\n<\/p>\n
\n\tMartin McDonagh<\/a> is taking a stand with \u201cWild Horse Nine.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis is probably my most political film. That\u2019s why I find it very exciting to be releasing this monster into the world,\u201d he said at the Zurich Film Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI feel like, in the modern day, there\u2019s perhaps a little too much artistic neutrality, or too much saying nothing, not having an opinion or being apathetic. I\u2019m excited to be doing the opposite with this one.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn his new black comedy, two CIA agents (played by John Malkovich<\/a> and Sam Rockwell) travel to Easter Island before the 1973 Chilean coup. However, it feels surprisingly timely.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSo many things in the present day mirror a lot of those types of interventions in the past. You can actually hear lines that I thought were about 1973 being interpreted by a modern audience as being about Venezuela a few months ago or other places around the world,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe Russia jokes in the film are about their interventions in Finland 100 years ago, but we connect them to Ukraine now. I love that it has a resonance I wasn\u2019t necessarily aware of in the writing of it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMcDonagh, who received A Tribute to\u2026 Award at the fest, looked back on his past during a masterclass.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI left school very young, at 16, and was unemployed for a long time. But with the hopes of being a writer. Part of that was not wanting to have a real job or a boss. That has remained with me until now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n\tHe wrote radio plays, all of which were rejected \u2013 \u201cMostly by the BBC. But I don\u2019t bear a grudge\u201d \u2013 and then became an acclaimed playwright.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAs a film fan, I put all that into the energy of the plays. Things would happen that you wouldn\u2019t usually see on stage. Like cats exploding [in \u2018The Lieutenant of Inishmore\u2019].\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSeeing Al Pacino in \u201cAmerican Buffalo\u201d by David Mamet was a pivotal moment.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI can still remember it to this day. He just came on stage and blew the whole theater away. It was this combination of a play, full of energy and swearing, amazing dialogue and this movie star who, well, you\u2019d realize what acting really was when he was on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMcDonagh still writes \u201cwithout the camera in mind,\u201d but he enjoys the freedom of writing scripts.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s like when you don\u2019t go to the gym for a long time; that\u2019s where my theater brain is at the moment. But the muscle memory is still there.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe transition to cinema wasn\u2019t exactly easy. \u201cIt was the bad rejections that really inspired me. Maybe I thrive not on encouragement, but anger,\u201d he said. Still, his 2004 short \u201cSix Shooter\u201d won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt was probably the scariest situation I\u2019ve been in artistically. But the wonderful thing was having Brendan Gleeson be part of it. He protected me from any interference. I couldn\u2019t have done it without his help and guidance,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n \n\tHe reunited with Gleeson on his hit \u201cIn Bruges,\u201d also starring Colin Farrell, where two hitmen are forced to hide out after a mission gone wrong.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI used to be a hit man. People don\u2019t know that. They thought it just was plays and then films. It was plays, killing and then <\/em>films,\u201d joked McDonagh.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI went to Bruges not knowing anything about it. I was supposed to meet a girl on the second night, and she didn\u2019t turn up. It was this combination of thinking it was the most cinematic, undiscovered town I\u2019d ever seen, and being bored as hell and just wanting to get drunk and get out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOnce again, he felt shielded by his lead actors.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cColin and Brendan were great partners in protecting me from any interference from the grown-ups. Who aren\u2019t usually grown up; they\u2019re children with a lot of money. It\u2019s the nature of Hollywood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI\u2019m going to get in so much trouble. It\u2019s good that it\u2019s not being filmed, right?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMcDonagh tackles serious \u2013 even shocking \u2013 topics in his films, yet somehow they still tend to be funny. But recently, he\u2019s been noticing a change in his work.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI\u2019ve tried to make sure that the films aren\u2019t just about being cool. They\u2019re about something deeper, and I guess more tragic. I\u2019m leaving room for more contemplative scenes where the characters are on their own and it\u2019s not funny. They\u2019re left to think about their lives or dwell on their regrets.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThis was the case with Frances McDormand, who played the grieving mother Mildred Hayes in \u201cThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.\u201d And now with John Malkovich in \u201cWild Horse Nine<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen they\u2019re great actors like Frances or John, you see the sadness in their eyes, and you fill in what they\u2019re thinking about. One of the ideas for John\u2019s character was to give him the entire palette of emotions. You know that John can do comedy, he can do rage and he can do contemplative, quiet stuff. But I\u2019m making sure all those things are together in one package,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cNone of my films are sort of what I would call \u2018Hollywood movies.\u2019 They\u2019re not simple, feel-good stories. When actors of that magnitude who have maybe done some of those films, and know they\u2019re a little empty get to work on something different, it frees them up to show their brilliance.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMcDonagh wouldn\u2019t want to make bigger movies anyway.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWeirdly, I\u2019m really happy with the trajectory or the level of films that I\u2019ve made. I don\u2019t want a bigger budget. I don\u2019t even want more success. I just want to continue making films completely free from any interference from anyone. That\u2019s a perfect position to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n