Scene of the Week: The Rocksino!
2004’s Walking Tall was one of the first steps on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s ascent to Hollywood superstardom. The movie could be best described as a re-imagining of the 1973 Joe Don Baker classic and not a direct remake. In Walking Tall, The Rock plays Chris Vaughn, a United States soldier returning home for the first time in years. Vaughn quickly finds out things have changed drastically in his hometown since he was last there. The lumber mill has shut down, a casino has moved in and crime and corruption are running rampant.
The 2004 version of Walking Tall probably has more differences than similarities to the 1973 Walking Tall, but one scene that was directly inspired from the original is when Chris Vaughn goes to the Wild Cherry Casino (run by his former high school classmate Jay Hamilton, played by Neal McDonough) and he smashes the place up with a piece of lumber… a move right out of the Buford Pusser playbook. So if you ever wanted to see The Rock destroy a casino, then this is the Scene of the Week for you…
