Walking Tall

Walking Tall (1973) is Phil Karlson's hard-edged crime drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Joe Don Baker stars as Buford Pusser, an ex-wrestler who comes home to small-town Tennessee with his wife and kids.

All Pusser wants is a quiet life. Instead he finds his county rotten with rigged casinos, moonshine rackets and brothels, every bit of it shielded by the men who run the place. After thugs beat him half to death, he straps on a sheriff's badge, grabs a four-foot oak club and starts taking the crooked machine apart by himself. The longer he fights, the more it costs the people he loves.

The story comes straight from the real Buford Pusser, the McNairy County lawman whose one-man war on organized vice became Southern folklore in the 1960s. Karlson shoots it rough and unglamorous — the violence hurts and it leaves a mark. Good pick if you like lean, mean 70s crime pictures built around one stubborn man who won't quit. Stream Walking Tall (1973) online on iFILM.