On Intertextuality and Seven Psychopaths

Intertextuality is where one media text references another. This is hugely common occurrence in cinema, but perhaps done more subtly than in writer / director Martin McDonagh’s latest film Seven Psychopaths. Not only does the film reference other media texts, but also it references itself.

To begin, the film opens with two gangster discussing gangster issues. These gangsters are played by Michael Pitt and Michael Stuhlbarg, both familiar to Boardwalk Empire (2010 - ) audiences for playing gangsters. We therefore, as audiences seeing these two onscreen, automatically associate them with their Empire roles. A move McDonagh would have been very aware of.

One of the main psychopaths is played by Christopher Walken an actor with a significant past in cinema history. Walken is best known for playing criminal roles with an edge, an edge that is usually bordering of the psychopathic: King of New York (1990), Batman Returns (1992) True Romance (1993). McDonagh, obviously aware of this casts him as the most Buddist of the psychopaths.

Beyond this external level of intertextuality, Seven Psychopaths references itself as this is a film about a film being written called Seven Psychopaths, where the characters in the ‘reality’ of the film are amalgams of the characters in the one being written. This makes for a very interesting concept that proves to be a lot of fun, but remains a hollow cinematic experience.