I was skeptical going into Wild Horse Nine. I thought maybe it would be a staid 70s style drama. And perhaps the actors would simply be playing characters and not embodying them. Oh how very wrong I was. Sam Rockwell yet again proves he is the greatest working actor going, IMHO. And Malkovich. He is almost beyond time. Like he had done all those previous roles just to work up to this one. And whether Wild Horse Nine wins any Oscars or not, it doesn’t matter. It will win with anyone who watches it.
In a recent review I mentioned the podcast, hosted by two funny and earnest British men, The Rest is History. The hosts cover the rise of Augusto Pinochet in Chile, through his violent coup, in a two episode series. I highly recommend listening to that before watching Wild Horse Nine. The historical context will only heighten your viewing experience. Speaking of historic, I happened to have listened to this two parter while endlessly shoveling during “The Mid-March Blizzard of 2026”, which dumped 30 inches of snow here in Wisconsin. Despite all that white, it was so easy to go into the black hole of covert US foreign intervention.
This film touches on covert US domestic intervention as well. Another podcast called RedHanded, hosted by two funny and earnest British women, supplies a hair raising episode on the assassination of President Kennedy. It’s a true crime story worth pairing with Wild Horse Nine, if you can handle it.
A crucial aspect of this film is the location. Once out of Santiago, most of the action takes place in Rapa Nui, or as we in the US know it, Easter Island. Rapa Nui is a special territory of Chile. Who knew! It’s hard to imagine anyone watching this film and not wanting to hop on the next flight to Rapa Nui. The visual style feels like a 1970s issue of National Geographic come to life. The 1,000 heads on the island, known as moai, themselves lend a magical realism to the picture. They feel almost beamed down from another galaxy. The ethereal sculptures make a strong juxtaposition to the realpolitik that the times unleash.
Wild Horse Nine delivers the whole cinematic package. I you can, don’t miss it on the big screen.
