This Christopher Walken War Film Is a Darker, More Brutal ‘The Expendables’

Christopher Walken is the cowbell. He’s the irresistible celebrity impression. Maybe he appears in a comedy as a parody of himself. It’s as if he’s trying to make audiences forget that he’s a tremendous actor, forged in the renewal of American cinema in the 1970s. He won an Oscar for his performance in 1978’s The Deer Hunter, Michael Cimino’s Vietnam War drama. The film’s success fast-tracked production of the similarly themed The Dogs of War, with Walken starring and Cimino slated to direct. The hard-edged thriller follows a group of mercenaries sent to assassinate the dictator of a foreign country, and this actually sounds like a stock military thriller. In one scene, Walken’s character Jamie Shannon is even described as “expendable.” Sylvester Stallone’s 2010 movie The Expendables would almost serve as a remake but for key differences in the story, as well as the level of action.