Review of Walker (2012) by Clampypants — 22 May 2008

Walker takes the idea of kitsch and plays with it a bit. I don't know if it ultimately works, but it creates a sort of commentary on world affairs and the idea of history repeating itself through pervasive characterizations and weird, totally obvious anachronisms.

In the mid-19th century, an unfortunate turn of events persuades William Walker to invade Nicaragua after initially refusing entrepreneur Cornelius Vanderbuilt. His gradual shift from political moderation to a zealous aristocrat is an all-too-familiar one directed by Alex Cox, who places himself firmly on the left, understandably. To my knowledge, at time of filmmaking, Cox felt that Reagan's administration was congruent with Walker's of the last century.

To the film's credit, it turns in a unique spegetti post-western. Violent sequences are certainly a spectacle, having a delayed hallucinogenic quality scored with Latin jazz guitar. To fault the film, Ed Harris' acting isn't particularly strong. Several of his lines sound unrehearsed; now there are instances where characters' lines are supposed to be absurd and have a modern lingo to them, but Walker's often do not. In addition to that, there are instances where the dramaticism and humor (black comedy) feel separated. Usually with a comedy of this sort (if you want to approach the film from that angle), there's a type of prevailing unity among all scenes, which ultimately brings the film together, but Walker has an odd style that's half detached B movie, half art film.