El tanque

Sergeant Major Zack Carey (James Garner) made the mistake of being chivalrous in Clemmons, GA. He simply couldn't ignore Deputy Euclid (James Cromwell) beating on the local prostitute. But how was he to know that some bruises on a deputy would so deeply offend the sheriff? Well, that it did and Sheriff Buelton (G.D. Spradlin) is not a very forgiving or even reasonable man.

Sheriff Buelton wanted Carey's hide and when he couldn't get it he had to devise another method of payback. So, he went about planting marijuana in Carey's son's locker. In the small county of Clemmons, GA where the sheriff calls all the shots, that equaled a ticket to jail and whatever else Buelton wanted to do to Billy (C. Thomas Howell).

Carey realized he was defeated and was ready to pay the piper but his wife, LaDonna (Shirley Jones) opted for another resolution. Ole Buelton didn't like the wife's resolution so he fast tracked Billy right to a work labor camp where his safety was a complete toss up.

By this time Sergeant Major Carey had had enough and it was time to get tough. Time to break out the Sherman Tank.

This was a cool movie. At times it was serious and at times it was light. It seemed like whenever real shooting was taking place it was a bit light. They didn't want to kill anybody. When it came to Boss Hogg aka Sheriff Buelton getting his just desserts then it was serious. There was nothing light about his heavy-handed, backwards, racist, and redneck approach to the law. He made a perfect antagonist. He was so easy to hate and root against it made Carey's plight that much more appealing. It was hard to know what year all of this was taking place the sheriff was so confident, reckless, and dismissive of the law. He was the law and well beyond arrests and charges. It was like he ran Georgia!

The trouble Carey was dragged into because he had a heart for a hooker didn't even add up. It was like he rekindled the North v. the South. The moral of the story--what the seasoned rapper E-40 once preached:

Don't save a ho'.

The next thing you know your sons is in prison on some false charges and you're trying to drive a tank across state lines.