Alex Cox’s Walker (1987) tells the true story of William Walker, an American colonel who led an invasion of Nicaragua in the mid-1850s and ruled the country for two years. Cox and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer present this historical episode as a nightmarish comedy, advancing a farcical tone that mocks Walker’s hubris and, by extension, the manifest destiny that’s guided American missions in other countries for the past two centuries. The film is also forthright in its condemnation of the U.S. government’s then-current exploits in Nicaragua. At the time Ronald Reagan was backing contras to overthrow the revolutionary government, which had deposed the Somoza dictatorship in the late 1970s. Walker emphasizes the connection between American missions in Nicaragua in the 19th and 20th centuries through a bold use of anachronisms—the characters drink Coca-Cola, ride in helicopters, and read about themselves in Time and Newsweek.
I had read Quake, but what really impressed me was Rudy’s script for Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. It is still the most political western ever made, and a great western as well.
When Walker was first released, the reviews in the U.S. press were generally negative, but the film’s reputation has grown since then. How were you impacted by the initial response to the film? Also, do you feel vindicated by how responses to the film have changed?
Musicians, actors, ordinary humans, dogs, lizards . . . either they can act or they cannot!
