DVD Review - Walker (1987)

Walker was Alex Cox’s last real foray into Hollywood filmmaking, other than his attempt to adapt Fear and Loathing years later (which he was eventually fired from). The film was very loosely based on the life of William Walker, whose story was previously adapted in the film Burn! With Marlon Brando. Walker was an American mercenary who forced his way into being president of Nicaragua in the 1850s. Cox does take liberties with the story, although it holds reasonably closely to reality. There are a number of anachronisms (such as the helicopter seen at the end of the film), which are intended to link the events shown with later US intervention in Central America.

The film was shot in Nicaragua during the Sandinista era. Cox had visited in 1984 and loved it, and having learned about the story of Walker from Mother Jones magazine, decided to make the film. He then got together with Rudy Wurlitzer, who was best known for writing Two-Lane Blacktop and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, a film that influenced Walker in many regards. Currently, Cox and Wurlitzer are working together again on Tombstone Rashomon, an Kurosawa infused take on the story of Tombstone.

Ed Harris stars as Walker. Harris was an up and coming actor at that point but not as well-known as he is today. One of the most consistently good actors working today, and his portrayal is one of the his finest performances of his career. Sy Richardson, who has been in most of Cox’s films, also appears, as does Peter Boyle. The score was by Joe Strummer, and it works perfectly with the film. Strummer’s score was a partial comeback after the nasty split of The Clash the year previously like The Clash’s music it incorporated elements of different kinds of music such spaghetti western film music, reggae, calypso and local music he heard in the bars of Nicaragua.

Obviously, when the film appeared it was despised by the American press. Robert Redford was appalled at Cox’s adaptation and said he wanted to make his own, but this has never appeared. The original plan was actually to make a Blazing Saddles-style political comedy, but the studio considered the film a art film so basically dumped it. The film ends with news footage of Reagan, the Sandinistas, hammering home the obvious parallels between Walker’s actions and US foreign policy at the time. But despite almost universally negative reviews—other than a few, such as Vincent Canby’s review in the New York Times—the film has grown in stature over the years. Cox, however, has not been hired by a major Hollywood studio since, although it’s unclear to what extent he was blacklisted or simply decided not to continue trying. It has become a cult film, as it remains Cox’s best film after his debut Repo Man.