Great words are the Crown Jewels of the movie business, and no one delivers them quite like British writer/director/producer Martin McDonagh. His films like The Banshees of Inisherin, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Seven Psychopaths illustrate his great way with words as well as his wicked and dark sense of humour. His work is awash with recognition by the industry and includes Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA awards.
Those words also bring out the absolute best in his actors, and the screenplay for Wild Horse Nine gives John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, and Steve Buscemi ample fuel for greatness. The ability to create characters that skirt the fine line between being bigger than life and being totally believable is one of McDonagh strongest traits.
Set in the seventies, Malkovich and Rockwell both give career-defining performances as two world-weary CIA operatives who take a break from fieldwork and visit Easter Island. This is not a vacation, and the reason for the visit is disclosed slowly. The horrors of their wet work are discussed so matter-of-factly, it’s easy to see them as people and not the monsters they actually are.
The film’s anti-American Imperialism stance underlines every word with a strong sense of menace. It also demonstrates the misguided sense of self-righteousness that was US foreign policy in the seventies. A policy that still exists today to the planet’s detriment. This is filmmaking at its finest; it might not be a work for everybody but those that it connects with will be rewarded with vast riches.
Rob Hudson
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