(There are Spoilers) Trying to put his long deceased lover Sarah Williams, Jenniffer Connelly, out of his mind up and coming Chicago politician Fielding Pierce, Billy Crudup, is hunted by her throughout the movie "Walking the Dead" as if Sarah was his guilty consciences.
Sarah had been killed in a car bombing some ten year's earlier in her being involved with an organization that protest the conditions in Chile. Being the very idealistic and headstrong young woman that she was Sarah put her life on the line for the downtrodden and underprivileged Chilean peasants that lead to her untimely murder. It was Sarah's selfless actions that sparred Fielding to see her way of thinking. But that only happened after Fielding almost blew his election, for Congressman, which and at the same time had him find his long lost and troubled soul.
Trying to cover all the bases, as well as his a**, in his future in politics Fielding played it safe in the Vietnam War by becoming a commissioned officer in the US Coast Guard where being sent to fight in Vietman was practically an impossibility. The very politically ambitious Fielding also played ball with the state and local Chicago big wigs from the governor and mayor on down in order to get himself a plumb job in the city's D.A's office which was to serve as a springboard for his future political ventures. While all this was happening his girlfriend Sarah became more and more distanced from him. Sarah felt that the get to the top at all cost Fielding is just a political climber who's concern from the public, mostly the poor and disenfranchised, was only to get their vote and nothing else.
It was Sarah's sudden death that put Fielding's career on hold and took the poor guy some ten years to get over it. Now back in action running for a seat in the US Congress Fielding disregarded all that Sarah taught him about serving, in and out of politics, those who needed his help most. As if coming back from the dead Sarah started making ghostly or real live appearances, where only Fielding can see her, in an effort to spook Fielding by making him more of a feeling and caring human being. The question is if Sarah is actually alive, and faked her death, or only an illusion in Fielding's unbalanced mind! Which may be due to his guilt ridden conscious or the result of a combination of sleep deprivation and prescription drugs, as well as alcohol, in his non-stop 24 hour around the clock campaign to get himself elected?
***SPOILER ALERT*** The movie makes it's point in a very confusing way where we in the audience as well as the confused and befuddled Fielding don't really know if the supposed long dead Sarah Williams is really alive or the product of Fielding very fertile imagination. Fielding's last encounter with the ghostly Sarah at the end of the movie gets his head back on together in helping the poor infirmed and financially destroyed in his district to get back on their feet. We'll never know,like Fielding, if in fact it was Sarah in the flesh or conjured up from deep inside his subconscious that got Fielding to do the right thing! But whatever the reasons were, real or imagined, it worked!
Sarah had been killed in a car bombing some ten year's earlier in her being involved with an organization that protest the conditions in Chile. Being the very idealistic and headstrong young woman that she was Sarah put her life on the line for the downtrodden and underprivileged Chilean peasants that lead to her untimely murder. It was Sarah's selfless actions that sparred Fielding to see her way of thinking. But that only happened after Fielding almost blew his election, for Congressman, which and at the same time had him find his long lost and troubled soul.
Trying to cover all the bases, as well as his a**, in his future in politics Fielding played it safe in the Vietnam War by becoming a commissioned officer in the US Coast Guard where being sent to fight in Vietman was practically an impossibility. The very politically ambitious Fielding also played ball with the state and local Chicago big wigs from the governor and mayor on down in order to get himself a plumb job in the city's D.A's office which was to serve as a springboard for his future political ventures. While all this was happening his girlfriend Sarah became more and more distanced from him. Sarah felt that the get to the top at all cost Fielding is just a political climber who's concern from the public, mostly the poor and disenfranchised, was only to get their vote and nothing else.
It was Sarah's sudden death that put Fielding's career on hold and took the poor guy some ten years to get over it. Now back in action running for a seat in the US Congress Fielding disregarded all that Sarah taught him about serving, in and out of politics, those who needed his help most. As if coming back from the dead Sarah started making ghostly or real live appearances, where only Fielding can see her, in an effort to spook Fielding by making him more of a feeling and caring human being. The question is if Sarah is actually alive, and faked her death, or only an illusion in Fielding's unbalanced mind! Which may be due to his guilt ridden conscious or the result of a combination of sleep deprivation and prescription drugs, as well as alcohol, in his non-stop 24 hour around the clock campaign to get himself elected?
***SPOILER ALERT*** The movie makes it's point in a very confusing way where we in the audience as well as the confused and befuddled Fielding don't really know if the supposed long dead Sarah Williams is really alive or the product of Fielding very fertile imagination. Fielding's last encounter with the ghostly Sarah at the end of the movie gets his head back on together in helping the poor infirmed and financially destroyed in his district to get back on their feet. We'll never know,like Fielding, if in fact it was Sarah in the flesh or conjured up from deep inside his subconscious that got Fielding to do the right thing! But whatever the reasons were, real or imagined, it worked!