fiction
this movie was almost all fiction do not waste your time with it
"Titus pullo is not afraid of any bastard with a dogs head on him"-Rome
[deleted]
I do not think Pusser was killed. He was known as a bad driver-he turned over his police car at least once, and had more then one wreck.
shareI dont think it would have been too hard to have inspected the Corvette's steering system for cuts or filing as some have suspected.A broken (on purpose) tie rod end or steering column shaft could have made Pusser lose control....but here is the clincher...no matter what was (or wasnt) done to the car,Pusser himself was driving reckless.Numerous witnesses saw him peel off from the fairgrounds (one claimed like a teenager),and family members knew he drove that thing too fast,and even worried if he was going to make it back home alive...(hummm).Its sadly obvious that the promise of fame and fortune was changing Pusser,and for such a legal eagle lawman,he was flaunting the law by speeding and making illegal "displays of power".Had he driven within the speed laws,he might not have skidded the distance of over 600 feet (40 of which were after the Corvette impacted the embankment)to his demise.
I'm not knocking Pusser...quite the opposite,he was a legend,and an inspiration,and his story captivates me....but unfortunately,he was not immune from death behind the wheel.40,000+ people a year succum to the tempations of alcohol,speed,and foolishness,and Pusser just happened to be one of them in 1974.The Corvette,by its very nature was a "sports car",that urged those at the wheel to be a little wild and less cautious than they might have been with a standard sedan.The fiberglass bodied Corvette was rather flimsily built,and heavily weight biased toward the front,plus wide footprint tires that give little grip on sand and dirt (this is why Model Ts were such great off road cars)..it was a disaster in the making.Not wearing seat belts,and possessing a car with a removable glass top was the final blow.Had Pusser spent his 1974 dollars on a Ford Elite,Chevy Monte Carlo,Ford Thunderbird,or even a Challenger 360 he might have survived.Might have...but maybe,it just wasnt meant to be....
I have not been able to find this book, the only copy of it I read was in the library at my Jr.high school.(way too many years ago.)it was a book about Buford Pusser's life and it was written with the help of Pusser. it was written in the final days of his career as sheriff. He was not voted out of office. there was a term limit in Tennessee at the time for the position. I grew up here in Tennessee and thought it was strange that that was in the movie. anyway Pusser was elected constable of the district in which he lived (a lawman in rural areas) and planned to run for sheriff again after this term was over. at the time the book was published he was still very much alive. when I was about 12 I went to his home town and visited his grave, and left a note on his mothers house. she loved visits from his fans but was not there at the time. she sent a letter to me thanking me for my kind words and she claimed the book was the one true story, which there was so much real excitement in his life why would Hollywood change things? but they did a little. but he was shot and stabbed 7 and 8 times and his wife was murdered. and she said drugs were a major reason as well. it seems people were using it as a pipeline to the northern cities even back then but it was not mentioned in the movies or book because there was not enough proof and because of the people that would have been implicated. His father was police chief of Adamsville for a while, and his mother did not like the way she was shown in the movies. She said she looked like aunt bea from mayberry.anyway if you get the chance to read "the 12th of August" please do. it will not change your mind for the worse but I think for the better.
"Titus pullo is not afraid of any bastard with a dogs head on him"-Rome
Read the message boards on the first Walking Tall movie. The threads there will open your eyes. I grew up in a neighboring county. The only reason we saw these movies was to see the familiar scenes in them. The movies are mostly fiction and sanatized to make Pusser a hero. He wasn't. He was a very controversial figure in McNairy County and in West Tennessee.
shareWasn't a hero according to whom? He could've busted every single teenager he caught drinking, he didn't, he took them home and let them sleep it off on the couch but they knew next time their asses would be in jail. He could've locked up all the speed demons racing around the town for reckless driving, but he didn't do that either. He arranged for them to have a racing track to drive around on so they could do it safely and keep out of the streets so the other drivers wouldn't be in danger. He didn't even arrest the three teenagers that stole his car, but he made sure they knew never to try it again. He found the person who threatened his daughter's life, took him out to the swamp and had the guy crawling around in handcuffs until he finally agreed to go away and never bother the Pusser family again. He put the criminals in jail and only shot people when he had to. If memory serves, throughout his whole career, he only killed two people, and both were self defense.
shareYou mean to tell me that there's a film based on real events that played with the facts? Say it isn't so!!!
share