RE: why straight men like dead wives: my perspective is that the dead wife does not appeal inherently but as a device, namely, to produce a middle-aged man who is single for a non-embarrassing reason, with a clean slate and the narrative tension of unsatisfied virility.
Or, to attempt an aphorism in your style: the existence of the wife tells us the man has a load to blow; the fact that she is dead tells us he needs somewhere to blow it.
OH MY GOD THIS IS THE BEST !!!!! WHAT!!!!!! Mattias!!!!! This whole comment is so correct and I am both flattered and VERY excited about the aphorism you have produced in my style, which, naturally, i think is incredible.
I liked what you wrote here: "part of the point of the film is that there is always more to lose, as long as you’re breathing you are eminently vulnerable...The implication being that without hope — or justice, its semblance — Wick will find no way to be alive."
I have a slightly different take on this but I can't quite get at it. Justice is not in the frame here. This film is about stylised violence. But leaving that aside, this film is about nihilism (I would say that, wouldn't I?). John sort of wants to commit suicide (this is the vulnerability), but the Babba Yagga committing suicide would be gay, so John instead exploits a pretext to get other people to shoot him, but he must make it hard for them because for Babba Yagga anything less would be gay. To motivate them, he gradually draws them into his suicidal nihilistic vortex e.g. by killing the boss' son, by torching the vault and, in the 2nd film, killing in the hotel. Nobody can have any meaning or joy, only violence and death. John's vortex is sustained by the visceral, heart pounding experience of *competence*. Man, nothing makes you feel alive like viscerally demonstrating your hard earned competence, preferably in a way that gets you literally covered in viscera, hence slowly stabbing the guy in the neck. That's ambrosia for Wick.
I enjoyed the capitalist reading, though I think the point of John Wick is for it not to be read (I kind of want to say that reading John Wick is gay. There, I said it. The movie must be aggressively anti gay at its core so that it can go full Tom Ford on the stylishness. That's my reading. Ugh, deconstruction is inescapable; curse Derrida). Anyway, love this: "It is the comfort of the ruling classes that generates the bad violence." YES. Reminds of Kaiser Wilhelm II just wanting a small war, mostly for entertainment. Or indeed all the nepotism fail-forward generals of middle kingdom China that Sun Tzu wrote for. Also reminds me of this amazing skeet I just spent 30 mins trying to find that went something like: "You know how when you get the infinite money cheat in The Sims you first buy all the things, then feel empty, so you start torturing your Sims? Well I think I figured out why billionaires all suck".
Yes yes yes yes to all of this. I might edit this comment to add more things when I think of them. But I think you're right that there's a lot about nihilism here & I also think that deciding that one needs to be reading John Wick in any way is in itself hundred percent gay, thanks for seeing this.
Now that I think about it the 2nd and 3rd films are just your capitalism reading, especially "It is the comfort of the ruling class that generates bad violence".
A very boring and hetero perspective on this: as I watched (and enjoyed) Wick, I found that it did an incredible job of stripping down the archetype of a comic book movie (or a hero's journey) without dulling edges or removing consequences?
In so many action movies, the tragic seems so meaningless to the protagonist (probably because the actors are worse than Keanu, who is underrated). Here, it sucks! The dog dying is really brutal to me! (there's probably something important about the dead wife point that the death of the dog is more important than the death of the wife, emotionally).
Or, in many action movies, someone is saved. No-one gets saved here, really.
Here, it's all vengeance, but for some reason the vengeance seems more archetypal, I think because Keanu's rage is so understated?
Anyway, love it. Curious what you think of the sequels.
I totally agree that there’s a purity to the film that comes from refusing to pull any of the punches, get off track, dilute the narrative, or allow anyone to be redeemed or saved. That works very strongly in the films favour (I was worried they wouldn’t do it, eg by not killing iosef or perkins or marcus). I also agree Keanu is the perfect vessel for this becuase he has this placidity. So he’s pure as well, and it’s no effort for him to be pure, he simply is not complicated. It’s like he has very few even secondary emotions.
I plan to watch the others soonish! Thanks for reading and commenting :)
RE: why straight men like dead wives: my perspective is that the dead wife does not appeal inherently but as a device, namely, to produce a middle-aged man who is single for a non-embarrassing reason, with a clean slate and the narrative tension of unsatisfied virility.
Or, to attempt an aphorism in your style: the existence of the wife tells us the man has a load to blow; the fact that she is dead tells us he needs somewhere to blow it.
OH MY GOD THIS IS THE BEST !!!!! WHAT!!!!!! Mattias!!!!! This whole comment is so correct and I am both flattered and VERY excited about the aphorism you have produced in my style, which, naturally, i think is incredible.
This was fun.
I liked what you wrote here: "part of the point of the film is that there is always more to lose, as long as you’re breathing you are eminently vulnerable...The implication being that without hope — or justice, its semblance — Wick will find no way to be alive."
I have a slightly different take on this but I can't quite get at it. Justice is not in the frame here. This film is about stylised violence. But leaving that aside, this film is about nihilism (I would say that, wouldn't I?). John sort of wants to commit suicide (this is the vulnerability), but the Babba Yagga committing suicide would be gay, so John instead exploits a pretext to get other people to shoot him, but he must make it hard for them because for Babba Yagga anything less would be gay. To motivate them, he gradually draws them into his suicidal nihilistic vortex e.g. by killing the boss' son, by torching the vault and, in the 2nd film, killing in the hotel. Nobody can have any meaning or joy, only violence and death. John's vortex is sustained by the visceral, heart pounding experience of *competence*. Man, nothing makes you feel alive like viscerally demonstrating your hard earned competence, preferably in a way that gets you literally covered in viscera, hence slowly stabbing the guy in the neck. That's ambrosia for Wick.
I enjoyed the capitalist reading, though I think the point of John Wick is for it not to be read (I kind of want to say that reading John Wick is gay. There, I said it. The movie must be aggressively anti gay at its core so that it can go full Tom Ford on the stylishness. That's my reading. Ugh, deconstruction is inescapable; curse Derrida). Anyway, love this: "It is the comfort of the ruling classes that generates the bad violence." YES. Reminds of Kaiser Wilhelm II just wanting a small war, mostly for entertainment. Or indeed all the nepotism fail-forward generals of middle kingdom China that Sun Tzu wrote for. Also reminds me of this amazing skeet I just spent 30 mins trying to find that went something like: "You know how when you get the infinite money cheat in The Sims you first buy all the things, then feel empty, so you start torturing your Sims? Well I think I figured out why billionaires all suck".
Yes yes yes yes to all of this. I might edit this comment to add more things when I think of them. But I think you're right that there's a lot about nihilism here & I also think that deciding that one needs to be reading John Wick in any way is in itself hundred percent gay, thanks for seeing this.
Now that I think about it the 2nd and 3rd films are just your capitalism reading, especially "It is the comfort of the ruling class that generates bad violence".
What marvelous digestibility!
THANK YOU ROB
reminds me that the handsome hometown man in a hallmark movie is often a widower also
Such a great point. Eventual romance-action synthesis seems now more possible than ever ….
A very boring and hetero perspective on this: as I watched (and enjoyed) Wick, I found that it did an incredible job of stripping down the archetype of a comic book movie (or a hero's journey) without dulling edges or removing consequences?
In so many action movies, the tragic seems so meaningless to the protagonist (probably because the actors are worse than Keanu, who is underrated). Here, it sucks! The dog dying is really brutal to me! (there's probably something important about the dead wife point that the death of the dog is more important than the death of the wife, emotionally).
Or, in many action movies, someone is saved. No-one gets saved here, really.
Here, it's all vengeance, but for some reason the vengeance seems more archetypal, I think because Keanu's rage is so understated?
Anyway, love it. Curious what you think of the sequels.
I totally agree that there’s a purity to the film that comes from refusing to pull any of the punches, get off track, dilute the narrative, or allow anyone to be redeemed or saved. That works very strongly in the films favour (I was worried they wouldn’t do it, eg by not killing iosef or perkins or marcus). I also agree Keanu is the perfect vessel for this becuase he has this placidity. So he’s pure as well, and it’s no effort for him to be pure, he simply is not complicated. It’s like he has very few even secondary emotions.
I plan to watch the others soonish! Thanks for reading and commenting :)