CHRISTOPHER WALKEN

by Nate Lee 

BEST FILM:

The Deer Hunter...

Walken has contributed to a dozen great films, including “Annie Hall” and “Pulp Fiction.” Certainly, though, he is pivotal to the brilliant anti-war epic. 

BLOCKBUSTERS:

The Deer Hunter (Golden Globe-nominated, Oscar-winning performance as soldier gone mad)

Catch Me if You Can (SAG winning, Oscar nominated performance as DiCaprio’s dad)

Dogs of War

Batman Returns (the bad guy)

A View to a Kill (the really bad guy)

Sleepy Hollow (not telling) 

GREAT PERFORMANCES YOU MAY NOT HAVE SEEN:

Annie Hall (Diane Keaton’s psycho brother)

Hairspray (John Travolta’s husband)

Wedding Crashers (Vince Vaughn’s and Owen Wilson’s future father-in-law)

Click (mysterious employee in the Beyond Department of Bed, Bath & Beyond)

Blast from the Past (Brendan Fraser’s eccentric dad)

At Close Range (Sean Penn’s criminal dad)

Pulp Fiction (guy with a strange story about a watch)

True Romance (opposite Dennis Hopper)

King of New York (gangster)

Pennies from Heaven (with Steve Martin)

Biloxi Blues

Domino

The Dead Zone

The Stepford Wives (the mayor of Stepford)

$5 A Day (a con man getting in touch with his son)

The Maiden Heist (a museum security guard out to steal art)

THE REAL WALKEN:

Don’t look here; look on Broadway. Christopher Walken is a hoofer turned Broadway star. The leap to movies was accidental. Go figure! Seeing as how they’re musicals, “Hairspray” and “Pennies from Heaven” come the closest.  

IF YOU REALLY LIKE HIM, YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T LIKE:

Heaven’s Gate

Gigli 

ACTING STYLE:

It used to be crazy, now it’s just eccentric. Walken’s theatrically trained, often over-the-top style works, really, no matter what the genre. He’s fun going “balls out” as in “Balls of Fury,” “Annie Hall,” or “A View to a Kill,” (definitely one of the more memorable Bond villains); he’s fun going just weird as in “Blast from the Past,” “Batman Returns” or “Click;” and he’s fun just being a force to contend with, as in “Wedding Crashers.”  

BITS AND QUIRKS:

Believe it or not, he doesn’t have that many. His voice carries a lot of it. When he opens his eyes wide, that is most of the rest. Then, there is the cock of the head and the shrug and the arrogant smile, but that’s an ensemble quirk. 

GREAT SCENES:

THE DEER HUNTER - The Russian roulette scenes

ANNIE HALL - Driving with Woody Allen, confessing his psychotic desires

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN - “The necklace,” teaching his son to be a “salesman”

BLAST FROM THE PAST - The sequence of training his son > Talking about baseball > Going “up” to have a look around in his anti-radiation suit > At the end, refusing to believe there was never a nuclear fallout

BATMAN RETURNS - Tempting Penguin downstairs with a fish

CLICK - Explaining the “universal remote” to Adam Sandler

WEDDING CRASHERS - The dinner table with Walken’s even crazier family

 

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