Comments on: Comments on 8890

Post number 8890

timothompson — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 11:31:26 -0800

All Hail Christopher Walken. He has given us some of the most out-there/bocephus movie performances, he has become patron saint of the cowbell, and he has done freaky dances in our favorite music videos. I propose we raise a toast to the man, the myth, the legend, the Walken.

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 11:35:39 -0800

...they all head off to the Springfield Book Festival where authors like Tom Wolfe, Amy Tan, John Updike, and Stephen King get spoofed, although the highlight of the festival, and probably the whole show, was a very frightening Christopher Walken reading to the children.. "Goodnight...moon..." Best...line...ever!

By: machaus

machaus — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 12:18:17 -0800

From Annie Hall: Duane (Walken): Can I confess something? I tell you this as an artist,I think you'll understand. Sometimes when I'm driving... on the road at night... I see two headlights coming toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn the wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the explosion. The sound of shattering glass. The... flames rising out of the flowing gasoline. Alvy(Woody Allen): Right. Well, I have to-- I have to go now, Duane, because I, I'm due back on the planet Earth.

By: Gilbert

Gilbert — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 12:30:09 -0800

Lest it be overlooked, there's also Walken's very special relationship with hot dogs. "When we filmed The Dead Zone, I ate over 800 hot dogs a day. It was necessary."

By: chrisege

chrisege — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 12:34:44 -0800

My all-time favorite search engine referrer for my page is "hot pics of christoper walken."

By: lawtalkinguy

lawtalkinguy — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 12:48:12 -0800

Machaus - that may be my most favorite movie scene ever. A close second is the scene where Duane agrees to drive alvy and his wife to the airport that night. The pan over to Woody Allen's face in the car is priceless.

By: ed

ed — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 13:01:31 -0800

When I first glanced at the thread, for a moment, I thought Walken had passed away. The pivotal Walken moment is also the pivotal Tarantino moment: the scene in True Romance in which Dennis Hopper baits Walken the mobster into a menagerie filled with racial tension. And Walken and Hopper square off against each other like there's no tomorrow (and from one character's perspective, there isn't).

By: Optamystic

Optamystic — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 13:03:42 -0800

From True Romance, (Walken to Dennis Hopper): "...I want you to tell the angels in Heaven that you have never seen evil so singularly personified as you did in the face of the man who killed you." I freakin' love that guy....

By: brucec

brucec — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 13:18:46 -0800

Don't scare me like this anymore timo...when I saw this post I thought he had passed away!

By: timothompson

timothompson — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 13:36:16 -0800

I timothompson, of sound mind and body, swear on the Oprah's Book of the Month, that I shall never, ever, ever, post a Metafilter RIP Thread™! And you can take that to the bank. Sorry for the confusion though...

By: dogmatic

dogmatic — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 13:40:21 -0800

RIP? I thought I came to memepool by mistake!

By: girlhacker

girlhacker — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 13:41:36 -0800

Walken's appearances on Saturday Night Live are always memorable. The one on 10/24/92 is one of my favorite SNL episodes with sketches like Ed Glosser: Trivial Psychic and Walken singing an ode to VD. They created the perfect material for him. And of course there's The Continental.

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 13:53:35 -0800

I really really dug that SNL sketch with him answering the door to the census taker....where he estimates the number of people living in his apartment at around a thousand, and then turns out to be two...him and his wife, who is a bobcat. He was also, of course, counting the plants as people. My other favorite Walken role is the sheer Over-The-Top-ness of Prophecy. "In Hell...You get to eat all the ice cream you want..." "You know why you have that little dent on your upper lip? Because before you were born I put my finger there and said 'Shh!'". Strangely, Prophecy is one of the only movies where he was out-overacted, albeit briefly, by that rather strange individual that played Satan. Last one, Jay Mohr's Christopher Walken-as-meteorologist impression: "Could snow...dunno"

By: starvingartist

starvingartist — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 13:56:27 -0800

Yes, that SNL census skit was funny, but damn! Walken could have learned his freakin' lines! He never once looked at Tim Meadows, his eyes were constantly over Tim's shoulder on the cue cards. I was surprised he wasn't moving his lips to Tim's lines so he could be ready for his next cue. It was funny and embarrassing.

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 14:07:37 -0800

Oh and I love the part in Communion where he is doing that fully whacko bit where he's dressed as a magician in the alien spacecraft. "I am the dreamer...you are the dream." I still kind of get the willies thinking about that little alien head leaning around the side of the wardrobe. "You know, I can see you there..." Since I know you are all so terribly interested in my take on somewhat laughable Whitley Streiber stories made into films, I have to say I kind of like that movie in that it is so...odd. It almost seemed like they were making fun of themselves. And it had terrible terrible Eric Clapton music in it. Sorry to *ahem* probe the subject so deeply.

By: eau

eau — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 14:12:00 -0800

There is also the great SNL sketch where Kevin Spacey plays Christopher Walken trying out for the Hans Solo part in Star Wars. (link) "I'm Captain of.. the Millenium.. Falcon. Chewie here.. tells me.. you're looking for passage.. to the.. alderaan system." That is one of my favorites, and this brought it to mind, even though Christopher Walker isn't actually in it.

By: skallas

skallas — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 14:14:44 -0800

Don't scare me like this anymore timo...when I saw this post I thought he had passed away! You do know he is the walking dead. If he was to pass on the entertainment value will still be there because his impersonators are a lot more fun than he really is.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 14:21:47 -0800

Girlhacker: thanks for that link. That SNL sketch is one of my favorites Comfort of Strangers, that film which takes place in Venice, is also very bizarre/good

By: J. R. Hughto

J. R. Hughto — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 14:43:37 -0800

Was it just me, or did anybody else think Walken's casting as the Hessian in Sleepy Hollow was pure genius? I mean, the savings on make-up alone!

By: girlhacker

girlhacker — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 15:11:20 -0800

I was looking up info for America's Sweethearts because I (heart) John Cusack and noticed that Walken is also in the cast list. I don't know much more about the movie beyond what is in IMDB and the trailer. But with Walken, Cusack and Seth Green, I'll be keeping an eye on it (oh, there are those two whatstheirnames female leads too :-).

By: lpqboy

lpqboy — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 17:30:08 -0800

Christopher Walken rules... I nearly fell out of my seat when I first saw him in a music video. (warning: realmedia) For someone who looks so stiff- that man can really move...

By: Dreama

Dreama — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 17:45:14 -0800

"Weapon of Choice" isn't Walken's first turn in a music video. True Fans (tm) will recall his role as Madonna's semi-guardian angel in the beautifully filmed clip for "Bad Girl." Walken kicks much butt.

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 18:20:01 -0800

I think he was a professional dancer; there's even a film in which he dances (which I haven't seen but heard him talk about on the Actor's Studio on Bravo).

By: clavdivs

clavdivs — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 20:07:50 -0800

funny, Walken sounds nothing like whitly strieber

By: Rebis

Rebis — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 20:10:30 -0800

Don't forget Walken's great performances in the films of Abel Ferrara: King of New York The Addiction The Funeral New Rose Hotel

By: GirlFriday

GirlFriday — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 20:26:42 -0800

Amen to Christopher and his wonderful acting skills. Go see him as the totally random Captain Koons in Pulp Fiction! Bring the kids!
"After the war was over, he paid a visit to your grandmother, his Dad's gold watch. This watch. This watch was on your Daddy's wrist when he was shot down over Hanoi. He was captured and put in a Vietnamese prison camp. Now he knew if the gooks ever saw the watch it's be confiscated. The way your Daddy looked at it, that watch was your birthright. And he'd be damned if and slopeheads were gonna put their greasy yella hands on his boy's birthright. So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide somethin'. His ass."

By: Lynsey

Lynsey — Tue, 10 Jul 2001 18:19:29 -0800

As I posted much, much earlier when we were talking about our summer movie choices & our birthdays, CW & I share the same birthday (March 31) & yes, we do have that ironic, yet wacky Aries humor in common! BTW, please, link lightly; I too thought the worst (he had passed on!) when I first read the link. Thank goodness, it's not true.

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Tue, 10 Jul 2001 20:35:08 -0800

I have an ironic, wacky sense of humor too, yet i'm a sagitarius. how can this be?

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Wed, 11 Jul 2001 18:06:35 -0800

BTW (always late to a thread, me) that Spacey as Walken as Han Solo SNL bit that eau mentioned was streamable from ifilm recently - probably still there somewhere. Comedy gold.