A pair of CIA agents are sent to Easter Island, where their loyalties are tested by a pair of rebellious students.
Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Martin McDonagh
Starring: John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Mariana di Girolamo, Ailín Salas, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, Parker Posey
With 1966's El Dorado, Howard Hawks famously rehashed the formula of his earlier western masterpiece Rio Bravo, essentially simply swapping in new characters while maintaining the general setup. Sting lookalike Martin McDonagh has done something similar with Wild Horse Nine, which is very much the El Dorado to his 2008 breakout In Bruges's Rio Bravo. Like the earlier film, Wild Horse Nine sees two professional killers have something of an existential crisis while visiting a distinct locale. It feels like McDonagh is copying his own homework here (and arguably that of Elaine May: McDonagh's film almost plays like a mashup of Ishtar and Mikey & Nicky), but his latest film passes the test nonetheless.
In this case the killers are of the state sanctioned variety. It's 1973 and CIA spooks Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell) are based in Santiago, where they have been successfully working on setting up the coup that will displace the current Chilean leader Salvador Allende in September of that year. Chris is dying of cancer and as a Catholic has begun to worry that he may not get into heaven considering the many acts of violence he has committed throughout his career, which might even include the assassination of JFK. He wishes to go out on his own terms but his religious beliefs prevent him from taking his own life. So, Chris asks Lee if he can do the grisly honours while on a trip to Easter Island.
By the time the two men get to Easter Island, Chris has mentally deteriorated so badly that Lee is unsure if he even remembers his morbid request. Chris is losing his memory, but he keeps a note in his pocket reminding him not to trust Lee. He's correct, as Lee is under orders to seize the dictaphones on which Chris has been recording his potential memoirs. He has also been ordered to find the rifle that Chris is believed to have used to kill JFK, and if necessary, to kill Chris before he can go public with his confession.
There are several allusions to the Western in McDonagh's film, and the dynamic between its two leads is straight out of that genre. There is much grappling with paranoia and mistrust between Chris and Lee, but at the same time it is clear that these are two men bonded by a strong friendship. At one point Lee even jeopardises the lives of his ex-wife (Parker Posey) and children to do what he believes is the right thing by his buddy. The idea of the bad man who reckons with his misdeeds when he hears the clip clop of Death's stallion gaining on him is a classic Western trope, and Malkovich's performance gives it a new dimension here. The veteran actor manages to make his character objectively vile and yet subjectively sympathetic. It's said that we regress to infancy just before we die, and there is indeed something childlike in Malkovich's performance. His Chris is one of the most innocent guilty men to grace the screen.
What's most notable about Wild Horse Nine is how it's a suspense thriller in which the suspense doesn't revolve around whether its protagonists live or die. Chris and Lee are so far gone that they deserve whatever might be coming to them, and they would be the first to accept that, so we're not exactly invested in their survival. Instead the creeping dread comes not from the scenario in the movie, but how it relates to our own worrying times. With the unwelcome return of nuclear anxiety, there is a growing feeling in this moment that the world is on the brink of something awful, that we're all about to become the victims of the machinations of men like Chris and Lee.
McDonagh's film is very funny, thanks to the comic timing of its cast and McDonagh's witty banter, but it is also chilling. There is a scene in which Chris warns a young Chilean woman (Mariana di Girolamo as the film's only true innocent) of the horrors that he has orchestrated for her country that will send a shiver up your spine. Make no mistake, there are men like Chris working hard right now to dismantle your life, but they won't offer you a warning. The idea that such men can feel remorse is pure fiction. Wild Horse Nine is a film for our uncertain times.
Wild Horse Nine is in UK/ROI cinemas from November 4th.
