Walking Tall (1973) on Netflix
R19732h 5mActionCrimeDramaThriller
Buford Pusser retires from wrestling and moves back to Tennessee with his wife Pauline. Beaten at a gambling house and ignored by the sheriff, he runs for sheriff.
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- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb6.9/107,675 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes77%
Trailer
Plot summary
Buford Pusser leaves the professional wrestling ring at the urging of his wife Pauline and returns to Tennessee, where he and his father Carl start a logging business. A visit with a friend to The Lucky Spot, a gambling and prostitution establishment, ends with Pusser beaten and knifed for catching the house cheating at craps; he needs more than 200 stitches. Sheriff Al Thurman ignores his complaint, and Pusser comes to see how far corruption reaches in McNairy County. Working at his father's lumber mill, he makes a club from a tree branch. He decides that McNairy County needs cleaning up and enters the sheriff's race against the incumbent.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Walking Tall (1973)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
Contrary to the story as the film depicts it, the real-life subject Buford Pusser was implicated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in August 2025 in the 1967 murder of his wife Pauline.
