History Film / WalkHard

%%* CountryMatters

** The Christmas following the film's release saw a "lost" Dewie Cox Christmas single, "For Christmas (The People Want Cox)."

* DuetBonding: Dewey and Darlene.

* IncrediblyLongNote: Dewie and his band hit one in his country western cover of "That's Amore." As [[OverlyLongGag a joke]], of course.

* WaxingLyrical: The first scene of Dewie in the 1960s has him acknowledge societal change with a line (mostly) lifted from "For What It's Worth."

* WereStillRelevantDammit: Invoked during Dewie's career in the 70s, where he jumps on every conceivable bandwagon possible (disco, variety show, jogging).

* {{Jerkass}}: Dewey is selfish and narcissistic; among other things, he cheats on his wife, attempts to marry two women, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking never pays for the drugs]], refuses to take responsibility for raising his many children both legitimate and illegitimate, [[RunningGag never pays for the drugs]], sleeps with his bandmates' wives and girlfriends, [[RuleOfThree never pays for the drugs]], has a homosexual experience with a bandmate that leaves him confused and hurt, and [[OverlyLongGag he never ''once'' pays for the drugs!]]

* FanDisservice: John C Reilly, '''naked'''.

* FirstGirlWins: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with Dewey eventually falling in love with his back up singer Darlene and divorcing his first wife, whom had previously won.

* IncrediblyLongNote: Dewie and his band hit one in his country western cover of "That's Amore." As [[OverlyLongGag a joke]], of corse.

* {{Jerkass}}: Dewey is selfish and narcissistic; among other things, he cheats on his wife, attempts to marry two women, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking never pays for the drugs]], refuses to take responsibility for raising his many children both legitimate and illegitimate, [[RunningGag never pays for the drugs]], sleeps with his bandmates' wives and girlfriends, [[RuleOfThree never pays for the drugs]], has a homosexual experience with a bandmate that leaves the bandmate confused and hurt, and [[OverlyLongGag he never]] ''[[OverlyLongGag once]]'' [[OverlyLongGag pays for the drugs!]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Dewey noticed there's some argument among the Beatles.

** And then there's "Black Sheep," Dewey's attempt to be "artsy," parodying Brian Wilson's breakdown when trying to record ''Music/SMiLE''.

* CreatorBreakdown: In-universe; Dewey's lengthy and bizarre production of his masterpiece during the TheSixties is taken from Music/BrianWilson's infamous ''Music/{{Smile}}'' album.

** It's a subversion of the expectation that explicit male nudity is taboo. The previous shot is after all of the same naked man from behind, to make us think that the nudity is just going to be implied as usual. It then becomes a RunningGag to cut back to the penis as much as possible. In addition, it comes immediately after multiple shots featuring multiple naked women.
** The penis is also clearly identified as belonging to a roadie Bert who had also attended the orgy, performing his duties by asking Dewey if he can get Dewey a coffee (with the audience seeing his butt). Then Bert asks Dewey if he's seen Bert's sandals, with his posture indicating that he's standing and looking around the room for them (with the audience seeing his penis).

* AccidentalSuicide: Dewey tries to reconcile with his father who has not forgiven him for [[AccidentalMurder accidentally killing]] his younger brother by [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe cutting him in half]] with a machete years ago. [[spoiler:The two men end up dueling with machetes and Dewey's father cuts himself in half with his own machete. He does forgive Dewey before he dies though, as he now realizes [[CrossesTheLineTwice how easy it is to cut someone in half with a machete]]]].
* AccidentalMurder: Dewey accidentally killed his younger brother by cutting him in half with a machete as a kid.

-->'''George Harrison:''' It's so dark in this tent, y'know, it reminds me of when we, the Beatles, the four Beatles...\\
'''Paul [=McCartney=]:''' From Liverpool.\\
'''John Lennon:''' We are from Liverpool.\\

* BilingualDialogue: Dewey and record producer L'Chaim have won where Dewey's speaking German and L'Chaim's speaking Yiddish (the two languages '''can''' be mutually comprehensible).

-->''Mailboxes drip like lampposts in the twisted birth canal / Of the coliseum''\\
''Rim job fairy teapots mask the temper tantrum / O' say can you see 'em''

-->''I just close my eyes, when I fantasize''\\

* WordSaladLyrics: Parodied during Dewey's 'Dylan' phase.
-->Mailboxes drip like lampposts in the twisted birth canal of the coliseum
-->Rim job fairy teapots mask the temper tantrum O' say can you see 'em

* HollywoodHeartAttack [[spoiler:The final scene of the film is a still shot of Dewey suffering a fatal heart attack.]]

** "It's marijuana, Dewey. You don't want no part of this shit." "It's cocaine, Dewey. You don't want no part of this shit." "We're doing pills-- uppers and downers. It's the logical next step for you.""I want me some of that shit!"

* HitlerAteSugar: After Dewey's performance of "Let's Hold Hands" causes a moral outcry in the town, the town preacher attempts to justify the song's "immoral" nature;

* FanDisservice: John C Reilly, '''naked'''. [[{{Squick}} Ew.]]
** In the extended cut, this is actually avoided in one scene where an obvious body double with heavily muscular features is used during a sex scene.

* HeroicRRoD: [[spoiler:Dewey dies of a heart attack a mere three minutes after finishing his last performance.]]

** And then there's "Black Sheep," Dewey's attempt to be "artsy," parodying Brian Wilson's CreatorBreakdown when trying to record ''Music/SMiLE''.

* MadArtist: Dewey plays this up in his CreatorBreakdown.

* TheUnintelligible: JackWhite's Music/{{Elvis|Presley}} starts off as mildly mush-mouthed before descending into outright Elvis-sounding gibberish when he and Dewey meet backstage at Dewey's first performance. And as soon as he walks away...

* BilingualDialogue: Dewey and record producer L'Chaim have won where Dewey's speaking German and L'Chaim's speaking Yiddish (the two language '''can''' be mutually comprehensible).

* NakedPeopleAreFunny

* TheComicallySerious: The conceit of the movie is that it looks and feels like a normal music biopic, but has been "hijacked" by popular comedians.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: At the height of his hard drug problem, Dewey starts shouting instead of signing and telling his band to play extremely fast and dissonantly. One of his band members is disgusted by the result -- nobody's ever going to listen to this garbage, especially not with Dewey singing like some kind of "''punk''".

** The penis is also clearly identified as belonging to a roadie who had also attended the orgy, performing his duties by asking Dewey if he can get him anything.