The Magnificent McDonaghs
When the McDonagh brothers decide it’s time to make a new film, and when that time happens to be when both of them make a new film, you listen up. Nate Ashley takes us back through the pair’s industry to understand just how we got so blessed in 2022.
John and Martin McDonagh write and direct brutal, foul-mouthed, achingly sad films. Although the brothers have been compared to Quentin Tarantino, over irreverent dialogue and self-aware violence, the McDonaghs do something different. That magnificent darkness exposes the messiness and humanity of their characters.
Born in London to Irish parents, the pair grew up in the English capital whilst spending their summers in their mother’s hometown of Easky, County Sligo, in Ireland. The experience shaped them – both brothers have directed films in Ireland, have repeatedly returned to a small stable of Irish actors, and have explored the complex dynamics of Catholicism.
John was the first to make his foray into film with The Second Death in 2000, a short film starring Irish actor Liam Cunningham as an alcoholic haunted by a missing girl. It may be only 11 minutes long, but it marked his first collaboration with a number of his favourite actors, including Cunningham and David Willmott. It’s a sombre piece, with little in the way of dialogue or answers, but its sense of atmosphere and location (most of the film takes place in a claustrophobic Irish pub) put John on the map.
His next project would be a much bigger affair. John adapted Robert Drewe’s 1991 novel Our Sunshine, which told the story of legendary Australian outlaw Ned Kelly. Gregor Jordan was brought in to direct, with ‘00s heartthrobs Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom starring. However, John quickly left the project, saying “He [Jordan] thought it should be a bad film and I thought it should be a good one.”
2003’s Ned Kelly was a box office flop, earning only $6.6 million globally from a $30 million budget. The experience motivated John, who “figured I could do better than that.” Meanwhile, Martin was about to follow his older brother into the industry with the 2004 short film Six Shooter, starring Brendan Gleeson. It follows a man whose wife has just passed away, only to find himself stuck on a train with an anti-social teenager who may or may not have murdered his mother. Six Shooter features what would become Martin’s trademarks; rambling, expletive-filled monologues punctuating questions about faith and mortality.
Six Shooter won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film, giving Martin the credibility he needed to make his feature-length debut. Telling the story of two hitmen told to lie low in Bruges after a job gone wrong, In Bruges introduced many to the McDonaghs’ signature combination of dark humour, hard men and philosophical musings. It seemed to be a typical British gangster film, with Cockneys, cursing and crime, but beneath the surface it’s something much sadder, a tale of killers who struggle to reconcile their jobs with their respective moral codes.
The film showed a new side to Colin Farrell, previously considered a more traditional leading man, as the jittery, impulsive and frequently idiotic Ray opposite Brendan Gleeson as Ray’s softly spoken mentor. Rounding out the trio is Ralph Fiennes as another gangster, who delivers one of the greatest insults in cinema history. In Bruges achieved almost immediate critical acclaim and financial success, with Roger Ebert giving it 4/4 stars, and making $34.5 million, more than double its original budget, in Britain and the United States.
Having spent several years writing his first feature film, whilst living off the money he made from Ned Kelly, John finally released The Guard in 2011. Taking inspiration from his brother’s casting choices – John has acknowledged there’s a competitive streak between the two – it stars Brendan Gleeson as a racist, corrupt cop more at home with sex workers than crime solving. Problems ensue when he is paired with a Black FBI agent, played by Don Cheadle, to stop a major drug deal going down.
Featuring taboo-smashing comedy (“I’m Irish, sir, racism is in my culture”), combined with a Western-inspired score, full of twanging guitars and Morricone-esque chanting, The Guard won John a BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay, as well as winning the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Though the central duo never become friends – Boyle remains stubbornly prejudiced throughout – it packs an unexpectedly emotional punch, as if daring the audience to sympathise with such a resolutely unpleasant character.
The Guard was the first instalment of John’s so-called ‘Suicide Trilogy’, which is still yet to be finished. His next film would take the theme even further. With Gleeson back in a starring role, Calvary follows a dutiful Catholic priest who is told during confessional that he will be murdered in a week. Although it boasts the same crude humour as The Guard (at one point, Gleeson is asked if he knows what felching is), the tone is far more melancholic, with the priest attempting to set his affairs in order before he dies. Though other films in the McDonaghs’ back catalogue have addressed religion, this is the most potent dissection, as the priest struggles to justify his faith in the face of cynical parishioners and growing distrust of the Church.
Having achieved critical acclaim, Martin opted to widen the scope of his next movie, setting it in Hollywood and casting a number of big names including Christopher Walken and Woody Harrelson. 2012’s Seven Psychopaths stars Colin Farrell as a screenwriter who gets wrapped up in a dangerous world of killers and maniacs, offering a twisty meta-commentary on Hollywood’s obsession with violence and revenge. Although at times its insistence on self-awareness can come off as smug, and Martin struggles to juggle multiple tangentially related storylines, Seven Psychopaths remains a fun, surprisingly soulful film, with Walken turning in one of his funniest and most heartbreaking turns as a pacifist dog-knapper.
Four years later in 2016, John released War on Everyone, set in New Mexico and featuring Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Peña, the latter coming off the back of his breakout role in Marvel’s Ant-Man in 2015. John had been working on the story of a buddy cop film for years, mentioning it while promoting The Guard as a “more commercial” project. Yet even with stars on board, John resisted the call of convention – his leads may be cops but they’re also blatantly corrupt, with Skarsgård’s character admitting he joined the force because “you can shoot people for no reason.” Much like Seven Psychopaths, there’s a sense that it’s a little too glib for its own good, but there’s enjoyment to be had in the off-kilter approach to an otherwise tired genre.
In 2017, Martin released Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, a tale of a mother (Frances McDormand) tirelessly campaigning for justice for her murdered daughter. It proved the most overtly political of Martin’s films, with McDormand accusing the local sheriff (Woody Harrelson) of being “too busy torturing Black folks to solve actual crime.” Yet rather than making Harrelson and his narrow-minded deputy, played by Sam Rockwell, outright villains, Martin opted to humanise them. Harrelson’s sheriff is a weary soul who just wants to spend time with his family, whilst Rockwell’s character undergoes a twisted redemption arc. The film marked a high point for Martin’s career, receiving seven Oscar nominations, with two wins – McDormand was named a much-deserved Best Actress for her uncompromising portrayal of the furious mother, Mildred, whilst Sam Rockwell won Best Supporting Actor.
Although they have never worked together on a film, Martin and John work across shared themes in their work, from religion and guilt to revenge and redemption. But if there is one thing that unites them, it’s making eloquent movies about violent, inarticulate people. 2022 will mark the first time they both have releases in the same year, marking very different steps for the two.
John will be heading to new pastures with The Forgiven, which follows a pair of wealthy travellers in the Middle East, played by Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain, who face the repercussions of accidentally running over a local. Meanwhile, Martin will be returning to his old hunting grounds with The Banshees of Inisherin, which is set in Ireland and reunites In Bruges stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson for a tale of friendship turned sour. Darkness, humour and humanity remains on the horizon.
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