This is probably one of the most underestimated art-house film on IMDb. It left me a great impression when I watched first time in the theater, at the time of its release. Then I watched it again on rental DVD about 10 years ago,and again today. My personal rating of "Walker" became higher every time I saw it.
The anachronism of this film as a artistic decision is not new(such an "estrangement" device was used 20 years before,in Glauber Rocha's "Antonio das Mortes").In addition,late 1980s were the time of "postmodernism" in film art(enough to remember the works of Peter Greenaway and Alexander Sokurov). Political satire is keen and actual. Alex cox'x insight is deep. Here Willam Walker is represented not only a historical figure, rather a symbolic character embodying American-style imperialism in the name of "democracy"and "freedom" of people. The process and outcome of this imperialism are always similar; after the civil war in the name of democracy and liberation of people, comes the enslaving of the nation and people by American dollar and troops, sometimes accompanied with atrocity, hypocritical preaching of Christian ethics by invaders, and at last,poverty struck, politically unstable society. With all of them, the country will gradually be integrated into "global economy", where English is "official"language and "Newsweek" or other media telling us "facts".
All characters in this film is well arranged to make clear the whole mechanism of the above mentioned American imperialism, the basic frame and process of which have been surprisingly consistent over these 150 years.
The satire by Alex cox has its own analytic consistency and logic to explore the above mentioned mechanism of imperialism,.So when on the screen appear helicopter to save only American citizens from the battlefield, television images showing Ronald Reagan, contemporary American soldiers and dead bodies of Nicaraguan people, they seems not at all ridiculous, but look totally "natural"conclusion of the film's artistic system.
The anachronism of this film as a artistic decision is not new(such an "estrangement" device was used 20 years before,in Glauber Rocha's "Antonio das Mortes").In addition,late 1980s were the time of "postmodernism" in film art(enough to remember the works of Peter Greenaway and Alexander Sokurov). Political satire is keen and actual. Alex cox'x insight is deep. Here Willam Walker is represented not only a historical figure, rather a symbolic character embodying American-style imperialism in the name of "democracy"and "freedom" of people. The process and outcome of this imperialism are always similar; after the civil war in the name of democracy and liberation of people, comes the enslaving of the nation and people by American dollar and troops, sometimes accompanied with atrocity, hypocritical preaching of Christian ethics by invaders, and at last,poverty struck, politically unstable society. With all of them, the country will gradually be integrated into "global economy", where English is "official"language and "Newsweek" or other media telling us "facts".
All characters in this film is well arranged to make clear the whole mechanism of the above mentioned American imperialism, the basic frame and process of which have been surprisingly consistent over these 150 years.
The satire by Alex cox has its own analytic consistency and logic to explore the above mentioned mechanism of imperialism,.So when on the screen appear helicopter to save only American citizens from the battlefield, television images showing Ronald Reagan, contemporary American soldiers and dead bodies of Nicaraguan people, they seems not at all ridiculous, but look totally "natural"conclusion of the film's artistic system.