[1][2][3] The film is intentionally full of postmodern anachronisms, such as helicopters, Zippo lighters, automatic rifles, Diet Coke, magazines and cars.

Walker was released by Universal Pictures on December 4, 1987 to generally polarized reviews and grossed nearly $300,000 against a production budget of $6 million, becoming a box-office bomb.

Afterwards, American multimillionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt offers a job to Walker to bring stability to Nicaragua by assisting the Democratic Party in its civil war against the Legitimists.

From 1855 to 1857, his actions as president become increasingly manic and delusional, with Walker antagonizing his financial backer by revoking Vanderbilt's license to the overland trade route and seizing his ships.

Cut off from supplies and reinforcements, he decides to introduce slavery to Nicaragua in an attempt to gain support among the Southern U.S. states, causing the African-American members of his legion to quit in protest.

As Walker and his men exit the church, singing "Onward, Christian Soldiers", a helicopter arrives filled with American troops clad in modern-day military gear.

Alex Cox first visited Nicaragua in 1984, during the national election campaign for which Daniel Ortega became president, to see if conditions were as bad as the American media had reported.

He later learned of the historical Walker from an article in Mother Jones that was largely about US foreign policy in Central America and decided to bring his story to the screen.

Cox was not interested in making what he called a long, respectful historical drama that would be shown on Masterpiece Theatre because Walker "leads a disastrous misadventure.

"[6] The Guatemalan government, apparently in a desire to please America, held up Cox at the Nicaraguan border for a week with his entire cast and crew, obliterating his budget.

Cox, producer Edward R. Pressman, and leading actor Ed Harris all donated from their own wages in order to bring the film back on track.

"[5] As noted by Roger Ebert in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times: "... anachronisms, guest stars, quixotic poker-faced heroes and utterly pointless scripts", were the hallmark of films helmed by Cox.

[11] Rather, Walker was supported by Vanderbilt's competitors, Charles Morgan and Cornelius Garrison, owners of the Nicaragua Transit Company in his time.

[14] Joe Strummer had worked previously with Cox on Sid and Nancy and Straight to Hell, contributing songs to their respective soundtracks.

[19] However Jay Scott gave the film a positive review in The Globe and Mail, arguing that "Cox exposes the limitations of historical drama in Walker with a calculated disregard of its conventions.

"[21] Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote in The Chicago Reader that the film was "all over the place and excessive, but as a radical statement about the U.S.’s involvement in [Nicaragua] it packs a very welcome wallop...One can certainly quarrel with some aspects of the film’s treatment of history, but with political cowardice in commercial filmmaking so prevalent, one can only admire this movie’s gusto in calling a spade a spade, and the exhilaration of its anger and wit.

"[22] Jim Hoberman praised it in The Village Voice as "a superbly scurrilous and daringly self-destructive attack on the Reagan regime’s Central American policies (and the Monroe Doctrine as well).

In his burlesque retelling the story of William Walker, 19th century “freebooter” who ruled Nicaragua, Cox refuses to recreate the past — or even dignify it.

"[24] Director Alex Cox was never employed again by a major Hollywood studio, and his subsequent films have received only limited distribution in the United States.

[29] The upgraded release will include all of the 2008 DVD's special features along with a "restored high-definition digital transfer, [and an] uncompressed monaural soundtrack," approved by the film's director.