Laziness is not a word any outside observer would prescribe to Martin McDonagh. The 56-year-old British-Irish filmmaker won an Oscar for his very first short film, 2004’s “Six Shooter,” and has been nominated many times since, both for screenwriting and direction via features like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Banshees of Inisherin, and the perennial cult favorite of every contrarian who’s ever tried to ruin your vacation: In Bruges. And before all of those films, his career as a playwright has been similarly celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic.Still, when we bring up the striking overlap between In Bruges and his latest fall festival sensation about professional killers on holiday, Wild Horse Nine, McDonagh initially has one word to explain their similarities: “Laziness.” He even delivers it with a self-deprecating lyricism and chuckle that would do his many misanthropic characters proud. In Bruges and Wild Horse Nine certainly have matching sets of those.cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});Consider that within each of these movies, glorified assassins find themselves in a picturesque setting. In Bruges’ Belgian locale is right there in the title, meanwhile Wild Horse Nine travels to the even more exotic Easter Island (or Rapa Nui in Polynesian); both films also feature their loquacious (and foul-mouthed) fixers waxing poetic about life, death, and the possibility of it all ending on this very excursion; and each film ultimately sees the tourists bring their work with them. And yet, Wild Horse Nine takes a darker, more upsetting left turn than fans might expect.Whereas In Bruges’ antiheroes were underworld veterans suffering from crises of conscience, Wild Horse Nine’s leads played by John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell are all-American CIA field agents. And they’re currently working about 2,200 miles east of Easter Island before the story starts, setting up shop in the heart of Chile because it’s 1973, and the South American country has just elected Salvador Allende, a socialist who Americans like Malkovich’s Chris Carlisle dubbed “the first Marxist” to win a democratic election in the Western hemisphere. Which is why a few weeks after their excursion, Chris, Rockwell’s Lee, and their CIA bureau chief MJ (Steve Buscemi) are going to help orchestrate a military coup that will leave thousands disappeared, tortured, and murdered, including Allende.“I think writing for two grumpy guys, because I’m a grumpy guy, is a natural go-to,” McDonagh says when seriously considering the overlap between his first feature and his latest film. “But I think with this, it’s also pulling a fan of In Bruges into a story that then turns into something that’s much more political and much more somber in places, and maybe that’s part of the thinking: subvert the expected.”As the filmmaker reveals, the project began shortly after releasing his Belgian travelogue laugher, which likewise influenced the rhyming nature of Wild Horse Nine.“It was maybe 15 years ago and it was just after In Bruges had come out, so I was sort of looking for another place that could be a character in a film,” McDonagh says of his Chilean vacation that turned into a makeshift scouting trip. “Rapa Nui gave you that. I was stunned by the island’s beauty once I was there. And then the wild horses started roaming the island, and I realized they had to be part of [a movie] too.” What finally unlocked the story though was lighting on the political dimension to his story of proverbial hitmen in a kind of paradise—not that they’d consider themselves such. Notes McDonagh, “I wouldn’t call these two hitmen, necessarily. They kill a lot of people, but that’s the nature of being in the CIA.”With that said, their story, which takes place when Malkovich’s Chris is facing his own mortality after getting a grim cancer prognosis, is a chance to show new dimensions of McDonagh’s fixations onscreen. Like many of his films, including Banshees of Inisherin, Wild Horse Nine is a bromance between two hard-drinking, hard-laughing guys. But previously it was only in plays like The Lieutenant of Inishmore and Pillowman, both originally staged in the early 2000s, that McDonagh let audiences see his political, even incendiary leanings, particularly in the face of authoritarianism.“I guess as an angry little punk rock kid, all authoritarianism or control by the state, or anyone else, is something [I find should] be always thrown off and fought against,” says McDonagh. “That’s why the plays came out like that. I haven’t really explored that level of politics in any of my films until now… so it’s kind of exciting to have some of that more danger added into this one.”While McDonagh was born in the UK, both of his parents immigrated to Britain from Ireland, and as a child he found himself splitting his youth between the streets of London and County Galway. Nowadays, he does allow the Irishness of his upbringing—an identity often contextualized in the shadow of an empire of its own—probably had an influence on his politics.“Seeing the story from the underdog’s point-of-view is part of it too,” the writer-director notes. “But yeah, the innocence of the hopeful Chileans who were crushed by fascism, I’m sure with my background made me want to talk about that.”As per McDonagh’s usual work, he still tackles it all with a certain gallows humor joie de vivre. Malkovich’s Chris is quite ingratiating, even as a lecherous old man flirting (and reminiscing) with young women like Chilean student and idealist Monica (Mariana di Girolamo).Says McDonagh, “John has that danger. He’s great with comedy but he’s also one of the most subtle actors out there. And you need all three of those on this one, but it’s the subtle stuff I think I love… [going back to] seeing him in True West in my teens.” Malkovich also has to carry the emotional contradictions at the center of the film.“I don’t know about the Americanness of them,” the writer says about the thing that interested him in his main characters. “It’s more the CIA-ness of them. I’ve been fascinated by the through-line of what John’s character has done. He’s been in Guatemala, overthrew that one; in the Congo, helped kill Lumumba. It was just fascinating to continue those truthful lines of what the CIA were up to, and to add on the ‘did they or didn’t they take part in JFK?’ I thought it was just fascinating to connect one person to all of those.”It makes Malkovich’s protagonist an unlikely main character in mid-20th century history, as well as a curious antihero for a movie that seems to preach some degree of revolution in the face of oppressive authority. Although their creator is careful not to let Malkovich or Rockwell’s characters become heroic, even in a comedy.“I think redemption is very hard,” says McDonagh. “I don’t see it that way. A character who has regret or hopes to change is enough for a story, I think, but redemption is too big a judgement call for the things he did and the repercussions of what he caused. I’m not sure it is forgivable.” Still, it might be worth visiting some islands alongside.Wild Horse Nine opens in the U.S. and UK on Nov. 6.The post Martin McDonagh Reveals In Bruges’ Sneaky Influence on Wild Horse Nine appeared first on Den of Geek.