Plays like a parody of the first film, upping the hixploitation elements. Think of the difference in tone from ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE to DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. This is similar. The family drama elements that gave the first one higher stakes are eschewed for more crime scenes. The villain is more cartoonish. Buford Pusser goes from crime to crime in this film as if this were a Eurocrime movie. The action scenes, maybe due to less of a budget, and less dramatic stakes are not as good. The quantity of them makes up for the of lack quality to still keep the film exciting at times. Bo Svenson inhabits the character of Buford Pusser well. There is a reason why the real Buford Pusser wanted Svenson to play him. Contrasting with Joe Don Baker who actually had to perform in the first movie, Svenson seems like he seems becomes this character effortlessly. The continuity for a sequel made in 1975 is surprisingly good. Many actors returning from the first film still made it feel like it could be in the same world.
Bo Svenson replaces Joe Don Baker as Buford Pusser in this film
Synopsis: Sheriff Buford Pusser continues his one-man war against moonshiners and a ruthless crime syndicate after the murder of his wife in late-1960s Tennessee.
I was excited by the quantity of the action scenes in this movie. Most of them though are quick and lack the dramatic heft of the first film. Anytime I get to see two actors who I enjoy getting into a fight in a movie I always enjoy that. Seeing Bo Svenson fight Frank McRae for however brief a time was fun. I wish the film would have explored more of Buford using his want to fight crime as a way of dealing with his wife's death. The best dramatic moment in the film actually happens when Buford loses one of his best friends and Svenson shows some great dramatic acting in that scene. I also enjoyed him showing off his martial arts skills. You see him do one hell of a kick when Buford and his men raid yet another illegal moonshining operation.
A picture and autograped 8X10 I got from Bo Svenson at Chiller Theatre in April of 2024
The cartoonish aspect of this film lies in the villain, Witter (Logan Ramsey) hiring multiple men, and a woman to try to deal with Buford. There are many scenes of him just sitting around, smoking a cigar and telling people what to do. He hires Stud Pardee (Richard Jaeckel), and Pinky Dobson (Luke Eskew) to kill Buford. He also hires Marganne Stilson (Angel Tompkins) to seduce him. None of these plans work. Buford gets into multiple car chases with Stud, one of them ending in Stud getting into a crash and Buford pulling him out of the burning car when he gets the information he requests. Marganne does manage to get him to a secluded location but Buford had all ready been one step ahead of her looking into her police record and finding out she was using an alias. He sees the would-be assassins through binoculars and calls for them to leave on his bullhorn. Dobson is eventually found by Buford and the police before trying to escape on a boat. A great stunt is when his boat is flipped over by an embankment in the water, sending Dobson flying to his death. While all this is going on Buford responds to more crimes, including chasing a man in the woods who ended up working for a rich townie. Buford also pulls over a log truck where he finds out alcohol is being hidden in the logs for illegal distribution.
I enjoy how much Buford seems to have a leg up on these criminals. I do wish though that this film would have shown the more vulnerable side to the character we see in the first film. The first film showed Buford not being aware of basic rules of the law such as Miranda rights. He gets shot, beat up, and outsmarted at times. This film shows him to be infallible up until the very ending shootout. I did enjoy how this connected to the first film with the government agents asking him if he could identify who killed his wife, and later finding out the ties between Witter and the assassins from the first film. I do wish some themes could have been elaborated on more. The townspeople seem to have united support for Buford yet he expresses multiple times that he is worried. That is why he decides to respond to the first call involving Frank McRae even though Obra usually handles most of the crime involving black people and black bars in the town. There is a conflict with his father that disappears after one scene when Buford arrests one of his friends. Things like this could have been used to create more drama in the film. Instead Buford just responds to yet another crime independent of the main story. I think that the scene of him taking apart Pardee's car trying to find contraband was an influence on a similar scene in 2004's WALKING TALL.
As I mentioned before, the continuity of this film is appreciated. Bruce Glover, Leif Garrett, Dawn Lyn, Lurene Tuttle, and Noah Beery Jr. all return from their roles in the first film. Walter Scharf returns to compose the score and the movie keeps the somber and moving string theme of the first movie. Replacing Felton Perry as Obra is Blaxploitation mainstay, Robert DoQui. While I could have used the same compelling drama as the first film I still enjoyed the decent pace of this film, being 15 minutes shorter than the first. It was never boring and I enjoyed seeing Bo Svenson just effortlessly play this part. The car chases are exciting and I enjoyed how they went from both roads to more rural areas. I watched this on Youtube on a VHS print and it made me feel like I was watching it on TV in the 1970s which is how I feel it should be watched.
Rating: 6/10
Trivia: Buford Pusser was originally going to play himself in this film before his death in a car accident. Both actors to play Obra in the first two films, Felton Perry and Robert DoQui appeared in all of the first three ROBOCOP films together.
Full Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlCDThCwYvk
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