'Wild Horse Nine' Provides an Engrossing, Mournful Analogy
The quiet parts are spoken aloud. Martin McDonagh makes a spiritual follow-up to In Bruges with strong political connotations against the US. The dialogue is piercing, funny, then unsettling, painting the picture of a world that could one day be ours. The setting is an allegory, and it’s easy to see McDonagh dusting off his angry commentary, even though he's said all of this before. If you're unfamiliar with McDonagh’s work, you’ll be drawn in by its dark sense of humor. The movie might feel familiar to fans of his work, but that doesn’t make it any less impactful. Its meaning runs deep, but its nihilism doesn’t. There’s still a way to fix the world. We can’t give in to our protagonist's despair, or we will suffer like them.
Wild Horse Nine invites the audience to judge a character who is almost entirely unsympathetic. In what might be the role of his career, John Malkovich plays Chris Carlisle, a retiring CIA Officer who’s losing his memory. Chris is filled with hatred and self-loathing. Yet he can’t reverse the mistakes he’s made. Malkovich is given long monologues that play into his peculiar persona. If someone told you the things he discloses to random strangers, they’d think he’s nuts. And they’d be right. He is. But people in charge sometimes can be.
Set in the days before the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, Chris Carlisle is sent on a weekly retirement trip to a place of his choosing. That location is the Eastern Islands. Before Chris dies, he wants to see the Moai (the big heads). Fellow CIA Officer Lee Chesterfield (Sam Rockwell) joins him on this trip. But his intentions aren't what they seem. Chris has a terrible secret. As his memory fades, that secret could come out. The CIA needs him to confiscate Chris’ memoirs. What Chris has done throughout his career is monstrous. He’s killed people for the government, racking up to the sixties in body count. Never able to see the big picture until the end, Chris has always been used as a tool of destabilization instead of democratization. As bad as he feels and as many lives as he tries to save, Chris Carlisle isn’t a good person. Nor does the movie try to make him one. McDonagh is just asking the audience to listen to what Chris has to say. Sadly, saying “America has always been shitty” is an oversimplification. America has always done terrible things, from slavery to internment camps to today. But we’ve had monumental victories and years of peace. I do understand what McDonagh is getting at. Democracies fall. Still, this much despair isn’t necessary. Life’s not just so sad all the time that we should just inject heroin into our arms to numb the pain.
If Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri was a warning sign of where America is headed, Wild Horse Nine is the eulogy. It’s too late. The government will be overthrown, and the best thing you can do is hide. The Chilean President is popular. So were so many other leaders who aspired to do good but ended up dead. Without our investment in the characters and some great humor, the movie’s bleakness would be too much to bear. While Malkovich does all of the emotional heavy lifting, Sam Rockwell is played like a comic sidekick. He’s almost two-dimensional, but has a heart for Chris only he can understand because they’ve both shared the same soul-sucking job. Yet what’s their reward for doing it? McDonaugh’s brand of humor is a dice roll. It’s dark, but tasteful. He can joke about killing kids in a movie and make it work in context. Look no further than using a heroine injection in the arm as a punchline. Not many writers know how to balance tone with context like that.
The movie plays as a character piece wrapped around a spy thriller. What draws the audience in is the oddness of John Malkovich’s character. All the spy elements of the plot are written around the character. We want to know who’s following whom and what big secret Chris can’t tell the audience. But it’s all wrapped around a person whose aspirations killed his morality. He’s a mournful thesis on humanity’s ambition. Instead of asking why he does something, he takes the paycheck, lying to himself that what he’s doing is for the greater good. There is no good in murder. And according to Chris Carlisle, protesting is pointless. Nobody in power listens until their life is in danger. That philosophy works for the character, but how often has history shown that execution leads to positive results? Chris, of all people, should know. When the film presents its big reveals, they're predictable, clever, and kind of mind-blowing.
It may echo Martin McDonagh’s other work, but Wild Horse Nine is worth seeing. Even if its mean spirit isn’t shared, its sentiment is. We can be better to each other instead of craving power and ignoring our hearts. We’re all connected to this universe, whether person, animal, or insect. There’s a soul to this movie that, if you look hard enough, you may find it.
Wild Horse Nine releases in theaters on November 6
