SPECIAL NOTE: SEASON 15 OF THE GOOD, THE POD AND THE UGLY CELEBRATES THE USE OF THE PRACTICAL AND DIGITAL EFFECT KNOWN AS THE SQUIB. IRL GUN VIOLENCE IS INTOLERABLE AND RENOUNCED BUT... CINEMATIC VIOLENCE WILL BE CELEBRATED IN A WAY THAT MAY DISTURB SOME LISTENERS.
TGTPTU enters its final pairing of Squib Games (Season 15) with the 1850s (and 1980s) invasion of Nicaragua with WALKER (1987), a film by Alex Cox.
Beset with difficulties filming, beloved by many a cineast, bewildering to divers critics of its day, Walker tells the story of the titular William Walker, a filibuster (also known as a “freebooter”) who prior to the American Civil War took private troops to Nicaragua and toppled its aristocratic government under the principles of Americanism and Manifest Destiny before setting himself up as dictator. Written by Rudy Wurlitzer whose novel Nog got comparisons to and favorable praise from podfav scribbler Thomas Pynchon, the movie’s plot follows the structure of a biopic only to undercut its titular antihero’s self-(righteous/delusion/destructive ß strike as appropriate) bravado and speechifying with montages both of actual conditions caused by his actions and of anachronisms culminating in a helicopter airlift—a direct reference to the American intervention supporting the Contras—as the acid western melts guest host Jack’s mind.
What is arguably Alex Cox’s final feature film (although IMDB will credit him with allegedly ten or eleven films made afterwards), Walker (the film) was a triumph of determination and workarounds. The director and lead actor Ed Harris (not to be confused with next week’s film lead Peter Weller) took pay cuts and invested their own money into the passion project when political interference arose. Despite Cox possibly believing his Rated R anarchistic movie would be a hit with wide audience appeal, the movie was dumped in early December against populist cinema hits of that year with critics and audiences not a fan of a film about an unredeemable man like Walker (nor was at least one TGTPTU host).
Full of slow motion and juicy squibs, the Joe Strummer-scored film brings a punk rock sensibility pokes a finger in the eye of the historical biopic and leaves American nationalism blinking.
Now forgive us while we betray every principle we’ve ever had and those who supported us. (To paraphrase Walker, the movie not the character or historical figure.)
THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.
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Podcast: goodpodugly
Ken: Ken Koral
Ryan: Ryan Tobias
