SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS

UK, 2012, 110 minutes, Colour.
Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Michael Pitt, Michael Stuhlbarg, Harry Dean Stanton, Tom Waits.
Directed by Martin Mc Donagh.

Two people in the audience, sitting side by side in the cinema, could well be having opposite experiences. One might be thoroughly amused by the bizarre plot and characters as well as the black humour. The next might be finding it quite distasteful, a lot of violence, random and planned, too silly to enjoy. A bit of checking on the film is necessary to decide which seat one wants to sit in.

Martin Mc Donagh had a great hit with In Bruges. It was bizarre and funny, oddball criminal characters, black humour and wordplay – and the beauty of the city of Bruges. This time he is in Los Angeles, not so beautiful.

Seven Psychopaths is not only the title of the film, it is the title of the potential film within the film. It is being written by Irish screenwriter, Martin (Colin Farrell, this time rather quietly subdued). He is desperate to find some psychopaths to fill out a plot for his title, and he certainly finds them, especially among his friends.

The most psychopathic is actor, Billy, played cleverly with general nonchalance and an amoral outlook on life by Sam Rockwell. Rockwell can take on any kind of role with flair. He does so here. Although rivalry for the title of most psychopathic comes with thug, Charlie, Woody Harrelson. Harrelson is devoted above all people and all things to his pet dog, Bonnie. Billy teams up with Hans (Christopher Walken at his best) to abduct dogs and turn up for the reward. You can see the set-up when Bonnie is dognapped.

Meanwhile, Billy offers all kinds of suggestions for Martin’s film – many played out on screen for the audience. Hans also has suggestions. In the meantime, we see Charlie’ search for his dog who scares the walker who lost his dog by shooting at her, then racially hostilely shooting someone for revenge (real killing, not a scare). It all builds up to a shootout climax, contrived by Billy.

Other characters wander in and out: Charlie’s mistress, Martin’s edgy girlfriend, and Tom Waits with a story all of his own (a violent one) which he wants Martin to put into his film (and he interrupts the film’s credits to complain that it is missing).

Then there is the story of the Viet Cong soldier who plans to murder those responsible for the massacre at My Lai – the subject of Hans’ final suggestion for Martin, described so well by Christopher Walken.
So, a movie about a movie, of how movies and real life can relate and connect – but all with tongue very much in cheek. It won the People’s Choice award for the Midnight Madness screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. Not surprising.

1. Black comedy? Witty? Broad humour?

2. Hollywood and Los Angeles, the world of film, the world of frauds, the world of thugs? The countryside around Los Angeles? The musical score?

3. A film about film-making, processes, sources of stories, acting out stories? Different genres, their conventions? Verbal wit? Visual wit?

4. The title, the introduction, the two thugs talking, Tarantino style? Jack, the mask, the murders? The device of listing the psychopaths one to six, seven and one? Setting the tone?

5. The chatter of the killers, their amoral stances, the irony of their deaths?

6. Martin, Colin Farrell’s low-key style? His being the figure for Mc Donagh himself? The two Martins? Writer’s block? The title, his reliance on his friends, Billy and his imagination, his acting career? Friends with Hans? The clashes with Kaya? His being in the doldrums, career-wise, personally? The placing of the advertisement, the meeting with Zachariah? His story? His pet? Kaya and the violence, the confrontation? The encounters with Charlie, the guns, the shootouts? Martin and his driving away, the number of stories for his film?

7. Billy, the focus on him, the irony of his acting career, his auditions? His friendship with Hans? The scam? Abducting the dog, the woman bringing the cash, Hans and his sympathy? Charlie’s dog, the dog-walker? Taking the dog, holding it? The scenes with the dog – pathos and humour? The different scenarios that Billy suggested? Charlie and his girlfriend? The murder, the cards – and the irony of Billy and the deaths, the signature cards? The build-up to the final confrontation, with Charlie, the guns, shot?

8. The contrast with Christopher Walken as Hans, non-violent? The scam with the dogs? The reason for the money, the visit to his wife in hospital, his love for her, the flowers, his reaction to her death? The meetings with Charlie, his henchman and the refusal to have a gun? His death? The postscript – and his elaborating the story about the Vietnamese killer?

9. Charlie, thug, ruthless, his henchmen? His girlfriend? His treatment of her, her death? His love for his dog, the reaction to its abduction? His anger, going to the hospital, taunting Hans’s wife, the interrogation, killing her? Tracking down the abductors? The pursuit, his aides, their confronting Billy? Killing Hans? The police, death? The world of thugs?

10. Hans’s wife, a good woman, her illness, the hospital, the tender scenes with Hans, lying to Charlie, her courage in the face of death?

11. Kaya, the token woman, the arguments with Martin? The fantasy and her death?

12. Zachariah, responding to the advertisement, his story, the flashbacks, the murders, ruthlessness, his wife and giving up on her? The judge, his story, pathos? The end and Zachariah reappearing during the credits, wanting to know why his credit was not included, his threats?

13. The Vietnam episode, My Lai, the war, the Viet Cong, the present and the soldier dressed as a cleric, with the callgirl? His dilemmas? The meeting, the veterans, their speeches, his coming in with the bombs attached, the threats? The change of story, his immolating himself?

14. The overall impact of this kind of mix of oddball characters and stories?