And it is here that the casting of Walken begins to make sense. The standard-issue myth of the plucky little guy taking on the corporation is pervasive and charming, but the reality is Schmeiser must have had a streak of unbendable orneriness a mile wide, to even contemplate a fight with Monsanto's phalanxes of lawyers and bottomless finances. Walken, of course, nails this quality perfectly, presenting Schmeiser as a gritty old bastard of the old school, even while his marriage and his relationships with his family are being fractured by the stress of taking on a scrap that threatens to ruin them all.