MovieChat Forums > Employee of the Month (2006) Discussion > Who was David Walsh (Matt Dillon), reall...

Who was David Walsh (Matt Dillon), really?

posted 19 years ago by Kolobos51
5 replies | jump to latest

(Spoilers)
It seems to me that David Walsh was actually the sensitive, thoughtful guy he was in the majority of the movie, not the stone cold sociopath of the ending. As near as I can tell, at the end of the movie he was just posturing for Wendy and to some extent himself. When you take into account his voice over narration, his fantasy about killing his fellow robbers and being the hero for real, and his speech to the hooker, I think on some level he wanted to be the good guy he was supposedly just pretending to be. At the end, after he chose to be the bad guy, he was trying to show Wendy that was who he really was. He also may have been trying to convince himself too which is why it seemed so over the top and unnatural. [Seriously, the "You burn me, I burn you" line was ridiculous] Anyone agree?

[–] clapboard 19 years ago

You may be over analyzing it. I would take Dillon's character at face value. I seriously doubt he was a "good guy" underneath. In fact, none of the main characters where good guys (or girls) underneath since each one had no qualms about "burning" the other. Greed for money makes people do funny things. And in the case of Dillon's character it was greed AND revenge.

“All of these moments will be lost in time...like tears in the rain” Blade Runner

[–] Dazeto12 19 years ago

I think he was the type of guy who bottles up all his anger until a really bad day comes along when he finally snaps.

[–] johnny_calhoun 19 years ago

Jack(Steve Zahn) was the only character I sympathized with. I may be trying to justify his actions, seeing as how he was my favorite character(And actor out of the select cast). But he was one of the few that didn't screw over his friends. After all, him burning David(Matt Dillon) wasn't Jack's fault.

[–] pensivewon 14 years ago

What I gathered is Matt Dillon and Steve Zahn's characters were really a-holes through out. In the hotel room, right after the robbery, Matt Dillon's character says to Zahn's character, "I've been telling you for the past two years how this would play out, even down to stupid news woman calling me a hero". I believe there some things that happened to the "plan" along the way that they did not count on, like Dillon supposedly falling in love with Applegate.

I had dueling feelings when Dillon offed Zahn. As they were leading up to it, I knew one was going to kill the other...I just did not know who was going to kill who. The way Zahn was like, "You are just my best friend; only friend...I just..." was way TOO sappy for a character who feels love is like believing in Bigfoot and all. I really felt he was going to shoot Dillon at some point. And yes, Zahn was a big a-hole because I believe he was the one who shot "Chicken" (the guy with a big hole in his head in the hotel bath tub). Zahn's character did screw over his "friends".

[–] HollowScar 12 years ago

It was unbelievable to the point where I suspect that the writers had one idea about how to make this movie, and then they changed it to give it some twists to make it like Wild Things. This is even more evident since Matt Dillon is the lead, there is lesbo/bi scenes, and the whole double crossing parts.

That's why it's strange that you feel sorry for the guy and look at him as a hero, and then the twist comes on, and you see that him and all of the characters are different. This sucks cause Dillon's inner narration and personality contradicted his actions, and it's more or less the writers errors in display.