It's hard to know where to begin with a film like this. Walker is apparently a combination spaghetti western, comedy, and criticism of the United States foreign policy in Latin American during the Reagan Administration.
Ed Harris in what can only be described as a crazed performance is William Walker a "soldier of fortune" bent on taking over the country of Nicaragua. William Walker was a real life individual who actually did overthrow the government of Nicaragua with the purpose of establishing slavery. Marlon Brando played the same character in Gilberto Pontecorvo's Burn. That is about where the two films have any kind of commonality.
In Alex Cox's version of the William Walker story anything goes. The film is so full of anachronisms that it completely perplexed the critics at the time of it's release. Cox's purpose was to point a finger at what the United States was doing to delegitimize the government of Nicaragua which Ronald Reagan saw as being a communist front.
Well regardless, the film is quite the wild ride with it's shootouts and scenes of 1850's William Walker reading about himself in People magazine and being picked as Time magazine's "Man Of The Year."
Unsurprisingly the film was a commercial disaster. Looking at the film today the surreal touches in the film are fascinating and the film maintains interest.
Written by Rudy Wurlitzer. The film runs 95 minutes.
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