21 November 2007

Described by the BFI's Monthly Film Bulletin, if I remember right, as "Carry on Contra," Alex Cox's 1987 Walker is one of those films that caught enough flack on its release to almost knock its director off the map. Mind you, the howls aimed at his previous film, Straight to Hell probably added to the mood of discontent. But Walker has since found itself a small but supportive cult following - a Japanese friend of mind still rates it as Cox's finest achievement.

The story centres on nineteenth-century American adventurer William Walker (Ed Harris), who abandoned a series of careers in law, politics, journalism, and medicine to become a soldier of fortune, and for several years dictator of Nicaragua. Made with mad abandon and political acuity - and the support of the Sandinista army and government during the Contra war - the film uses this true tale as a satirical attack on American ultrapatriotism and a freewheeling condemnation of "manifest destiny." Featuring a powerful score by Joe Strummer (which Strummer himself regarded as the best film music he ever created) and a performance of intense, repressed rage by Harris, Walker remains one of Cox's more daring works.

In February you'll get a chance to make your own judgement when Criterion release the film on DVD with the following features:

• New, restored high-definition 1.85:1 anamorphic digital transfer, approved by director Alex Cox;
• Audio commentary by Cox and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer;
• Dispatches from Nicaragua, an original documentary about the filming of Walker;
• On Moviemaking and the Revolution, reminiscences twenty years later from an extra on the film;
• The Immortals: behind-the-scenes photos;
• A booklet featuring writings by film critic Graham Fuller, Wurlitzer, and Linda Sandoval.

Walker will be released on US DVD by Criterion in February 2008 (exact date to be confirmed) at the SRP of $39.95.