The small-town rubes that straight-laced FBI agent Wendell Everett encounters in “The Guard” are a typecast rarely seen on the big screen.
Don Cheadle plays Everett, a private-schooled black American, sent to a rural district near Galway in west Ireland, where a high-profile drug shipment has fallen under the jurisdiction of amateur cops.
Loudest among them is Brendan Gleason’s Sgt. Gerry Boyle, always handy in Everett’s investigation with such quips as “I thought black people couldn’t ski -- or is that swimming?” and “I’m Irish. Racism is part of my culture.”
Not that Everett cares what these strange-accented bumpkins have to say. He’s determined to do his job and solve the crime. What unfolds is an off-center crime drama, buddy comedy and, at once, a send-up and a twisted tribute to Irish “characters.”
The film is written and directed by John Michael McDonagh and is based on a short film, “The Second Death,” that he did more than 10 years ago. Cheadle, also an executive producer for the film, talks about why he was committed to getting the movie off the ground.
Q: There are a lot of jabs at Irish manners in this film. Having shot on location around Galway, did you find any of the stereotypes to be true?
A: Everybody gets taken to task in the film. The English get it, the Irish get it, blacks get it, Americans get it. Everybody gets their time in the sun where they get talked about badly. That's more indicative of John's sense of humor and his desire to mess with taboos and push them in different directions. But I didn't see any stereotypical Irish behavior. I will say I drank Guinness with those guys every night. That much is true.
Q: Were there subtle nods to famous crime dramas written into the script?
A: Obviously John's talented, so he steals from everything. His biggest homage was to John Ford or spaghetti westerns, and the man-vs.-environment story that he wrote a love letter to, and inside that, he stuffed a dark Irish humor that's poetic but really crass. It's a great conversion of all those things that make this film what it is.
Q: You were involved in helping get this film enough backing so we could see it in the U.S. -- why was it important to you?
A: Yes, we came on early to work the deals. The script made me laugh. I really responded to it. I thought it was very different than any film I had seen. I've been a big fan of Brendan Gleeson for a long time, and I really wanted to work with him. I thought it was a no-brainer.
Q: What are McDonagh’s talents, and how can we see them in this film?
A: Clearly as a writer he's got a lot of talent. And he's got a sick sense of humor, which I always gravitate toward. He's a very clear-thinking director and knows what he wants, which you don't always have on the set. He's clear about what he wants to see. That's really good because once he's clear, he can translate that clarity to us, and that's why I think the film is as steady and as good as it is.
Q: Steady and good because he’s both writer and director?
A: Those jobs aren't always mutually exclusive. I've been on sets where the director has written it but he can't direct. There's a potential pitfall as a writer-director, which is falling in love so much with your own words that you don't have any objectivity and can't see that some things need to go by the wayside even though when you thought them up in front of your laptop, they were brilliant. It's difficult to navigate both those worlds.
Movie preview
“The Guard”
Starring Brendan Gleason and Don Cheadle. Directed by John Michael McDonagh.
Rated R. At The Tara Theatre. 1 hour, 36 minutes.
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