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

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.

As far as short films go, this is near the top of the list. McDonagh (formerly a playwright, here making his film debut) is a master craftsman, able to play several levels at the same time. "Six Shooter" is shocking, heartbreaking and very funny, often simultaneously. The story, in a nutshell, revolves around four people, each suffering a very recent death in their families. As they each deal with the loss in very different ways, they collide with each other, sometimes with words, sometimes with more.

The cast is uniformly excellent, especially Brendan Gleeson as the sad-eyed protagonist and Rúaidhrí Conroy as a ticking time-bomb of a kid. McDonagh's pitch-perfect writing - while not approaching the near-apocalyptic absurdity of plays like "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" - is appropriately bleak. His direction is also assured, showing him to be a filmmaker to watch in coming years.

"Six Shooter" is available on iTunes for two dollars. If you can, buy it. It's truly a great work of modern cinema.

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.

Martin McDonagh is a very unorthodox director, his very Irish dark sense of humor comes across strongly throughout his films. This has often lead to them having mixed reviews on account of the fact that people judge them to be exploiting violence. Indeed McDonaghs works often contain controversial themes and content. This particularly comes across in his litary works (for example the pillow man). McDonagues theatrical influence comes across strongly in Six Shooter.It manages to successfully make use of a very simple dark plot with not a hint of cliché or Hollywood improbability.The film manages to coherently string together a strong and conclusive story through its short running time without noticeably rushing character development or background. Six shooter generally maintains a somber mood which is occasional punctuated with spectacularly funny sequences. This creates a sense on contrast that pervades the work. And leads the audience to develop a sense of uncertainty throughout the film. Brendon Gleeson and Ruhadari Conroy both perform to perfection and feel completely at home it the films potentially claustrophobic setting. In conclusion this is a superb and bizarre film which will both amuse and shock you in a way that very few modern shorts can.