Ed Harris first came to my attention (and that of many others) in the 1983 film "Under Fire," which was set in Nicaragua but filmed in southern Mexico. After playing John Glenn in his astronaut days in "The Right Stuff," Harris went to Nicaragua to play William Walker (1924-1860), the self-styled "emperor of Central America," who was recognized by the United States government as president of Nicaragua in 1856 in the 1987 movie "Walker.".

Having recently returned from Nicaragua, I wanted to watch "Walker" again in part for its locations (the Pacific coast, Lake Managua, the earthquake-damaged Managua cathedral, and the central plaza of Granada, the Liberal bastion from which Walker ruled (first as head of the armed forces, then as president, and which he burned when he left), in part to see the bonus features of the new Criterion edition, and in part because I had heard some Nicaraguan views of Walker while there.

While Alex Cox (Straight to Hell, Kurosawa, Death and the Compass) and company were filming "Walker", the government of Ronald Reagan was (illegally) funding leftover followers of the incredibly (even by the standard of Latin American dictators!) Somoza dynasty in what has to be called "terrorism" (blowing up schools, hospitals, bridges). If anyone missed the parallels from Walker's final speech about manifest destiny and the promise that the US would not leave Nicaragua alone (one that was fulfilled by two lengthy occupations by US Marines before funding the "contras" and an economic blockade of the Sandinista government), the closing credits roll under footage of Reagan bollixing).

The movie's Walker portrays William Walker as an adventurer, but one who seemed to believe his own propaganda -- which is another way of saying was delusional. Like many later American operatives in Latin America, Walker claimed to be promoting democracy and freedom from oppression, while serving US commercial interests. In the movie, it is the transport from the US east to west coast by way of southern Nicaragua of "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt's Accessory Transit Company (ACT). Vanderbilt definitely was involved in making and overthrowing Central American governments, though Vanderbilt temporarily lost control of ACT to Cornelius K. Garrison and Charles Morgan.

After Vanderbilt regained control of ACT, he lobbied the US government to withdraw its recognition of Walker and financed a Costa Rican army to depose Walker. Walker had alienated some rich Nicaraguan landowners with desultory land reform and had claimed to embody progress, but jettisoned what had been his forcefully expressed convictions to attempt to forge an alliance with the slave-holding South (still before secession and the war against it in the US) and reinstituted slavery, which had been abolished in Nicaragua in 1824.

This does not go over well with one of the movie Walker's most competent lieutenants (actually captain, played by Sy Richardson, who had also been in Alex Cox's "Repo Man" and "Sid and Nancy"). Latent megalomania has become not just overt, but controlling. The principals Walker had claimed to be advancing were jettisoned when it came to holding onto power. Harris's Walker has a steely resolve and walks through several urban valleys of death fearing no evil. Many of his followers are picked off, but bullets seemingly cannot find him (including an assassin's bullet that comes very close...).

The movie has some (a lot of!) very graphic blood spurting, two discreetly shot romances, the burning of Granada. In addition to Ed Harris making Walker a figure of some complexity, the film has spirited performances by Marlee Matlin and Blanca Guerra, as Walker's sexual partners, by Peter Boyle (not easily recognizable with mutton-chop sideburns) as Vanderbilt, Sy Richardson as Capt. Hornsby, and William O'Leary as Walker's younger brother James. Ren é Auberjonois is also on hand, flapping.

There are some very conscious anachronistic touches, including Walker being on the covers of Newsweek, People, and Time, a bottle of Coca-Cola and a pack of Marlboros, and a helicopter evacuation (surely referencing the evacuation of the US embassy in Saigon; the making-of feature reveals that the helicopter was a night later than scheduled because it had been picking up wounded soldiers near the Honduran border and the floor was coated with blood).

There are other sources of dark humor in addition to the anachronisms (of a Terry Gilliam/Monty Python variety that I appreciate less than the outrageous anachronisms). The movie is not a diatribe denouncing US interference in Nicaragua. It is an entertaining portrayal of US adventurers without any understanding of the culture and society they are disrupting. Knowing from recent experience how hot the places in Nicaragua where the film was shot are, I think that it is amazing that Ed Harris's portrayal of obliviousness extends to being able to wear a three-piece black suit without looking uncomfortable in it! I was also surprised not to hear any complaints in the "making-of" feature (footage shot at the time by Terry Schwartz , but not assembled as "Dispatches from Nicaragua" until the DVD was being readied) about insect bites. I still have some that are itching three weeks after leaving Nicaragua.

The Criterion print looks and sounds great (I seem to have written that sentence many times before, but it bears repeating! and the musical score by Joe Strummer (of Clash) is excellent, though it will not make me forget the one by Ennio Morricone for Gilo Pontecorvo's Burn!,which also portrays a vain soldier of fortune named William Walker intervening in Latin America, albeit on a Caribbean island). Both "Dispatches from Nicaragua" (which runs 50 minutes) and an audio commentary by an unnamed extra focus on the experiences of extras (Sandi-leastas, North Americans who went to Nicaragua to experience and possibly aid the Sandinistas). (I have yet to listen to the commentary track by director Cox and scenarist Rudy Wurlitzer (Two-Lane Blacktop, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid) and have not seen the booklet).

BTW, "Dispatches from Nicaragua" goes far to explaining the somewhat rushed feel of "Nicaragua." A currency devaluation curtailed plans to shoot in Mexico as well as Nicaragua, and as it was, the cast and crew worked to finish the movie without pay.

And the parallels between clueless, arrogant Americans claiming to export democracy while being highly suspect of being tools for business interests don't need my elaborating on. They do make "Walker" of topical interest again, even though W's excellent adventures in Iraq seem to have distracted his government from fomenting another active destabilization attempt of the second Sandinista government.

© 2008, Stephen O. Murray




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