Tagarchief: Christopher Walken

Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead (1995)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld


‘They can die quickly. They can die slowly. But they must die!’

Directed by:
Gary Fleder

Written by:
Scott Rosenberg

Cast:
Andy Garcia (Jimmy ‘The Saint’ Tosnia), Christopher Lloyd (Pieces), William Forsythe (Franchise), Bill Nunn (Easy Wind), Treat Williams (Critical Bill), Jack Warden (Joe Heff), Steve Buscemi (Mister Shhh), Fairuza Balk (Lucinda), Gabrielle Anwar (Dagney), Christopher Walken (The Man with the Plan)

Jimmy the Saint (Andy Garcia) is a decent guy with a criminal background. He now runs a video business where dying people can record final words of wisdom for their loved ones.

Things are going well for Jimmy: he meets a nice girl (Gabrielle Anwar) and leads a pleasant life, but then his old boss calls for him. The crippled gangster ‘The Man with the Plan’ (Christopher Walken) asks Jimmy to do one final job. Jimmy agrees and brings along four old friends. The job goes horribly wrong, and the five friends are now marked for death.

What is especially notable about Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead is the awesome cast. The ‘good’ guys are a wonderful collection (Lloyd, Forsythe, Williams, Nunn), with a charismatic Garcia in the lead. The other camp isn’t shy of great players either: Christopher Walken gives a very sinister performance, but the scene-stealer is Steve Buscemi. The scenes in which his character Mr. Shhh appears are the best in the whole movie.

The problem with Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead is that during the first hour, it is hard to see what the makers wanted to achieve. It appears to be a whacky gangster film / black comedy, seemingly inspired by Tarantino, who brought out Pulp Fiction a year earlier. But if that is the case, it is not whacky enough – and not funny enough, for that matter.

When Christopher Lloyd starts talking about the good old days and says, “We did the things,” I couldn’t help but think: why not now? There is too much talking about stuff that happened before the movie. Things to do in Denver when you’re dead? These guys don’t even do stuff when they’re alive!

Then again, as the movie approaches its ending, it becomes clearer what the screenplay is aiming for. The ending is a fairly impressive piece of writing. It makes you think about death, only in an enjoyable way. Now that can’t be too bad, can it?

Rating:

Quote:
CRITICAL BILL: “I am Godzilla, you are Japan!”

Trivia:
Screenplay writer Scott Rosenberg (Con Air, High Fidelity) wrote the script in two weeks. It was partly in reflection to the death of his father from cancer.

King of New York (1990)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld


‘Not everyone who runs a city is elected’

Directed by:
Abel Ferrara

Written by:
Nicholas St. John

Cast: Christopher Walken (Frank White), David Caruso (Dennis Gilley), Larry Fishburne (Jimmy Jump), Victor Argo (Roy Bishop), Wesley Snipes (Thomas Flanigan), Janet Julian (Jennifer), Joey Chin (Larry Wong), Giancarlo Esposito (Lance), Paul Calderon (Joey Dalesio), Steve Buscemi (Test Tube)

The Godfather meets Black Caesar in Abel Ferrara’s violent 90’s gangster tale. Christopher Walken plays the disturbing and eccentric gang lord Frank White, who is characterized by a short fuse temper, a Robin Hood-like attitude and a pretty cool haircut.

When White is released from prison he starts effectively wiping out all his competitors whom he views as the real scum of New York because they take money from the poor and weak. He is different: he uses his drug money to finance schools and hospitals. For him, this easily justifies the killing of some vermin, but a small group of Irish cops look at the matter entirely differently. They hate the idea that a drug dealer can get away with murder and so they start a war with Frank and his gang.

Ferrara and his regular screenplay writer Nicholas St. John show the viewer that crime is dirty. There is nothing glamorous about King of New York, not even the sex and coke parties. In the world these characters live in, death and betrayal could come any time. Frank knows this. In one scene he expresses his desire to stay around for just two more years, so he can finish his charity work. Death could come soon and it is hardly a heroes’ death waiting for him. Still, he has the makings of a hero.

King of New York is easily Ferrara’s most accessible movie. There is hardly any complex subtext like in basically all of his other works, but it does contain some criticism on society as can be expected from an artist like Ferrara. Basically, it is a modern day morality tale, but the message is certainly delivered in an entertaining fashion. Apart from Walken’s excellent performance, many other cast members shine as well, most notably Larry Fishburne in scene stealing form. Also contains a fair amount of violent action.

Rating:

Quote:
LARRY WONG: “You know something Frank…this conversation made me realise how fucking crazy you really are.”

Trivia:
The work of real-life friends David Caruso and Wesley Snipes in this film helped them get casted in, respectively, NYPD Blue (1993) and New Jack City (1991) each of which launched both actors into stardom.

The Addiction

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Abel Ferrara
Written by: Nicholas St. John
Cast: Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken, Annabella Sciorra, Edie Falco

Year / Country: 1995, USA / Argentina
Running Time: 79 mins.

In Abel Ferrara’s take on the vampire genre, vampirism is a metaphor for drug addiction (and Aids). Together with regular collaborator Nicholas St. John, who wrote the screenplay, Ferrara explores the mean streets of New York once again. Amidst dope peddlers and junkies listening to Cypress Hill, the philosophy student Kathleen is bitten by the sardonic vampire Casanova (Annabella Sciorra).

Her turning into a hungry vampire is a path filled with suffering. While she is searching for relief from her addiction, she finds that her addiction is her only relief. In a memorable one-scene appearance, vampire Christopher Walken teaches here a few things about addictions (have you read ‘Naked Lunch’?). He practices abstinence and teaches Kathleen that like Tibetans, we can learn to survive on a little. But Kathleen must first go through a massive feeding frenzy at the end of the film before finally finding some relief through religion.

Besides being an unusual, but brilliantly effective genre film, this is also a work of art that deals with deeper questions. Most urgently it asks how we can resist evil. The movie features many references to historical acts of greater evil and – typical for Ferrara – deals with guilt, redemption and Catholicism. The black and white cinematography is beautiful and the cast, not in the least lead actress Lili Taylor, is impressive. But how much you will enjoy the final result will depend on your tolerance for philosophical and religious subject matter. Either way, this is one of Ferrara’s finest works to date.

Rating:

Biography: Abel Ferrara (1951, New York) is a New York artist and filmmaker. He started making amateur films on Super 8 in his teens before making his mark as independent film director with bloody underground films such as The Driller Killer. Ferrara has an independent way of working, uses low budgets, but is still able to attract Hollywood talent for his movies, such as Christopher Walken and Harvey Keitel. His raw, realistic style and controversial content has earned him a position as an important voice in American cult cinema.

Filmography (a selection): Nicky’s Film (1971, short) / 9 Lives of a Wet Pussy (1976) / Not Guilty: For Keith Richards (1977, short doc) / The Driller Killer (1979) / Ms. 45 (1981) / Fear City (1984) / Cat Chaser (1989) / King of New York (1990) / Bad Lieutenant (1992) / Body Snatchers (1993) / The Addiction (1995) / The Funeral (1996) / The Blackout (1997) / New Rose Hotel (1998) / ‘R Xmas (2001) / Mary (2005) / Go Go Tales (2007) / Chelsea on the Rocks (2008, doc) / Napoli, Napoli, Napoli (2009) / Welcome to New York (2014) / Pasolini (2014) / Alive in France (2017, doc) / Piazza Vittorio (2017, doc) / The Projectionist (2019, doc) / Tommaso (2019) / Siberia (2019)