Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

bluesman-20 A Real American Hero. Is a fictional account of Buford Pusser's life. The story is there are some deaths that have occurred in McNairy County. The evidence and witnesses point to a former friend of Buford's. Now a local mobster he opposes Buford at every turn using the town's by laws against him. Buford turns the tables on him by using the same trick. Butthe mobster is still selling his poisoned moonshine. Then an old friend of Buford's comes home a former Hooker who was Buford's informant against the state line mob. She's come home to find a respectable life but the townspeople hold her former life against her. and Buford decides to help her by making her respectable. He finds a good job for her and slowly wins the town over. Meanwhile Buford's war with his old friend heads towards a tragic ending as Buford and his friend are forced to fight to the bitter end.I see A Real American Hero as a love Letter to Buford Pusser.. The film is in step with the legend of Buford Pusser. and it keeps in character the way Buford was. A Highly enjoyable made for TV movie. Brian Dennehy is the perfect choice for Buford Pusser. and my favourite actor to play Buford after Joe Don Baker. Worth watching and highly recommended.

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 :)

MEEdmo42 I have seen several versions of this sheriff and for me, Brian Dennehy is the one who seems most able to hold his own against the "bad guys". He portrays a man who loves his town and wants more than anything to rid the area of those who would destroy it.....including the children and teens. (Ken Howard did a great job with his part) I think it was excellent because I found it believable. The surrounding characters also lent great credibility, well done by all. I am a fan of Sheree North anyway, and find that in this movie she is as beautiful a lady as always. I really enjoyed how she was finally accepted by the better-than-thou church lady. If you have seen the other Buford Pusser movies and not this one, then you have missed a treat. Of all of Brian's movies, (I am a Jack Reed fan), this is one of his best of his earlier ones. I bought mine second hand online and was not disappointed.

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.