This Part Two of my three-part essay on the works of Martin McDonagh.
"In Bruges" The Movie or Dvd
Irish Names And Meanings
Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson turn in truly superior performances as two hit men on the lam in Bruges, Belgium, of all places. Colin Farrell's Ray is none too bright, comical, guilt-ridden, immature, and he suffers from a hair-triggered hot temper. As he clownishly mugs his way straight through the early part of the movie, pouting and sulking like the kid he is, his face becomes a rubbery map expressing his utter disdain for the cultural beauties of Bruges while his thick black eyebrows dance up and down mirroring his mood changes. By shooting a blank in a man's eye, he starts a chain of sure events that lead to tragedy.
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Gleeson's Ken, sensitive, bright, also funny, falls in love with the architectural charm of the medieval city. For brief moments it's a Laurel and Hardy romp in the middle of the two men. There are striking shots of the city throughout the movie. Why is Ken chaperoning Ray anyway? Early on, touristy Ken is on top of a tower. With his hand he makes an imaginary gun and pops one off on the cloddish Ray down at street level.
Hilarious is the scene in which three obese American tourists ask Colin about going up in the tower. He ends up being chased by the father and dancing around him. His acting brilliance is clear throughout the movie as he plays a character akin to the one he played in "Cassandra's Dream."
Ray falls for a girl who is part of a movie business filming in Bruges, a business that includes a dwarf, a character that becomes crucial to the plot. Rays says, "They're filming midgets." Drugs, sex, and jealousy are introduced, and Ray's fateful journey proceeds a few more paces into inevitability like a Greek tragedy that cannot end until all is settled.
Late in the movie Ralph Fiennes turns in a great execution as a manic, rabid killer-boss.
The movie was written and directed by Martin McDonagh. For those familiar with his plays on Broadway and elsewhere ("The Lieutenant of Inishmore," "The Pillowman," "The Cripple of Inishmaan"), they will know enough to expect theater of the absurd inane dialogue, wild swings in the middle of the comic and the violent, lots of blood and gore, black comedy, and brilliant story set-ups and plotting.
I watched the Dvd in widescreen (not bad), but I turned on the English subtitles because Farrell's Irish brogue defies quick comprehension by the uninitiated. This is a masterful movie, but be aware it's violent and bloody. But awfully funny too. Black comedy, anyone?
"In Bruges" The Screenplay
I reviewed the Dvd In Bruges as well as a number of writer/director Martin McDonagh's black comedies which entertain audiences with their absurdist, inane dialogue and then shock them with violence, blood and gore. Ray and Ken are two hit men sent by Harry, their none-too-swift violent boss, to the city of Bruges, Belgium, a place full of medieval splendor with its 300 foot bell tower. Ray has botched his first hit by killing an innocent child, and Ken is sent with him as a minder.
Ray played by Colin Farrell in the film is more clownish and mugs for the camera which doesn't come over if you just read the script. Ray detests historic Bruges while Ken loves it and is a sightseer who insists that Ray see the cultural delights of the town including Bosch's painting "The Last Judgment."
Every one of the series of actions and each character in the movie contribute to the sure tragic ending. Nothing is irrelevant; all is interconnected and tied together just as in a Euripides play.
A film crew is filming in the town; the crew includes Chloe, a drug dealer, whom Ray falls for and a dwarf named Jimmy. Ray's violent nature is key to his downfall. He mindlessly attacks two men who later get back at him in very considerable ways. At times Ray is guilt-ridden and suicidal.
The final scenes of the film are bloody and deadly. The death or defiling of a child are central to the story's action. The manner in which the key characters cross paths toward the end of the movie is fascinating. It's a brilliant piece of screenwriting because it has the inevitability of Greek tragedy.
Even in the direst gun face-off McDonagh can't resist introducing his inane dialogue riffs that are his hallmark a vital part of his black comedy, his absurdist envelope. Two men about to kill one someone else engage in a comic habit they are unaware of, just as in characters in Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" are unaware of their absurdist dialogue.
In one scene men are talking about life and death and incredibly get complicated in a conference about the inequity in semantics in the middle of nooks and crannies versus alcoves.
Ken has some nobility and helps Ray to leave for a time. Each major character has a streak of morality but not nearly enough to constitute a full conscience. A series of coincidences and opening meetings play into the tragedy.
McDonagh's work requires an acquired taste, but in this movie he has moved onto a larger audience. In his plays I think there's too much that is absurd and off-putting to find a large normal audience, and he'd never be able to garner a sympathetic audience.
"The Lieutenant of Inishmore"
In June of 2006 I saw the Broadway yield of "The Lieutenant of Inishmore." The eight character play has more blood and gore fabulous the stage than any play I have ever seen. After the intermission the stage was littered with dismembered body parts and blood splashed over everything as two Mutt and Jeff characters played amateur butchers.
In this black comedy the words black (more violent) and comedy (more farcical) take on new meanings. The dialogue in the play, funny and inane, is right out of the theater of the absurd or theater of the ridiculous.
The characters in this play are dimwits, off-the-wall nutcases. Donny, for example admits to trampling on his Mam. His son Padriac, the self-anointed lieutenant, a certifiable homicidal, sadistic psychopath who cares more for his cat Wee Thomas than he does any human being, reminds his father "There's no statute of limitations on Mam trampling." The play is full of surprises, shocks to the system, awe, ironic twists, and over the edge humor. The ending is a expert stroke.
Ironically Padriac had to form a terrorist splinter group because he is too violent for the Ira. He is betrayed by his former terrorist brethren who act like the Three Stooges.
One girl in the piece, Mairead, entertains herself by shooting out the eyes of cows.
In a black comedy part in Scene Two Padriac is torturing a man. He has trussed the man's feet up and has him hanging upside down. Listen to characters in a McDonagh play as they are about to be tortured or killed, and you hear not only stubbornness, but a slow-witted inclination to infuriate their executioner or torturer, like fanning the flames at your own immolation.
The two characters who open the play Donny and Davey are like two clowns performing a vaudeville act. They are incredibly dumb, and their dialogue is full of non-sequiturs.
McDonagh has said that making audiences uncomfortable, making them wriggle, squirm in their seats, is his goal, and he achieves it here. Audience may be saying to themselves, "Oh, no, he wouldn't push the envelope that far, gross out that much, would he? And that's exactly what McDonagh does.
Shock and Awe - The Dramatic Works of Martin McDonagh - Part Two
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