Martin McDonagh has never written to please, and three days before his latest film, "Wild Horse Nine," hits theaters, he's pointing out a disturbing trend he's noticed lately while trying to create his art.
On the New York Times' "The Interview" podcast (via TheWrap), McDonagh was asked about the criticism he's received over some of the racially charged language in his work. He was also asked whether the line on what's acceptable has moved. McDonagh's answer:
I think it's gotten worse, especially in the last 10 years.
He cited Wesley Morris' NYT criticism of "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," which argued the film redeemed its racist cop. McDonagh said he never saw the character as redeemed, and that he doesn't agree as much with that criticism.
He explained that only in the past decade has he been asked to change words in plays he wrote 25 or 30 years ago, words nobody objected to at the time. As he sees it, those words were there "to be either outrageous or to be truthful." A racist character, he argued, is going to speak like a racist, so cutting that language decades later makes no sense to him.
It feels not just problematic, but it feels like things are getting troublingly worse about that because I was never asked to do that back in the day. And I think if you don't like that in a play, you should just not do the play. You shouldn't try and change the play 25 years later.
He's right. Art isn't meant to cuddle or conform to what any individual perceives as "acceptable." Some of the greatest artists strive to provoke and make you feel uncomfortable, and McDonagh has consistently tried to do that.
Of course, don't tell that to the modern-day censors who, in recent years, have rewritten the works of iconic authors like Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl and Agatha Christie. Not to mention the content warnings now slapped on classics like "Gone With the Wind."
This has led many artists, across every artistic domain in Western culture, to self-censor for fear of backlash. How can great art possibly come out of that mindset? McDonagh sees this reality for what it is: absolutely frightening.
It’s not the first time McDonagh has slammed political correctness. Back in 2023, he told the BBC's "Today" that some of his plays can't get greenlit anymore because theaters demand he change some of the dialogue he's written, which he refuses to do. "I think it's a very frightening time," he said. "I do think it's a good idea to write something that's dangerous or explosive."
"The Mosquito Bowl," which hits a small batch of theaters for Oscar-qualifying purposes, currently sits at 39% on Rotten Tomatoes and 42 on Metacritic. Many of its detractors dislike the film's patriotism.