Walking Tall (2004)

A former U.S. soldier returns to his hometown to find it overrun by crime and corruption, which prompts him to clean house.

Director:

Kevin Bray

Writers:

Mort Briskin (earlier screenplay), David Klass (screenplay),

Stars:

Michael Bowen, Johnny Knoxville, Dwayne Johnson

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Bowen	...	Sheriff Stan Watkins
Johnny Knoxville	...	Ray Templeton
Dwayne Johnson	...	Chris Vaughn (as The Rock)
Neal McDonough	...	Jay Hamilton
Ashley Scott	...	Deni
John Beasley	...	Chris Vaughn Sr.
Barbara Tarbuck	...	Connie Vaughn
Kristen Wilson	...	Michelle Vaughn
Khleo Thomas	...	Pete Vaughn
Kevin Durand	...	Booth
Andrew Tarbet	...	Jimmy
Patrick Gallagher	...	Keith
John Stewart	...	Rusty
Eric Breker	...	Deputy Ralston
Ryan Robbins	...	Travis

Storyline

After eight years serving the U.S. Army Special Forces, Sergeant Chris Vaughn returns to his hometown seeking for a job in the local mill. He is informed by Sheriff Stan Watkins that the mill was closed six months ago and now the Wild Cherry Casino, owned by his former high school friend Jay Hamilton, is the major source of jobs and income to the town. Chris goes home, and meets his best-friend Ray Templeton, who organized a football game with their friends. After the game, Jay invites Chris and his friends to spend the night in his casino on him, but when Chris finds that the casino stick-man is cheating with the dices, he fights against the security men and is almost killed by them. When his nephew Pete has an OD with amphetamines sold by the security men of the casino, Chris realizes that the town is dominated by the mobsters and the corrupt sheriff and with a huge piece of wood, he breaks the casino and the criminals. He is prosecuted and in the trial, he promises to the jury and ...

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Plot Keywords:

casino | sheriff | special forces | jury | football | 

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Taglines:

One man will stand up for what's right.

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Genres:

Action | Crime

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence, sexual content, drug material and language

Details

Official Sites:

MGM

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 April 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Con la frente en alto

Filming Locations:

Richmond, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$56,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$739,459 (Australia) (13 August 2004)

Gross:

$1,350,314 (Australia) (20 August 2004)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Hyde Park Entertainment, Mandeville Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

DVD includes deleted scenes and an alternate ending.

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Goofs

When Ray is arresting the casino security guard against the truck, Ray asks him to put his hands down and on the close-up you can see the guy putting his hands down, but on the next shot he still has the hands on the truck and puts them down again.

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Quotes

[Chris throws a 2x4 through a window, shattering it. Chris is standing behind it]
Jay Hamilton: I guess that changes our relationship a bit, huh?

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Crazy Credits

The closing credits begin with a dedication to Buford Pusser, on whom the story is based.

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Connections

Referenced in Be Kind Rewind (2008)

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Soundtracks

"La Grange"
Written by Billy Gibbons (as Billy F Gibbons), Dusty Hill, Frank Beard
Performed by Wes Cunningham
Courtesy of Songs of Mosaic

User Reviews

Surprisingly Entertaining Rock Flick ala Chuck Norris

The Rock takes a page out of the Chuck Norris bible in his rendition of a special forces soldier returning to his home town. He quickly learns things in his hometown are not as he had left them and not for the better. Soon, things come to a head and he has to make a choice as to whether he is going to put up with it, or Walk Tall.

As The Rock himself mentioned- the original Sheriff Buford was a white man in his 40's so remember this is an adaptation of a 1970's movie script that was originally "based" on a true story, so we are a pretty long ways out from accurately representing the original events- this is only representing the SPIRIT of the original true story.

Fabulous fight scenes, a tense script and some funny moments all are reminiscent of the numerous Chuck Norris movies that portrayed a quiet guy that doesn't take any bull-crap from nobody man!

While the script made perfect sense in an earlier time - the Viet Nam era, it doesn't quite fly 100% in this day and age. So suspend a little belief.You may findyourself scratching your head as to how that could happen in this day and age.. well.. it could back then - even though it didn't really haha. However, no mention is made of the actual time period they are trying to represent- yet they mention current items like home depot and cops TV show. The moonshine whiskey sheriff buford fought is updated in this script to be crystal meth/ice.

The acting is surprisingly good for the Rock and he is looking manly in this movie instead of the sculpted eyebrow weirdo looks he has achieved in the past. Instead of looking like a dancer in a gay club like he did in Scorpion King, he looks the rough and tumble part for this role.

His attachment to his family is acted in a clumsy and weak manner but that isn't really important to the script- even if he only sort of likes his family he would still protect them with his life so it still works for the momentum of the movie.

Johnny Knoxville is mainly weak but has some great shining moments where they allow him to be Johnny Knoxville instead of the stupid 1-d concept of his character that seems to be forced on him through the other parts of the flick. At times he is reminiscent of Barney Fife to Rock's Andy. :-)

If you want to READ about the real man that INSPIRED this really great story- http://www.sheriffbufordpusser.com/history1.htm (the welcome page has a picture of him)