Walker (1987)

Director:

Alex Cox

Writer:

Rudy Wurlitzer (writer)

Release Date:

4 December 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | History | War | Western

Tagline:

Before Rambo... Before Oliver North...

Plot:

William Walker and his mercenary corps enter Nicaragua in the middle of the 19th century in order to install a new government by a coup d'etat...

Plot Keywords:

Nicaragua | One Word Title | Independent Film | Character Name In Title

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Ed Harris	...	William Walker
Richard Masur	...	Ephraim Squier
René Assa	...	Doctor
Rene Auberjonois	...	Maj. Siegfried Hennington
Keith Szarabajka	...	Timothy Crocker
Sy Richardson	...	Capt. Hornsby
Xander Berkeley	...	Byron Cole
John Diehl	...	Stebbins
Peter Boyle	...	Cornelius Vanderbilt
Marlee Matlin	...	Ellen Martin
Alfonso Arau	...	Raousset
Pedro Armendáriz Jr.	...	Muñoz (as Pedro Armendariz)
Roberto López Espinoza	...	Mayorga
Gerrit Graham	...	Norvell Walker
Helene Farber	...	Streetwalker

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA | Mexico | Spain

Language:

English | American Sign Language

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:MA (TV rating) | Australia:R (original rating) | Iceland:16 | South Korea:15 | Sweden:15 | New Zealand:R16 | Denmark:15 (2003) | Singapore:NC-16 | UK:18 (cut) | USA:R | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Granada, Nicaragua

Company:

In-Cine Compañía Industrial Cinematográfica

Trivia:

Just after Walker has been informed of his victory in Nicaragua, he leads his troops toward Granada past a grave with a cross inscribed "Sam Peckimpah" (sic).

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: This film is littered with anachronisms (for example: modern cars, color printed magazines and coca cola bottles). However, these are clearly an artistic choice by the film-maker and cannot be considered true 'goofs'.

Quotes:

Yrena: I have a weakness for small men. Small puritans obsessed by power.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007)

Soundtrack:

Smash Everything

Not your everyday history lesson...

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 offence 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 asshole," 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. 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.