Walken the Walk

My first dose of Christopher Walken was probably from watching Pulp Fiction the first time. Now I've made it clear before that I love the film, but the whole 'Golden Watch' segment is chock full of the major flaws of the film, in my opinion. It's not interlinked as well as the other storylines are with one another, and features many an extraneous scene and character. One thing I did love, and still do love, about the scene though, is the prologue to it, in which a young, pre-Bruce Willis Butch receives the titular gift of his father's watch, passed onto Vietnam veteran Captain Koons at the POW camp they were both at. The monologue is a brilliant bit of black comedy, and who else better to deliver with this short scene wonder than he of the wonderfully bizzare oratory and clipped delivery, Mr Walken. It's a short scene in a rather long film, but he still lingers on with you even after it's ended. It also adds more weight to the whole segment as you completely understand why Butch wants to get back his precious watch, even at the possible cost of his own life.

Walken's screen presence incredibly unique, and I guess you could technically call it 'weird', or 'odd'. Yet I can't quite call it that because whatever Walken does in his performances, I never really see it as anything out of the ordinary; it just makes sense. Every oddly pronounced word, facial gesture, etc. never feels like a mannerisms, it just feels like something Walken's character would do. Note that I say 'character' - Walken has a distinctive screen presence but also a great deal of range. He finds his ways into characters effortlessly by his own distinct means; and I like to think of him as the cinematic version of the musical side of David Bowie, as everything he does and tries in his roles are either extremely off-kilter or extremely daring, yet you often overlook that because of how masterfully he disappears into his roles with that approach.

He never had conventional leading man looks yet still managed to garner a fair few of those, and he's received consistent work over the years in a most eclectic selection of genres, from comedy to drama to action to science-fiction...his first major role though, I believe, was Next Stop, Greenwich Village which I haven't seen, but the earlist role of his I have seen is his small but incredibly memorable role as the titular character's mentally disturbed brother in Woody Allen's Annie Hall.

Walken's scene is little more than a funny little set-up for a darkly humorous gag by Allen's script and direction, so it's extremely impressive how he manages to transcend those limits and make quite an affecting and disturbing impact on the viewer. It apparently was enough to secure him a substantial supporting role in Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter which he won an Oscar for...and I haven't seen yet. By all accounts it's his greatest performance, which makes me wonder whether I should even be writing this article.

Anyway, I'm by no means a Walken completist - I've watched only snippets of what's apparently his best leading turn in The Dead Zone. I've seen enough though to be able to remark that when he's on his A-game, few actors can make as much of an impact with whatever material they have as him. In most of what I've seen him in he's played intimidating villain figures (True Romance, The Prophecy)  or quiet fellows with hidden depths (Man on Fire, Seven Psychopaths).

(WARNING: NSFW, extremely uncomfortable to 

watch, especially if you're the squeamish sort.)

He finds quite the variation between all of them and can blend the comedic with the dramatic like few others can. Even in lacklustre films like Balls of Fury and The Stepford Wives and Click (actually, no, that's a good Adam Sandler film, a rarity for 21st Century Adam Sandler), which put him in roles that allow him to just coast by on his unique screen presence, you can tell he still enjoys and puts effort into his performance because regardless of the film, he just loves acting so much.

Then when you just let him loose to completely do his own thing...

It might seem a bit excessive, but it's fun so hey, I can't complain.

Though he's always fun to watch, my two favourite Christopher Walken performances are two of his most dramatic roles. One's his supporting turn in Steven Speilberg's Catch Me If You Can, where he plays Frank Abagnale Jr.'s (Leonardo DiCaprio) father, Frank Abagnale Sr..

The film's fantastic on the whole, Speilberg working easily at the height of his powers, and bolstered tremendously by a terrific lead performance by Leonardo DiCaprio who's extremely compelling as our cocky and endearing con-artist with a heart. A lot of the heart of this film is dedicated to scenes involving Abagnale Jr. and his father, and though DiCaprio by himself is great, it's in his scenes with Walken where his work reaches even greater heights. Walken exellently portrays the tender love of Abagnale Sr. for his son, through all the hardships they endure as a family, and finds such wondrous joy in the scenes where he finds out how well his son's doing, making him proud. His work is never simplistic in this regard though, as there's also a hint of sadness underneath his warm veneer which constantly reminds him about his lowly position in life that's extremely heartbreaking. Walken stands out with his few scenes as perhaps the film's most terrific element, a loving man beset by the harsh realities of the world, broken down but steadfast in his love.

Then there's Seven Psychopaths. Here Walken not only gets an even more substantial supporting role, it's also probably the trickiest role in the whole film. While most of the performances on board are comedic performances with occasional moments of dramatic levity, Walken's is a serious, very dramatically intense performance that has to somehow be funny at the same time when necessary. Walken's fashioning of his Hans Kieslowski into a character is utterly brilliant. He's very quiet, very subdued, and suggests a darker past of the character without giving the game away, and without letting it dominate his performance.

His Hans is kooky, most certainly, and has most certainly encountered his fair share of odd events in his lifetime, but Walken also makes sure he instills the right amount of charisma and likability into his performance. He manages to be very funny in the content of his dialogue, but also has so much weight and conviction in his oddities.

With his wife (Linda Bright Clay) Walken is extremely effective, as is Clay, in establishing just about the perfect loving relationship that unfortunately has been hurt by a haunting past and also her cancer diagnosis. I think with how great Walken is at being odd, he's underrated in his abilities to play just a normal guy, and here as a fellow who just loves his wife unconditionally he's great, and also makes her subsequent exit from the picture extremely powerful by his reaction to her death.

The scene where Hans confronts the murderer of his wife, Woody Harrelson's Charlie Costello, is a marvelous scene in which he conveys such a seething anger and yet, how his righteous nature subdues it. Him and Harrelson, playing two opposite sides of the moral spectrum, are great in showing how much this murder has had an effect on Hans.

After this point in the film, Walken's performance eases alongside the film's tone into a more contemplative mood. He's particularly great with Sam Rockwell's Billy Bickle as the high-pitched comedic nature of Rockwell's performance and his low-key musings work perfectly to bring such humour and power to their scenes in the desert. Then there's Walken on his own, where he has two particularly great scenes, one that's a hilarious deadpan comedic scene, and the other I've posted before about, his final closing monologue. This whole performance encapsulates perfectly why I think Walken is a true master of both comedy and drama, and makes me want to check out The Deer Hunter as soon as possible.