Summary
- Ed Harris' lead performance in Walker is one of his strongest, offering a nuanced portrayal of a complex, tragic character.
- Walker subverts Western tropes by condemning colonization and reflecting on America's violent, self-centered expansion.
- The film connects America's past and present, criticizing its interventions through the character of Walker in Nicaragua.
The strong, tough demeanor that Ed Harris brings to a movie is unlike any other. Harris recently lent his talents to a memorably slimy performance in Love Lies Bleeding, and a brief, stern appearance in Top Gun: Maverick. But he's been around for years, popping up in everything from The Truman Show to Snowpiercer. Harris is character actor gold, but he has some lead performances that are unfortunately underappreciated.
If not his best role, Harris' most ambitious film is almost certainly Walker, the 1987 Western drama directed by Alex Cox. Walker adapts the real-life story of William Walker, a man who set out to conquer land in Central America as a staunch believer in Manifest Destiny, and eventually declared himself President of Nicaragua after destabilizing their local government and taking over the area. Walker is a fascinating and complicated historical figure, someone who did many terrible things while maintaining a delusional sense of self-righteousness that convinced him he was a hero.
While Walker was not a hit upon release, the film has developed a cult status over time. Now a part of the Criterion Collection, Walker has come to be known as a particularly flashy, exciting, and bold take on period filmmaking. The film itself is fascinating and complicated, taking on a unique style that satirizes America's valorization of their imperialist causes, while still managing to work as a compelling character portrait. That is in large part due to Harris' stoic, powerful lead performance, one that approaches Walker as a tragic figure while the film still ensures he is not let off the hook for his destructive legacy. Walker is a one-of-a-kind Western. The film's bold politics, anachronistic style, and adaptation of an utterly bizarre chapter in American history make it an entertaining one that is anchored by one of Harris' best performances.
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Walker
R
Biography
Drama HistoryWestern
- Release Date
- December 4, 1987
- Runtime
- 94 Minutes
- Director
- Alex Cox
Cast
-
Ed Harris
-
Richard Masur
-
Rene Auberjonois
-
Peter Boyle
Walker is a biographical film depicting the true story of American mercenary William Walker. In the mid-19th century, Walker leads a military expedition to Nicaragua, ultimately declaring himself president. The film blends historical events with anachronistic elements, offering a satirical take on imperialism and American foreign policy.
- Main Genre
- Biography
Ed Harris' Walker Takes Himself Very Seriously
What makes Harris' performance so specifically noteworthy in Walker is that it is at odds with the rest of the film. Walker, the film, is almost a comedy. The tone and style leans into absurdity, with anachronisms including helicopters and modern machine guns, and a variety of colorful supporting characters. Walker, the character, is rigid, self-serious, and very strictly composed. Harris plays Walker as a man who moves through life with the weight of God's providence and the fate of democracy on his shoulders. He believes it is his life's work — his one true calling — to further Manifest Destiny.
Walker's strong moral conventions are misguided, but they appear genuine in this film. Harris plays the part as a strong center of gravity in a movie surrounded by unusual characters and circumstances. Walker is a complicated figure because he sees himself as a hero, but history views him as more of a bizarre example of ultra-nationalism run amok, and ambition far outreaching his grasp. Harris brings a layer of tragedy to the character, even in a film that condemns his efforts. The film's unusual tone and stylistic flourishes work well in context, but Harris' performance keeps the movie feeling more urgent and serious when tackling the political ideas explored within the narrative.
While Harris tends to be more known for his supporting performances in more widely-accessible films, his lead role in Walker is one of his strongest, most nuanced performances. The movie offers a major challenge as it demands Harris tries to find something compelling or relatable in a character who is not exactly an aspirational figure. Harris doesn't bring any judgment to his portrayal of Walker. Instead, Harris brings the human to life and lets the audience make those judgments themselves.
'Walker' Subverts Western Tropes by Condemning Colonization
The most notable thing about Walker as a genre-exercise is how it grapples with the way America sometimes presents itself in Western films. The ultra-patriotic, sentimental way that many settler-expansion stories are framed is a key target, as Cox aims to show America's growth for what it really is, a violent, self-centered attempt to gain power, land, and resources.
Many Westerns (and frankly, American movies in general), tend to glorify or neglect America's colonialist roots. Walker reflects on the guns-blazing American attitude that promotes barging onto land, violently overtaking it, and telling yourself you're doing it all for the greater good. The film may take place in the distant past, but it is also responding directly to contemporary American politics. In 1987, the film was produced in the midst of the Contra War. President Reagan and the U.S. federal government were selling arms to Iran in order to fund a variety of right-wing militias that were attempting to overthrow Nicaragua's government. These actions comprised a major political scandal in the U.S., and prompted strong reactions from anti-war and anti-Contra individuals who opposed America's intervention and the political motivations of the attempted coup.
Cox builds a bridge between America's past and present in Nicaragua with Walker. The story is set in the mid-19th century, but features many intentional anachronisms that bring the viewer into the 1980s. These might just feel like surreal embellishments, but the choice to play with the past and present in that manner draws parallels between Walker's brief reign over Nicaragua, and America's promotion of the Contra militias. As explained in Alex Cox's X Films: True Confessions of a Radical Filmmaker, Cox and Harris both wanted to do good for the community in Nicaragua, filming the movie there in the hopes of promoting peace and showing that the area was not in need of American intervention in order to be salvaged.
Walker's quest to bring freedom to Nicaragua was ill-conceived and ultimately led to his tragic end. Cox's film explores a complicated character who brought bloodshed to a land in the name of God and democracy. Walker's delusions of grandeur do not only derail his own life, but claim the lives of many others, all for a conflict that the people of Nicaragua never invited or wanted any part of. The bold, mind-bending climax of the film states as clearly as possible that America was making those same mistakes in the 1980s, and watching Walker in the 2020s feels no less relevant than it would have been back then. Harris and Cox deliver a scathing portrait of America's indulgent, violent relationship with the rest of the world.
Walker is available to buy on Amazon in the U.S.
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