SIX SHOOTER: OSCAR WINNER
Martin McDonagh's Bizarre Black Comedy
Six Shooter is a black comedy short written and directed by Martin McDonagh in 2004. McDonagh also directed films that include In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Six Shooter is a film that follows its protagonist Donnelly after his wife dies. Donnelly ends up on a train ride home with an erratic young man who cannot stop telling weird stories. The kid’s chaotic disposition and disrespect erupt into a tense situation between the young man and a couple.
The theme of death connects the boy with Donnelly and the couple who have lost a baby. The young man tells an inappropriate story about an “exploding cow.” In it, a cow has wind trapped in its bowels, and a man with a screwdriver stabs him in the stomach to relieve pressure. After boasting of his success in deflating the cow, the man lights a fire over the holes in the cow’s stomach. In doing so, he sets the cow on fire. It is a metaphor for life existing as moments of celebration and wonder, brushing up against the trauma of death. The act of lighting the cow on fire is theatrical, as is the young man’s death in a shootout at the end of the film. Donnelly grabs him and takes the boy’s six-shooter with its two leftover bullets. Donnelly will use it to try to kill himself.
McDonagh’s film won an Academy Award winner for Best Live-Action Short, and the actor who portrays the young boy, Rúaidhrí Conroy, does an excellent job as villain of the film. The cast is top-notch, and Brendan Gleeson also shines. Six Shooter is a dark comedy that PROVOKR suggests you watch if you’re in that kind of mood.
