Customer Reviews

Walker

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This movie is definitely a hidden gem. Ed Harris is brilliant as is the supporting cast of knock-offs who join his rag tag army on their quest for glory in central america. the blurring of the timeline reminds us that our meddling in C.A. is fundamentally not much different today than it was during the period this movie depicts. The entire flow of the movie is further augmented by a completely stunning score from x-Clash man Joe Strummer, one of the finest movie scores i have ever heard. A classic!

WALKER (1987) is a cult movie in search of an audience. A critical and financial disaster upon its initial release, the film is hard to find on video and rarely televised--but to fans of Psychotronic Cinema, it is worth the effort to find! The film is a schizo, intentionally anachronistic bio of William Walker (1824-1860), the Nashville-born doctor/lawyer/journalist who led his own private army into Nicaragua, ultimately installing himself as president of that nation. Obvious similiarities between Walker's filibustering activities and the US's often ham-handed diplomatic policies towards Central America during the 1980s led the filmmakers to turn WALKER into a political satire, but it is by turns funny, tragic, exciting, informational, and thought provoking. Ed Harris plays Walker, and as something of an expert on the filibuster, I can assure you Harris' interpretation is perfect. Lotsa familiar faces--Rene Auberjonis, Richard Masur, Marlee Matlin, and the hilarious Peter Boyle among them--make this one a character actor watcher's dream film. This picture is only for those who can appreciate weird movies! This film deserves to find a cult audience, and I hope this review helps to establish one!

Walker is an unconventional biopic that effectively burned any remaining bridges Alex Cox had with Hollywood. He took a modest amount of studio money and made a film about William Walker, an opportunistic American who invaded Nicaragua and became its president from 1855 to 1857, instituting slavery which didn't go over too well with the locals, and he was eventually executed in 1860. Cox wasn't interested in making a traditional biopic and, with screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer, decided to include the occasional modern anachronism (Walker appears on the covers of Newsweek and Time; a Mercedes drives past a horse-drawn carriage) to give the film a satirical howl of protest against the Reagan administration's support of the contra war against the democratically elected Sandinista government. This did not endear Cox to his studio backers.

Cox sets an absurdist tone and never looks back. This is evident in Walker's first battle in Nicaragua. As his men are gunned down in the street, he brazenly walks through seemingly oblivious to the carnage going on around him. He takes refuge in a building and plays the piano as bullets whiz around him. It's a crazy scene but works because of Ed Harris' conviction. He portrays Walker as a self-important, power-hungry madman with characteristic charismatic intensity.

Cox actually had the chutzpah to make Walker in Nicaragua with the approval of the Sandinista government which demonstrates just how far he was willing to put his money (or rather the studio's) where his mouth was. The filmmaker adopts a very playful attitude as he gleefully deconstructs the biopic (much as he shredded the spaghetti western and gangster film genres in Straight to Hell) in such an off-kilter way that had never been done before and rarely attempted since (perhaps Kevin Spacey's take on Bobby Darin in Beyond the Sea or Tony Scott's gonzo take on Domino Harvey in Domino (Widescreen New Line Platinum Series)). However, Walker remains a cinematic oddity as he applies the punk aesthetic to the biopic, making a political statement about the abuse of power that is eerily relevant today as it was in 1987.

There is an audio commentary by director Alex Cox and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer. The two men talk about how they took a traditional historical narrative and proceeded to break all of its rules. They praise Joe Strummer's emotional score and touch upon the mood it creates. Cox is funny and full of energy with Wurlitzer providing his own laconic take on the film.

"On Moviemaking and the Revolution" is an audio excerpt from an extra on the film who recounts their experiences and providing a snapshot of the crazy atmosphere of filming on location.

"Dispatches from Nicaragua" is a 50-minute retrospective look at the making of Walker. It provides the historical context in which Cox made his film. There are all kinds of great behind-the-scenes footage of the filmmaker and his cast and crew hard at work. We see what a logistical nightmare this film was and the challenges of shooting in Nicaragua.

There is another extra where Cox quotes from and responds to the scathing reviews of his film from back when it first came out.

"The Immortals" features two still galleries, one of behind-the-scenes photographs taken on the set and Polaroids of various cast members in costume.

Finally, there is a theatrical trailer.

Best remembered (if at all) as the film that comprehensively destroyed Alex Cox's mainstream career, it's hard to see what caused such vitriolic offense at the time. Cox and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer's take on the unbalanced self-deceiving `idealist' mercenary William Walker's intervention in Nicaragua to protect Cornelius Vanderbilt's financial interests there, setting off a century of disastrous American interference, is not particularly subtle, but then William Walker wasn't exactly a subtle man ("Clearly this is no ordinary ***hole," judges one of the more astute locals). With a visual style clearly inspired by spaghetti westerns and Sam Peckinpah, a contradictory narration - what you hear isn't what you see, with Walker's own third person narration frequently completely at odds with the farcical reality - and a slew of critic infuriating anachronisms, it was received with a mixture of outrage and contempt that makes the critical reception of Domino look like a triumph of Schindler's List proportions.

It's not a great movie, but it's certainly not the disaster its been painted, and even the at first jarring anachronisms are fun - Walker gets the cover of both Time and Newsweek, interviewers use tape recorders while Vanderbilt has a computer displaying stock market prices in his office - but perhaps should have been introduced earlier: however, there's no doubting the pertinence of the final arrival of trigger-happy helicopter gunships to evacuate the US citizens. Harris is on fine self-righteous form as the `short idealist,' short on ideals but big on a sense of divine purpose even though he has no idea what that purpose actually is from one moment to the next. With a concise running time and a great Joe Strummer score, it's an ambitious and often entertaining oddity. Just don't go in expecting a history lesson or a straight biography.

Whle this has been available for some time on Region 2 in a version with no extras, Criterion have certainly put together an impressive package of new extras for a film that was for so long held in such unwarranted disdain - though be warned that the theatrical trailer and the featurette of Cox ruefully going through the film's savage reviews are both well hidden (if you want to know where to find them, click the comments link on this review). It's not perfect by any means, but there's too much that's interesting about the film to dismiss it entirely out of hand.

Alex Cox's Walker is certainly an odd period film. It is ostensively set in the middle of the 19th Century, but with dialogue that alters between period realism and modern slang, characters speaking English to Spanish speakers and Spanish to speakers who claim to know only English, a contemporary music sound track by Joe Strummer, anachronistic modern technologies (like computer screens, a luxury sedan, and even a helicopter) showing up at odd moments without any explanation and barely registering surprise in the characters. The action scenes are almost hallucinatory, with freeze frames and tight closeups cut at a kinetic pace. William Walker, as played here by Ed Harris, has little of the cold but amused and calculating cunning that the same historical figure inspired in Gillo Pontecorvo's brilliant film Burn!, there played by Marlon Brando. Here, Ed Harris's William Walker is not so much ruthless in his mastery of situations as overly confident and fearless (or desperately naive), incapable of being moved from a position he has once decided.

The anachronisms, and especially those that appear in the ending of the film, make clear that Cox is not really aiming to recreate a historical period here so much as put on display the ruthless and unabashed idealism (indistinguishable from arrogance) that Americans have and continue to display as announced in the doctrine of manifest destiny, that we have the God-given right to rule all of the Americas and to spread American style democracy (which in the terms of this film is clearly taken to mean governmentally sanctioned corporate control of all foreign markets and resources) throughout the world. The explicit parallel the film draws is between Walker's invasion of Nicaragua and the United States military intervention in Central America during the Reagan era (but more contemporary parallels could easily be found). As the film suggests, we liberate in order to put in place governments that are willing to sell their national goods to foreign companies, and we support those governments until they begin to exercise the autocratic authority we give them in their own interests (whether as tyrants or as servants of the people is irrelevant) and against foreign corporations. (It is interesting to note that in Burn! William Walker was the agent of this strategy, and in this film he becomes a disposable element of this strategy.) What may mar the film is that it is a bit heavy-handed about this message, but its boldness also makes it exciting -- it is rare these days that films are willing to take such an explicit stand against contemporary policies.

It remains an important film, and as always, Criterion has packed the single disc with cool extras, including a feature length documentary on the making of the film, reminiscences by extras, behind-the-scenes photos, an a booklet of essays on the film.

Director Alex Cox finally got to make his hommage to the Sam Peckinpah/Sergio Leone myth...and what a film it turned out to be. A mix of politics, satire, bloody violence, humor, slavery, business, guns, and all around chance-taking cinema. Upon first viewing, I admit I did not care for the film. After repeated viewings, I discovered the rhythm and intentions of director Cox and his motley band of adventurers. It actually made me want to read more about this period and discover for myself how we, as a country, STILL have not learned from history! Great originality and brave acting/direction makes this a film that will stand the test of time. I recommend it to lovers of daring filmmaking/storytelling. Forget Hollywood mainstream, long live director Alex Cox!

Walker, a brilliant and remarkable film made by Alex Cox never found its crowd.The few people who saw it in theaters didn't seem to get it. It did a bit better on video release but not much,which is a shame. The movie is a historic black comedy that's both anachronistic and compelling in its execution. Its still amazing to me that this was even green-lighted by the powers in Hollywood. Made in Nicaragua with a stellar cast led by Ed Harris it holds up quite well today. Bloody,violet,and at times simply hilarious in its absurdity, this movie rocks. Hopefully now remastered superbly on DVD,it will(if there is any justice in the universe) find a whole new generation that will get it. I loved this movie in '88 and I love it even more now.
They simply don't make crazy,surreal,political westerns like this anymore. I would argue that Walker is one of the most brilliant and entertaining flicks ever made."nuff said"

I had never heard of William Walker until following some links recently from a page on the Monroe Doctrine, and once I had read his short online bio I was fascinated. I'll have to read some of the books about him, but this film was readily available to watch so it came first. I knew it would be a leftist statement film since it starred Ed Harris, made during Reagan's term, and reviewers said it was a black comedy. I found the film very good until it breaks down to art house material about 2/3 in, then it totally degenerated in search of an ending. I'm happy they made something about the man though, he seems to have been quite the adventurer and I find real life stories to make the best adventure tales. 2 of 5, wish it had stayed more on point, but it was made for a political reason not as a historic biopic. I encourage you to look his bio up online (Walker's that is), it's quite a tale. Oh in this age of Netflix it's easy enough to find the DVD, but in case you want to watch it another way, it is posted on Hulu for free, rated R (you need a free account to access it).

WALKER (1987) is a cult movie in search of an audience. A critical and financial disaster upon its initial release, the film is hard to find on video and rarely televised--but to fans of Psychotronic Cinema, it is worth the effort to find! The film is a schizoid, intentionally anachronistic bio of William Walker (1824-1860), the Nashville-born doctor/lawyer/journalist who led his own private army into Nicaragua, ultimately installing himself as president of that nation. Obvious similiarities between Walker's filibustering activities and the US's often ham-handed diplomatic policies towards Central America during the 1980s led the filmmakers to turn WALKER into a political satire, but it is by turns funny, tragic, exciting, informational, and thought provoking. Ed Harris plays Walker, and as something of an expert on the filibuster, I can assure you Harris' interpretation is perfect. Lotsa familiar faces--Rene Auberjonis, Richard Masur, Marlee Matlin, and the hilarious Peter Boyle among them--make this one a character actor watcher's dream film. This picture is only for those who can appreciate weird movies! This film deserves to find a cult audience, and I hope this review helps to establish one! As a postscript to this revised review, I would like to mention that the film's satiric comments on the Iran-Contra crisis of the 80s seemed quite dated during the 90s, particularly after the fall of Nicaraguan Communism. Yet in light of the recent Middle Eastern boondoggle, WALKER is relevant again. Like the "Gray-Eyed Man of Destiny" himself, Alex Cox's obscure cult classic-to-be keeps coming in and out of fashion, briefly surfacing as an indictment--or inspiration?--of American foreign policy and attitudes toward the international community, then fading into obscurity, the lessons to be learned forgotten until another bloody tragedy takes place and initiates the cycle all over again.

Hopefully, however, the foregoing burst of morbidity will not dissuade anybody from checking out the film. While it is uneven as a serious commentary on sociopolitical matters, it's first rate as a twisted, entertaining cult movie.

Alex Cox saw his popularity in Hollywood keel over in 1987 with the one-two punch of his punk spaghetti western STRAIGHT TO HELL and his hallucinatory and strangely entertaining political satire WALKER. Telling the true story of William Walker, a Tennessee fillibuster who embarked for Nicaragua in the late 19th century with a small army of crminals and mercenaries in tow and the intention of conquering the nation to open it's ports up to shipping tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, Cox uses Walker's little-known story to launch a scathing critique of the Reagan administration's genocidal foreign policy towards Central America in the 1980's. Historical accuracy is not what the director is interested in here. People drive modern cars and read TIME magazine (with Walker on the cover) while helicopters descend into burning Nicaraguan towns with State Department officials in tow. If Cox had filmed a straight historical epic he might have made some money and garnered some respect in the show business circles, but then he wouldn't be the Alex Cox we all know and love: the giggling film geek/cinematic anarchist who delights in tearing down all the tired Hollywood cliches and conventions in order to craft his own wonderous outlaw art. REPO MAN and SID & NANCY may be the filmmaker's most respected and accessible films, but I think it's high time WALKER got a reappraisal. The movie is a beautiful and messy collision of many eclectic elements. The expertly assembled cast headed by a masterful Ed Harris in the title role and also includes the Cox repertory company featuring Sy Richardson, Xander Berkely, Miguel Sandoval, Dick Rude, and Zander Schloss all in typically wild top form. Peter Boyle chews and spits out the scenery as the contemptuous tycoon Vanderbilt. Richard Masur, Marlee Matlin, Rene Auberjonois, John Diehl, and LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE director Alfonso Arau. The late, great Joe Strummer of The Clash composes a excellent score with a strong Latin flavor and nary an orchestral flourish. For anybody willing to take a chance and discover a great and underappreciated filmmaker at the peak of his powers giving the screw to the Hollywood system, WALKER is a treasure that yields many rewards upon repeat viewings. I can't recommend this baby enough.