In Character: Christopher Walken

Christopher Walken is one of cinema’s best, most iconic actors, and his appearance in this series has been a long time coming. There were a lot of essential roles to choose from here. I hope you enjoy my picks, and do feel free to share yours as well.

Five Essential Roles

Annie Hall (1977)

Duane Hall

“Can I confess something? I tell you this because, as an artist, I think you’ll understand.”

So begins Walken’s 90-second speech in Annie Hall, a sequence that highlights the best of Woody Allen and Christopher Walken’s respective talents. The scene is a brief interlude Alvy (Allen) has with Duane, the brother of Alvy’s girlfriend, Annie (Diane Keaton). Alvy sits in Duane’s room while Duane confesses that he often has the temptation to drive into oncoming traffic. It’s a hilariously macabre confession, one written with Allen’s absurd wit, and voiced with Walken’s famously obscure delivery. And the cut immediately after this speech, of Duane driving Alvy and Annie to the airport, is a perfect punctuation to the moment.

At Close Range (1986)

Brad Whitewood, Sr.

At Close Range contains Walken’s most realistic performance of a truly monstrous man. Brad Whitewood was a real guy (real name, Bruce Johnston) who ran a ruthless gang in Pennsylvania in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Whitewood stole and murdered at will; anything to keep his lifestyle afloat. But when we first meet Whitewood in At Close Range, he’s casually strolling in to his ex’s house, only to be greeted by his estranged son, Brad Jr. (Sean Penn). Brad Jr. joins Whitewood’s gang, and the two cultivate a savage father/son relationship.

The strength of Walken’s performance is the way he slowly reveals Whitewood’s depravity. There’s an ease to him at first; he’s kind, playful, intriguing. But Whitewood soon morphs into a monster, committing unspeakable acts of violence against anyone in his way. The most famous scene of At Close Range comes toward the end, when Brad Jr. holds a gun in Whitewood’s face. Rather infamously, right after the take began, Sean Penn ran off the set, switched guns, and pointed a new gun in Walken’s face. Walken had no idea if the gun was loaded, and he was absolutely terrified. When you watch the scene, you can see the legitimate fear in Walken’s eyes. It is truly captivating cinema. Who knew a monster could be so scared?

King of New York (1990)

Frank White

Christopher Walken and Abel Ferrara were born to make films together. Walken’s unpredictable method is a perfect match for Ferrara’s unhinged style. This is perhaps best realized in their first film together, the street-level Robin Hood cult classic, King of New York. Immediately after being released from prison, drug lord Frank White hits New York’s mean streets to resume his rise to the throne. White parties, kills, and sells drugs with equal vigor. There’s a gangster gravitas Walken brings to Frank White that is instantly compelling. King of New York, like all of Ferrara’s films, is acquired taste, but there’s no denying the command of Walken’s performance. Surprisingly, this is the only leading Walken performance I’ve listed in this post. That isn’t meant to take away from Walken’s other leading performances, but it certainly highlights the strength of this one.

True Romance (1993)/Pulp Fiction (1994)

Vincenzo Coccotti/Captain Koons

For me, the quintessential Christopher Walken performance (that is, the Christopher Walken performance that defines what a Christopher Walken performance is) is his four minute turn in Pulp Fiction. Captain Koons’ monologue has all the staples of trademark Walken: frantic tonal pitches, disregard of punctuation, subtle intimidation, and inarguable humor. The result is a sequence that is immensely entertaining. There’s a common “rule” of screenwriting known as “Show, Don’t tell.” Don’t have your characters talk about something they did, instead, show them doing it. Quentin Tarantino ignores this rule often, but rarely it to such notorious results.

But to find the first truly great Walken performance in a Tarantino-scripted film, we have to go back a year earlier to True Romance. The True Romance scene is a marvelous two-hander between Walken and Dennis Hopper, and it speaks the the strengths of everyone involved, from the actors to the writer to the late, great director, Tony Scott.

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Frank Abagnale

Frank Abagnale seems tailor-made for Christopher Walken. Through the character, we get everything from Walken we could possibly want. We see him dance, we see him laugh, and we see him cry. In Walken’s best scene in the film – the one that nearly won him an Oscar – Frank sits in a swanky restaurant with his “pilot” son, Frank Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio). At the start of the scene, Frank Sr. is suspicious, a little frustrated, tired. As the scene progresses, Frank gently fights back tears as he recalls how he met Frank Jrs. mother. The scene is an all-encompassing display of Walken’s craft. He’s charming, funny, and completely vulnerable. There’s a great moment in the Making Of doc of Catch Me If You Can that gives some insight into this scene. For the first few takes, Walken played it straight. But on one magical take, he got unexpectedly emotional and began to cry. After, Walken apologized to director Steven Spielberg for crying, and Spielberg quietly said something to the effect of, “Oh, no, Chris, that is the scene now.” That’s what a good actor does: they take the material and make it their own.

Wild Card

Nick of Time (1995)

Mr. Smith

I shamelessly love the real time thriller, Nick of Time. The plot is simple: two “business people” (including Walken’s Mr. Smith) kidnap a little girl and tell her father, Mr. Watson (Johnny Depp), that Watson has 90 minutes to kill the Governor. If Watson doesn’t do it, Mr. Smith will kill the girl. The movie begins with this proposition, and ends almost exactly 90 minutes later. It’s a groovy concept in a somewhat throwaway thriller, but damn if Walken doesn’t chew it up the entire time. Walken is in premiere “Walken” form, wild with his enunciations, ignoring all punctuation – it’s absolute bliss for any fan of Walken’s style.

The Best of the Best

The Deer Hunter (1978)

Nick

Christopher Walken’s performance as Nick in The Deer Hunter is one of my Top 10 male performances of all time. And it has been since the day I first saw the film. It’s such layered work, so full of dread, wonderment, fear, and regret. When we first meet Nick, he’s quiet and content. He seems to enjoy his simple life, and is going to Vietnam because he feels it’s his duty. But the war changes him. He fights to survive, and his wiring his forever altered. Watching Walken go through this transformation (while saying very little) is one of the main reasons The Deer Hunter remains so powerful. The film, of course, leads to a climax that can never be forgotten once seen. It’s a patient, devastating sequence that highlights the strengths of both Walken and Robert De Niro’s abilities.

Every time I watch The Deer Hunter (which isn’t often, it takes a lot out of me), I’m so drawn in by Walken’s sunken eyes. The man says so much with a look, and later, with just a few words. Nick is the pinnacle of a perfectly obscure career. The best performance by a man who has given us more than his fair share of great ones.

Other Notable Roles

in Sleepy Hollow

Heaven's Gate (1980)
The Dogs of War (1980)
The Dead Zone (1983)
A View to a Kill (1985)
Biloxi Blues (1988)
Homeboy (1988)
Batman Returns (1992)
Wayne’s World 2 (1993)
The Addiction (1995)
The Prophecy (1995)
Things To Do in Denver When You’re Dead (1995)
Basquiat (1996)
Last Man Standing (1996)
Touch (1997)
Suicide Kings (1997)
Blast from the Past (1999)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Joe Dirt (2001)
Man on Fire (2004)
Wedding Crashers (2005)
Romance & Cigarettes (2005)
Man of the Year (2006)
Seven Psychopaths (2012)
A Late Quartet (2012)
Jersey Boys (2014)