phony Southern accent a bit thick. A film like "A Real American Hero" is best viewed on a warm summer night as you relax in your favorite chair, a can of beer in your hand. If you're from my generation (and particularly if you grew up in the Deep South), the car chases and punch-outs will bring back pleasant memories :)

rsoonsa Burly Brian Dennehy, despite his failure to maintain the local dialectic condiment in his speech, nonetheless makes for a believable physical personification of the real life Buford Pusser of Selmer, Tennessee, the sheriff who finds it easier to follow his own rules while contending with the local criminal element than to abide by the constraints of probable cause. This particular entry in the series relating of Pusser's deeds was made for television with its original title being "Letter of the Law", and chronicles how Buford decides to use very old county laws and statutes which have not been revoked or superseded in order to keep control of his office against the opposition of well meaning citizens and of lawbreakers. The script is actually rather leisurely in spirit with a number of scenes written in the main to supply local colour, including some humourous and musical moments, and there is some opportunity for character development, but the film's mass media lineage has infected its climactic minutes, with formulaic actions abounding as Pusser singlehandedly attempts to vanquish a surfeit of felons. Ken Howard dominates his scenes as bootlegging Danny Boy Mitchell, primary adversary of the freewheeling sheriff, while Sheree North gives us an effective turn as an aging ex-harlot freshly released from prison after seven years for killing her procurer, and who subsequently meets resistance from local bluenoses who wish for her to go elsewhere, and Forrest Tucker produces a smooth performance as Buford's father, but Lane Bradbury as a blemished sheriff's office employee, sinks 'neath the freight of her mawkish lines.