Wild Horse Nine, Martin McDonagh’s latest film, takes place in a wider, international political arena, yet it is one of his most intimate portraits of male friendship. Chris Carlisle (John Malkovich) and Lee Chesterfield (Sam Rockwell) are CIA agents stationed in Chile doing their part to destabilize democracy. The year is 1973, and Salvador Allende is still president, but the future does not look bright. Neither does it for 72-year-old Chris, who is dying of cancer. Chris and Lee set out to spend a week on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to see the moai, the large stone figures on the island. Cinematographer and longtime collaborator with McDonagh (Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, The Banshees of Inisherin) Ben Davis captures the verdant beauty of the island where wild horses roam, surrounded by the blue waters of the Pacific. Against this idyllic background McDonagh explores themes of morality, friendship, loneliness, and redemption.
John Malkovich soars as Chris, provocative and witty, ready to riff on any topic in his resonant voice, a gleam of mischief in his eyes as he says out loud the things no one wants to hear, least of all his friend and partner Lee. Chris appears unconcerned about the moral implications of his past actions, as he enumerates his “success” in different countries. McDonagh and Malkovich accomplish an astonishing feat of writing and performance creating in Chris a character who under most circumstances would be abhorrent and despised, and making him so appealing and likeable.
The dynamic between Chris and Lee is at once hilarious and poignant, as they recall their respective violent pasts, contemplate mortality, and contend with the complicated predicament of the present. There is a sense of friendly competition between them, as the elder Chris crows “I was killing people before you were born.” Yet as Chris becomes increasingly unpredictable, Lee is concerned and tries to rein in his friend. Frustrated, surprised, and tender by turns, Rockwell is fun to watch as he responds to Chris’s verbal extravagance, and when he aches in sorrow, his pain is palpable.
Chris is composing his memoirs, and the possibility of secrets coming out is making bureau chief MJ (a quirky and ominous Steve Buscemi) very anxious. Chris has also been losing his memory and writes notes to himself to remember crucial matters. The musings and rambling memoir that Chris dictates offer insight into his inner thoughts and fears as he confronts death, yet here too, his imaginative, feisty spirit prevails.
Lee watches over Chris, but fissures begin to open in their relationship as the lines between caring and controlling blur. Contributing to the confusion and intrigue is the acquaintance Chris strikes up with two earnest, feminist, student travellers, Monica (Mariana Di Girólamo) and Alicia (Ailín Salas). Tom Waits makes a brief, yet memorable appearance as Chris’s brother Jim, and Parker Posey brings a splash of whimsy as Lee’s occasionally straying wife Marge – when he asks her how the kids are, she says, “Who cares?”
McDonagh excels in creating empathy for characters who might otherwise simply be seen as villains, and in finding humor in the worst aspects of human behavior. Yet even while laughing out loud at the outrageous things the characters say or do, the critique of fascism and American intervention in the regimes of other countries is a strong presence in the film. As Chris confronts his death, he becomes more reflective yet never loses his swagger. He also never loses his pessimism (realism?), and in line with the worlds McDonagh creates, there is not much hope for humanity. From Chris’s perspective brute power will always prevail, there will always be more of them, but even confronting death, one can always make the choice to trust, to be open to empathy, to resist and “die with the wind in your hair.”
Wild Horse Nine
UK/USA/Chile/118 min/English
Written and directed by Martin McDonagh; Cinematography: Ben Davis; Editor: Mikkel E. G. Nielsen; Music: Carter Burwell; Cast: John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Mariana Di Girolamo, Ailín Salas, Tom Waits, Parker Posey
