Six Shooter

First thing I have got to say, is that I am a huge fan of Martin McDonaghs stage plays. Six-Shooter tells the tale of a recently bereaved man who finds himself in the same carriage as a mourning couple and a young psycho. The next half an hour presents all McDonaghs famous trademarks which have made him the the toast of the Theatre world.

This short film will appeal to two types of people. The first is any person who loves their action and blood and guts. It will also appeal to McDonagh's legions of Theatre fans (like myself). And for these two audiences markets the film is successful. For the person that loves there blood, there is no shortage of blood and there is Ruaidhri Conroy's callous performance as the young Psycho. For his legion of theatre fans there is the morality tale that involves all the characters and the wonderful writing and grotesque characters that has endeared McDonagh to my heart.

I would love to write more but i do not want to spoil it for any film fans that do not like theatre but have yet to experience the wonderful creative mind of Martin McDonagh

McDonagh is a brilliant story teller and fully deserves his Tony nominations and his Olivier Award for Best Play (The Pillowman). His critics have questioned his use of casual cruelty as a dramatic device, although he always grounds violence in a social context or connects sadism to particular characters' proclivities. This film is beautifully acted by Brendon Gleeson and especially Rúaidhrí Conroy, sharply photographed, and well directed by McDonagh himself. For technique alone it is Oscar-worthy. But the whole piece strikes me as an absurdist joke with insufficient resonance. This is a mélange of destructions, an indulgence in violence that reduces and parodies McDonagh's better scripts.

"Six Shooter" is the debut written/directed film by playwright Martin McDonagh and now I want to see more of his work.

This film is suffused with death, human and animal; we see or hear about intentional deaths - murder and suicide--, natural deaths --by illness or mysterious causes, accidental deaths, and maybe a few I missed in passing.

Each character deals with death in a different way, from the psychotic to tearful grief to quiet suffering to violent reactions, and the actors portray each fully.

While Brendan Gleeson is the central widower trying to make sense of all these observations of death for his own coping mechanisms, the film is stolen by a motormouth Rúaidhrí Conroy as the most annoying guy to ever be on public transport. He non-stop goes from cheerful to entertaining to manipulative to scary and beyond.

While it does go a bit over the top, the cinematography and settings always ground it in grim reality, with a brief excursion into magic realism.

The Irish scenery outside the railway car windows does look very pretty, in contrast to what's going on inside.

I viewed this film as part of a commercial screening of Oscar nominated shorts.

I, like most, haven't seen this film as short films very rarely get shown in a medium accessible to everyone that's the case in England at least. But I happen to know, by browsing through www.play.com, that there is a Region 2 DVD release scheduled for this film on 30th April 2006, this date, as in most cases, is subject to change but I for one will certainly be buying a copy of this award wining short. I think that we as consumers should be putting more pressure 'on the powers that be' to release more interesting shorts such as this. For instance the Oscar nominated animated short The Sandman directed by the late Paul Berry or the very popular animation by Daniel Greaves, Flatworld and many other such classics which for some unknown reason never get released. I hope that this film lives up to expectation so its DVD release can be justified. And then maybe one day other great shorts will follow it on to DVD.

Having just lost his wife, Donnelly boards a train through the Irish countryside to return home. He finds himself on a sparsely populated carriage with a young man who won't shut up and appears to be looking just to wind others up, and a couple grieving the lost of their baby from cot death. Within seconds of sitting down, the kid starts talking and soon gets tensions rising in the otherwise quite train carriage.

Mere days after it took the Oscar for best short film I took the opportunity to watch this film on Channel 4. A testament to the ongoing work of Film Four, this is a darkly comic film that is bleak and depressing while still providing plenty of laughs. Often "dark comedy" means that a film is just rather film without being funny at all but rather just failing to be taken seriously. However with this film the material is both bleak and intentionally funny at the same time. The plot is exaggerated of course but the writing has enough familiarity to make it engaging and attainable. I can't really describe it very well but the humour is very Irish and I found it funny at the same time as enjoying the brooding nature of what was happening.

As writer and director it must be said that McDonagh doesn't do much wrong; producing a great script but also making the film look very professional and washed out at the same time. The cast are all good. Gleeson is of course the star of the piece and he is convincing as he mourns his way through the film. Conroy is the driving force for the majority and is excellent, working with the script really well. He is funny as much as menacing and I couldn't stop watching him. Support from both Wilmot and O'Sullivan is good and a small role for Gleeson Jr is amusing.

Overall a strong short film that is worthy of the bigger audience that the Oscar may bring. It is dark but still funny, enjoyable but yet brooding. The writing is very good and the cast all "get it", especially a nicely understated Gleeson and a scene stealing Conroy.