Real post coming up later today.
In the meantime… Below is a screen capture (not an actual YouTube video — don’t (duh) bother clicking the Play button) of the amazing video of Christopher Walken dancing to Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice.”
For the actual video, well, the YouTube version (as sometimes happens) has had its “embedding disabled by request,” i.e., it can’t actually be pasted into a blog post. So just go here to see it.
I’d forgotten how much I liked this when it came out. The reminder today came from Kate Lord Brown’s What Kate Did Next blog.
P.S. Obviously, the planned four-day absence I mentioned last week didn’t materialize. I’ll keep the little stack of posts about figures of speech in a back pocket, to use as needed.
s.o.m.e. 1's brudder says
anyone doubting Walken’s dancing cred, need only see this. however, two other images also come to mind – why didn’t he do something like this for his “Han Solo” audition, it would clearly have ramped up his “cool” factor. And the second is – could you imagine a scene of “Nick” from The Deer Hunter dancing to “Stuck in the Middle With You” by Stealer’s Wheel with revolver and one bullet in hand? NOW THAT would be a movie scene!
John says
@s.o.m.e. 1’s brudder – Know what you mean. This is evidence that his career — if he’d wanted it to — could have gone in any of a dozen different directions.
Another way to look at it (I know you’re a fan of perspective): Imagine any of his “serious” movies where he suddenly broke into song and dance. Deer Hunter; Pennies From Heaven; Catch Me If You Can; even Sleepy Hollow. Bruce Willis’s father’s friend in the Pulp Fiction flashback. Good though those flicks were, Walken unexpectedly starting to tap… tap… tap… would have automatically elevated them to the plane of… of… let’s say Daliesque art.
marta says
Oh, I love this video! Thanks for reminding me of it.
John says
@marta – I read somewhere that Walken supposedly had so much fun making it, he felt guilty about being paid for it.
Also read that when he helped choreograph it, he based some of the moves on the way he’d observed raccoons moving!
John says
@marta – P.S. If you’re still reading this thread… meant to suggest that you stop in at the What Kate Did Next blog I linked to in this post. The entries there are nothing like yours, needless to say, but the author does do the little “close with a question for writers” thing.
Kate says
Hi – great blog, and thank you for the link. Isn’t Mr Walken just the cat’s pyjamas? Every time I recheck the blog, can’t help but click on the link … best wishes Kate
John says
@Kate – Very nice to see you here — thanks for stopping in!