shoot the sun down

In 1978, the same year Christopher Walken would rise to national prominence in The Deer Hunter, he also starred in an odd, wandering western tale as Mr. Rainbow, a bounty hunter with a heart of gold who becomes the de facto protector of an indentured servant (Margot Kidder, starring in Superman the same year as well) while on a hunt for Montezuma’s gold. A thesis project for director David Leeds – who dropped out of UCLA to complete it – Shoot the Sun Down is an unfortunate mess that probably never should have made it to theaters. But 36 years later, it does capture everything about Walken that makes him such a unique actor and so much fun to watch on screen…even when he’s dressed up like the world’s most uncomfortable cowboy.

The film was originally released as Sante Fe 1836, a reference to the Alamo, which pops as a throwaway joke in the finale. But under any title Leeds’ film is a collection of western clichés cut together with no rhyme or reason. Scenes fade to black just as they get interesting. Accents come and go. Bullet holes and arrow strikes have all the impact of a squeezed ketchup packet. And the story meanders from one character to the next, refusing to let the audience get into any sort of narrative flow.

These are the kind of mistakes one should expect from a student film, which is more of less what this really is (Leeds never went on to make another movie). So disregarding the aforementioned litany of cinematic mistakes, there’s one thing Shoot the Sun Down gets right: Christopher Walken. Although one is never fully convinced his frontier survival skills are authentic – the New York accent and general cleanliness are a dead giveaway – his thousand-yard stare and oddly syncopated dialogue delivery still mark him as slightly off, slightly mysterious and more than a little dangerous.

Of course, that’s all Walken. The film around him does its best to rearrange references to Leone, Kurosawa and Jodorowsky’s El Topo in no particular order. But there’s nothing experimental or even interesting at work. Ultimately Shoot the Sun Down will be remembered, if it’s remembered at all, for its accidental discovery of an actor who make every role he plays seem like it was written just for him. Now that’s some fancy shootin’.

Kino Classic’s remastered blu-ray features a restored director’s cut, although what was added or deleted from theatrical prints isn’t quite clear. The image is nice overall, but the disc could use some more extras besides the alternate title sequence, which includes a theme song by Kinky Friedman. A commentary might have made all the difference. There’s some more background on the production here if you’re on the fence.