After several films it would be fair to say that fans (and naysayers) of Martin McDonagh know what to expect from his work. His quick growing resume all seem to hold the same dark provocative style and humor that has earned him great acclaim. McDonagh seems to bask in the bleak outlook of life creating often pitch perfect screenplays of bickering people forced to work together trying to navigate a brutal and violent world that they greatly contribute to. Whether it be the friends to adversaries of “The Banshees of Inisherin” or adversaries to (somewhat friends) of “The Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri” McDonagh seems to have great love for despicable people. But the big question is if that love goes beyond the page, after all his characters are not easy to warm up to. His latest film WILD HORSE NINE may not have what first appears to be the most heinous of a duo right off the back but as the film reveals its characters it becomes clear that this is the film McDonagh has been building up to for quite some time. It requires you to spend some cinematic time with not just two killers but two men who have spent their life playing cowboy under the guise of stability. American CIA agents who even in their most reflective of moments still have the audience questioning if people who have spent their life destroying democracy in secret deserve to have a peaceful goodbye. A film of complexity not just for its willingness to follow alongside such grotesque humans but more so to question your own place in the fight for freedom. To question how much of your time was spent amongst the destroyers when you should have been spending time with horses. A creature that recognizes the pain and suffering of mankind but chooses to run free until it is chased down to be controlled.
Easter Island seems like a good place to relax. At least that is the intentions for CIA agent Chris (John Malkovich) a company man who in his time with the agency has seen the destabilizing of governments for decades. Chris has been at the forefront for every major turn of event of the 60’s always playing a destructive role. He was there long enough to call Patrice Lumumba a friend all before helping with his assassination, he was there in Guatemala to make sure a military coup found its way to success, Cuba to him seemed like a cake walk and much to Chris’s bragging he seemed to have played quite a role in Dallas for Kennedy’s assassination. But Chris is tired, his mind is working against him and in his 70’s is still finding himself working for overbearing bosses ready to pull a trigger at any moment. His latest atrocity is overwatching the people of Chile as he helps orchestrate the upcoming September 11th coup which would lead to the fall of their first democratically elected socialist president that would also lead to the deaths of over 40,000 people. It is incredibly devastating material and McDonagh never avoids the idea that using this as a backdrop is never meant to be playful historical fiction but rather all too real outcomes of government agencies playing god.
But Chris cannot go on his little vacation on his own. His partner Lee (Sam Rockwell) is not just there as his companion but more so to watch over Chris and make sure he doesn’t spew too much truth of his past. Their boss MJ (a brutally hysterical Steve Buscemi) has heard word of a memoir, and he and the agency want to make sure Chris doesn’t share his Dallas role. But for the time Easter Island is meant to be a distraction. Instantly we are shown that neither Chris or Lee know how to relax. Sure they have the ability to distract themselves from the upcoming travesties but there constant bickering and one upping each other seems to be the only basis of their relationship. Their conversations involve comparing who has killed more people, how to make the perfect Molotov cocktail and most importantly what their next stage is to be. Rockwell and Malkovich have the kind of chemistry you’d expect in a mid 2000’s Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson comedy, just two angry beings with enough love to share through their hatred towards one another. But with McDonagh’s precise and biting dialogue it is both at times hysterical and always uncomfortable just to know two angry souls like this are working in the shadows for America’s “benefit.” Malkovich as Chris is trying to find some of the more peaceful moments of life on Easter Island but he spends his time questioning the purpose of the Moai (and ridicules anyone who refers to them by their indigenous name only calling them “big heads”) as well as trying to remember why he even wanted to come to Easter Island in the first palce. Rockwell doesn’t have to play Abbott to Malkovich’s Costello but instead be just as bumbling and irate as his partner. It doesn’t help that his wife at home (Parker Posey) spends her days sleeping with other men but has plenty of time to call Lee to inform him they may be under surveillance. Lee’s realization that Chris’ loose lips could come back to hurt him and his family allows Rockwell to perform Lee as a man both deeply angry but justifiable afraid.
WILD HORSE NINE even at its most empathetic never wants to distract itself from the idea that Chris and Lee are dangerous. Chris is trying to reconcile with age and a possible death using his memoir to talk more about dinosaurs and if they have souls then outrightly talk about his roles in destroying countries. WILD HORSE NINE is not just the first time in a long time the page gives Malkovich something deep to work with it but also just a reminder that maybe even Malkovich himself has not been this engaged in quite some time. It is far from a reserved role although Chris wants to believe he has become more somber, but those moments of rage not only bring out the Malkovich that dominated 90’s cinema but also just shows that the agent never leaves the man. Chris is an angry son of a bitch and even as time gets closer to the end no solace of a beach can bring him peace. And it is not hard to understand why. Chris knows what is coming to Chile making it all the more devastating when he befriends Monica (Mariana di Girolamo) a young college student exploring the island out of respect for its indigenous history. Monica is hopeful if not naïve. Monica and her newly made friend Alicia (Ailín Salas) who met at a women’s march believe talking and protesting can make great change. For Chris who has seen all the behind the scenes carnage knows this to be bullshit. His protection of secrecy continues to slip as he both antagonizes and intrigues Monica of his warnings of what is to come advising her that marches don’t help, but there will come a time where she must run for her life or at the very least fight and die before being taken away. It would be easy to be uncomfortable with McDonagh taking the genocide that occurred in Chile and using it to tell a story of two White American men, and while that still can be true it is clear that McDonagh knows he has no other way to tell such a story. A British born Irish man himself, McDonagh most likely does not feel it is his place to use Moncia as a stand-in for all young liberal Chilean people. Even as a film co-distributed by an American company it seems to understand its place in being a storyteller while also doing its best to pay respects (side note it is nice to see Chilean filmmaker Pablo Laraín’s name in the credits as a producer).
But the story continues to be told whether it be by the right characters, and for Chris, Monica doesn’t necessarily represent hope but rather one last stance against things he never stood up for or maybe simply didn’t care enough for. Mariana di Girolamo (who is best known for her work with Larraín in 2019’s criminally underrated ‘Ema’) is an absolute star using Monica to tell a fast paced story of pacifist to someone who gets an all too real lesson in what it means to fight back. McDonagh’s films have always glided along political intentions mainly due to its call out of hypocrisy both within organizations as well as calling out men who blame violence on all their problems yet have no issue pulling a trigger themselves. One could argue that McDonagh does find some cinematic enjoyment in a gun shot after all even WILD HORSE NINE basks in moments of tension that comes from a bullet being released into someone. But HORSE is clearly his most political stance on where justice is never served. He just chooses to tell it through the most unappealing of people, and frankly it is because he knows it works. Are there ways to enjoy Chris and Lee as humans? I suppose so mostly due to human beings wanting to feel empathy and Malkovich for all his anger knows how to sell fragile old man. But the film also can sell this because it does not want you to feel safe with Chris. There is very little chance that even with this trip down memory lane that Lee can be changed, but it is even more so clear that Chris is long gone. Whether it be helping Monica, his memoirs or his encounter with a calm and mysterious horse that can see into his soul there is still little to no chance of redemption for Chris. A man who found success in destroying and killing others and while WILD HORSE NINE is far from the first (nor will it be the last) film to follow alongside brutal men it does find itself in the same realm of the westerns where the cowboy gets to decide when it all ends after the cows come home.
There is however a more important discussion on if anyone is willing to accept that final moment of peace. McDonagh thankfully doesn’t fully leave it up to the audience to decide and frankly you should be afraid of anyone willing to give these two men some leeway. But McDonagh and his cinematographer Sergio Armstrong film this in a way that can be seen as something far more beautiful than Lee and Chris deserve. Using a blend of striking digital and Super 8 cannon film, WILD HORSE NINE even at its most destructive has a sense of calmness to it. Perhaps that is due to that peace has to come somewhere or even the bleakest of hearts would feel overwhelmed. Or perhaps in a more frightening manner it is the last sense of peace the people of Chile will have before the pain begins. Malkovich and Rockwell may get to play Chris and Lee as two people so far removed from the emotional devastation of what is to come but there is always a sense driven by these two performers that their own personal pain will coincide with the work that is said to be done. Lee’s political opinions never get to be revealed as someone with a lot of time to go but Chris is choosing to seek a rebirth as he gets closer to death’s door. It is a cheap way out that McDonagh has no problem addressing but in ways that are far gentler than the violent ends Chris had so many people meet. Instead horses, the breeze and the grass become a guide to what may or may not be a final swan song for this duo. When looking at Chris and Lee as stand-ins for decades of CIA atrocities than WILD HORSE NINE is almost kind to them, but as characters Chris and Lee get to live out their own western believing that even if they are not welcomed with open arms when they finally return home they can rest knowing the job was done because for cowboys its far easier to look out onto the horizon then ever deal with what you left behind.
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WILD HORSE NINE SCREENED AT THE 35th PHILADELPHIA FILM FESTIVAL. IT WILL BE RELEASED IN THEATERS FROM SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES NOVEMBER 6
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