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The Christopher Walken Performances that Capture His Singular Appeal

March 2, 2024
in Personal Finance
Reading Time: 20 mins read
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The Christopher Walken Performances that Capture His Singular Appeal

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Any comic value their salt has a Christopher Walken impression on the prepared, and with good purpose. Together with his lithe, six-foot body and his huge, pale face, Walken calls for consideration, and that’s earlier than he says a phrase.

Walken stands out much more at any time when he speaks, because of his distinctive voice and weird approach of talking. He pauses the place nobody else would pause and accentuates phrases that almost all run previous. Because of these distinctive qualities, Walken has carved out an enviable Hollywood profession, as demonstrated in these excellent movies that characteristic iconic Christopher Walken performances.

1. The Lifeless Zone (1983)

The Dead Zone Christopher Walken

Picture Credit score: Paramount Photos.

“The ice… is gonna break!” If somebody simply heard that line alone, divorced from the context of David Cronenberg’s adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Lifeless Zone, they could think about it a joke. It comprises the entire distinctive qualities of Walken’s uncommon cadence, shouted on the high of his lungs. However inside the story about schoolteacher Johnny Smith, a person who good points the power to see the long run, the road good points a terrifying immediacy.

Johnny begs his employer (Anthony Zerbe) to name off a deliberate hockey follow for his son, which he is aware of will finish in demise. In that scene and plenty of others, Walken captures the pathos and hopelessness of a person who can see the long run however might not be capable of do something to repair it.

2. The Deer Hunter (1978)

Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, and Chuck Aspegren gathered in a room

Picture Credit score: EMI.

Walken already had just a few movie credit to his identify by 1978, however it was the warfare epic The Deer Hunter that made him a reputation value remembering.

Directed by Michael Cimino and written by Deric Washburn, The Deer Hunter follows three Pennsylvania males — Walken, Robert Di Nero, and John Savage — who get crushed by the horrors of the Vietnam Conflict. As Nick, Walken performs probably the most delicate of the group, who sees and experiences even worse than he feared whereas abroad.

As one would possibly guess, Walken’s uncanny nature made him a pure for enjoying the glassy-eyed, shell-shocked man that Nick turns into. However his ability as an actor allowed him to remind viewers of the humanity at Nick’s shattered core. The movie additionally gained him an Oscar, making it one of many must-see Christopher Walken performances.

3. Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Christopher Walken in Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Picture Credit score: DreamWorks Photos.

By 2002, Christopher Walken had turn out to be a comedy determine, somebody who pops up as a good-natured joke repeatedly. So it was a nice shock to see him tackle such a wealthy dramatic function in a supporting half as Frank Abagnale Sr., father of the con man Frank Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, written by Jeff Nathanson.

The elder Frank can not obtain the fabric success he wishes; he covers his sense of failure with a captivating perspective and minor scams. In the beginning of the movie, he captures his aspiration in a speech a few mouse that falls into milk. However when he repeats the speech later within the movie, Walken provides a observe of unhappiness and resilience, making Frank right into a tragic determine, and making his function one of the highly effective Christopher Walken performances.

4. Severance (2022)

Severance (2022)

Picture Credit score: Purple Hour Productions.

Created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle, the Apple TV+ collection Severance takes the office comedy in a surreal, revolutionary course. Workers for the corporate Lumon Industries undergo a course of referred to as “severance,” which divides their reminiscences and personalities into “innies,” their office selves, and “outies,” their out-of-work selves. The 2 selves know nothing of each other, which results in intrigue and thriller because the innies study their outer selves.

Walken enters halfway via the present’s first season as Burt Goodman, a division head who embarks on a romance with the fastidious Irving (John Turturro). Severance provides Walken an opportunity to point out off his comedian chops, however it additionally uncovers a candy and tender facet, on show within the mild romance between two older males.

5. At Shut Vary (1986)

Christopher Walken in At Close Range (1986)
Picture Credit score: Orion Photos.

All through the 90s, Walken turned a daily in crime films as filmmakers corresponding to Quentin Tarantino took benefit of his potential to play menace. However the 1986 film At Shut Vary finest captures Walken’s presence as a legal determine. Written by Nicholas Kazan and directed by James Foley, At Shut Vary stars Sean Penn as Brad Whitwood Jr., who reconnects together with his estranged father Brad Sr. (Walken), in hopes that the older man can combine him into his gang.

At Shut Vary has Walken growing a number of the methods he makes use of in later crime movies, pausing between phrases to ratchet the stress or giving an eerie, slack-jawed stare. However there’s a physicality to his efficiency as Brad Sr. that will get misplaced over the subsequent decade, a way that his character has filth underneath his fingernails and blood on his knuckles.

6. “Weapon of Selection,” Fatboy Slim

Christopher Walken in “Weapon of Choice,” Fatboy Slim
Picture Credit score: Skink/Astralworks.

On one hand, “Weapon of Selection” continued Walken’s transformation right into a cultural joke. In any case, what might be extra random than watching him rise from a simple chair at first of the video after which dance via the room, even launching himself to the ceiling?

Alternatively, the Fatboy Slim video exhibits off a ability that Walken has to sneak into most of his different roles: his dancing skills. “Weapon of Selection” reminds viewers that Walken is a skilled dancer, and there’s pleasure in watching him transfer his large body with ease and beauty. By the point the track ends, no person is laughing at Walken. They’re all sharing in his pleasure.

7. Pulp Fiction (1994)

Christopher Walken in Pulp Fiction (1994)

Picture Credit score: Miramax Movies.

Walken turned a mainstay in 90s crime films due to his work with Tarintino. However too typically, different filmmakers forgot that Tarantino favored to work with Walken as a result of the actor knew easy methods to ship a monologue. No scene higher demonstrates Walken’s expertise in a florid monologue than Tarantino’s breakout Pulp Fiction.

Walken seems in a single only one scene, as a Vietnam veteran who brings a watch to the son of a fallen warfare buddy. The story he tells is absurd in crass, and Walken doesn’t draw back from the gross elements. Nor does he overplay them. As an alternative, he finds notes of sincerity within the character, enjoying him as a person who needs to do one final good deed for a pal and produce some semblance of peace and luxury to the boy.

8. “Extra Cowbell” Saturday Evening Reside

Christopher Walken in “More Cowbell” Saturday Night Live
Picture Credit score: NBC.

Walken had been a daily visitor on Saturday Evening Reside all through the 90s, however his most iconic sketch got here within the yr 2000s. Written by Will Ferrell and Donnell Campbell, the sketch purports to inform the story of 70s rock band Blue Öyster Cult writing their hit, “Don’t Concern the Reaper.”

Walken performs producer Bruce Dickinson, who calls for the prog-rockers add cowbell to the observe. Sure, the sketch does play on Walken’s distinctive cadences, however it additionally exhibits off his comedian timing, proving that he can earn the laughs directed at him.

9. Annie Corridor (1977)

Christopher Walken in Annie Hall (1977)
Picture Credit score: United Artists.

Walken had appeared in lots of films earlier than becoming a member of the solid of the Woody Allen comedy Annie Corridor. However it was his efficiency as Annie’s (Diane Keaton) brother Duane. Walken seems whereas Annie’s paramour Alvy Singer (Allen) waits for her and tries to strike up a dialog with Duane.

In a extra comedian model of the character he’ll play in The Deer Hunter, Walken provides Duane a clean and unnerving scare. The extra uncomfortable and awkward Alvy turns into, Walken’s stoicism grows extra unnerving. The scene happens 15 years earlier than Walken turns into a comedy common, highlighting a humorousness that later movies won’t typically make use of.

10. A View to a Kill (1985)

A View To a Kill

Picture Credit score: MGM Distribution Co./United Worldwide Photos.

Even diehard James Bond followers depend Roger Moore’s final outing A View to a Kill among the many worst within the collection. Nevertheless, outdoors of the rocking Duran Duran theme track, the film’s saving grace comes within the type of the villain Max Zoren (Walken), and his right-hand lady Might Day (Grace Jones).

Director John Glen and screenwriters Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson give Walken and Jones a lot to chew on as malevolent Silicon Valley raiders, particularly when Zoren’s origins because the product of fascist science are revealed. Walken and Jones rise to the problem, cackling and embracing the goofy story with the vitality the film wants.

11. Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Christopher Walken in Seven Psychopaths (2012)
Picture Credit score: CBS Movies.

Though it got here out in 2012, Seven Psychopaths feels very very like a criminal offense film from the 90s post-Tarantino wave, with its extreme violence, verbose characters, and self-aware humor.

Written and directed by Irish playwright turned filmmaker Martin McDonagh, Seven Psychopaths stars Colin Farrell as a screenwriter making an attempt to make a film a few pacifist murderer and Sam Rockwell as his pal Billy, who runs a dog-napping scheme with Walken’s dapper Hans. The trio should run for his or her lives when Billy and Hans steal the canine of a remorseless mobster (Woody Harrelson).

Regardless of that slick and snarky set-up, Walken will get to play a special variation of his earlier crime characters, a person who maintains his dignity regardless of the calamities in his life.

12. Blast from the Previous (1999)

Christopher Walken in Blast from the Past (1999)
Picture Credit score: New Line Cinema.

Walken’s Saturday Evening Reside appearances led to his inclusion in a number of comedies all through the late 90s and 2000s. As enjoyable as these appearances had been, they didn’t typically problem Walken as a performer. That can’t be mentioned of Blast from the Previous, the amiable comedy from Hugh Wilson, who co-wrote the script with Invoice Kelly.

Walken performs crackpot scientist Calvin Webber, whose fears about nuclear warfare drive him to cover his spouse (Sissy Spacek) and son in a bomb shelter for 3 many years. Most of Blast from the Previous follows the romance between Calvin’s son Adam (Brendan Fraser), who experiences life outdoors the bunker for the primary time as an grownup, and good woman Eve (Alicia Silverstone). However at any time when the movie strikes again to the elder Webbers navigating the 90s, Walken exhibits that his comedy potential extends past his odd appears and conduct.

13. Batman Returns (1992)

Christopher Walken in Batman Returns (1992)
Picture Credit score: Warner Bros.

Maybe the best testomony to Walken’s energy as an actor is available in Batman Returns, the Tim Burton-directed sequel to the 1989 blockbuster Batman. The Batman Returns script by Daniel Waters requires not one however two baddies to cross Batman (Michael Keaton): the Penguin (Danny DeVito) and Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer).

DeVito and Pfeiffer flip in all-time nice villain performances, and but Walken suits in proper subsequent to them because the businessman Max Schreck. Whether or not staring wide-eyed on the destruction occurring round him or buying and selling verbal jabs with Batman’s alter ego Bruce Wayne, Walken’s Schreck that not all dangerous guys put on outrageous outfits.

14. Pennies from Heaven (1981)

Christopher Walken in Pennies from Heaven (1981)
Picture Credit score: United Artists.

Those that pay shut consideration to Walken’s performances discover that he tries to work just a few slick dance strikes into each one among his appearances. He does this due to his coaching as a dancer, one thing that few roles have given him the chance to point out off.

The musical Pennies from Heaven, directed by Herbert Ross and written by Dennis Potter, is the exception to the rule. Walken performs Tom, a person of in poor health reputation who ropes in jilted harmless Eileen (Bernadette Peters), a lady on a downward spiral after a disastrous affair with a married man (Steve Martin). Though Pennies from Heaven provides Walken just a few dance numbers, he doesn’t surrender the menace that cemented his status, making Tom one of many extra attention-grabbing characters in his filmography.

15. King of New York (1990)

King of New York, Christopher Walken

Picture Credit score: New Line Cinema.

Nothing in King of New York is refined. Director Abel Ferrara and author Nicholas St. John revel within the destruction wrought by the battle between police and drug kingpin Frank White, performed by Walken. They fill the movie with bombastic shootouts, absurd automotive chases, with over-the-top characters.

Walken tunes his efficiency to suit inside the world, making Frank a real drive of nature bent on controlling NYC. However he additionally performs up Frank’s appeal as he tries to win the hearts of individuals round him, a top quality that makes the character all of the extra harmful.

16. Sleepy Hole (1999)

sleepy hollow 1

Picture Credit score: Paramount Photos.

Few actors might lose one among their most distinctive qualities and nonetheless flip in an incredible efficiency. However in Sleepy Hole, written by Andrew Kevin Walker and directed by Tim Burton, Walken by no means speaks a phrase to play the Headless Horseman.

As an alternative, he depends solely on his physique to seize the supernatural brutality of a Hessian coming again to the useless to terrorize the residents of Sleepy Hole. When the Horseman strides throughout a battlefield or tells a toddler to maintain quiet, Walken reminds viewers that he has many instruments to make a terrifying character.

17. Dune: Half Two (2024)

Christopher Walken in Dune_ Part Two (2024)
Picture Credit score: Warner Bros.

For Dune: Half Two, the huge second a part of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of the Frank Herbert epic, co-written by Jon Spaihts, a number of nice actors joined an already stacked solid, together with Florence Pugh and Léa Seydoux. So when Villeneuve added Walken as Shaddam Emperor Corrino IV, viewers knew that he wouldn’t get a lot display screen time, regardless of the movie’s virtually three-hour runtime.

Nevertheless, Villeneuve makes probably the most of Walken’s presence, holding the digital camera on the actor’s lengthy, weathered face. Even with only a few traces, Walken communicates the large weight that comes from such a place, serving as a darkish omen for Dune protagonist Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet).

18. The Prophecy (1995)

Christopher Walken in The Prophecy (1995)
Picture Credit score: Miramax Movies.

The Prophecy is a really cool film, and author/director Gregory Widen is aware of it. In his story a few civil warfare in heaven spilling out to the earth, the angels all have lengthy hair, goatees, and dusters. The angels and priest-turned-detective Thomas (Elias Koteas) spout self-important monologues full of pseudo-religious lore.

The complete undertaking would really feel overbearing if not for the satisfying motion sequences and Walken’s efficiency as the first antagonist, the angel Gabriel. Walken tosses off probably the most over-stuffed line with a lightness and humor that makes the motion pop, with out ever condescending to the fabric. His efficiency cuts the load of The Prophecy and the film is a lot better for it.

19. True Romance (1993)

Christopher Walken in True Romance (1993)
Picture Credit score: Warner Bros.

In some methods, the Tony Scott-directed True Romance seems like a trial run for its author’s personal directorial debut the subsequent yr, Pulp Fiction.

Quentin Tarantino fills the True Romance script with the hallmarks of his later work, together with colourful monologues. Walken delivers a kind of monologues as Vincenzo Coccotti, the ruthless gangster trying to find reckless couple Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette). The monologue is available in a scene through which Vincenzo threatens Clarence’s father, Clifford (Dennis Hopper), a speech stuffed with disgusting language and florid constructions, made extra memorable due to Walken’s supply.

20. Nick of Time (1995)

Christopher Walken in Nick of Time (1995)
Picture Credit score: Paramount Photos.

Directed by John Badham and written by Patrick Sheane Duncan, Nick of Time bought itself on its real-time gimmick, through which every minute of the runtime corresponds to a minute of the story. However the actual impact is the selection of Walken because the movie’s villain Mr. Smith, who blackmails accountant Gene (Johnny Depp) into committing a homicide earlier than time runs out.

Whether or not leaving threatening messages or trailing behind Gene, Walken makes his malevolent presence identified all through.

21. Man on Hearth (2004)

Christopher Walken in Man on Fire (2004)
Picture Credit score: twentieth Century Fox.

A decade after True Romance, Walken teamed once more with director Tony Scott for Man on Hearth, written by Brian Helgeland and based mostly on the novel by A. J. Quinnell. As ex-CIA agent John Casey (Denzel Washington) tries to guard younger Lupita (Dakota Fanning), he will get help from his previous pal Paul Rayburn (Walken).

Scott doesn’t give Walken probably the most to do in his action-packed thriller. However Walken makes an impression regardless of his relatively small function, going massive to additional elevate Man on Hearth’s overheated tone.

22. Joe Filth (2001)

Christopher Walken in Joe Dirt (2001)
Picture Credit score: Sony Photos Releasing.

Like most of his comedy appearances throughout the 90s and 2000s, Joe Filth doesn’t ask Walken to do rather more than be his oddball self. When performed towards the titular, loud-mouthed Southerner (David Spade), Walken’s eccentricities stand out extra.

Written by Spade and Fred Wolfe, and directed by Dennie Gordon, Joe Filth strikes from outrageous set-piece to outrageous set-piece. And the most effective of these setpieces contain Walken’s runaway gangster Clem. In every occasion, Walken embraces the goofy story and performs together with the film’s enjoyable.

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