{"id":2710,"date":"2019-09-02T13:54:01","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T17:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/curtsiesandhandgrenades.com\/?p=2710"},"modified":"2019-09-02T14:01:10","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T18:01:10","slug":"on-the-changing-cinematic-language-of-action-in-john-wick-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/curtsiesandhandgrenades.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/02\/on-the-changing-cinematic-language-of-action-in-john-wick-3\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Changing Cinematic Language of Action in John Wick 3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\nOn\nMatt Lynch\u2019s brilliant letterboxd account he has stated multiple\ntimes that \u201cno one is shooting action like this\u201d <\/a>in reference\nto the John Wick films, and he is correct. Chad Stahelski and Keanu\nReeves have introduced a new language into action cinema, one that\nthey refer to as \u201cgun-fu\u201d. It\u2019s a new language that you would\nassume many would attempt to copy, but few have even attempted to do\nso. It speaks to the level of skill and technical brilliance one has\nto have in order to establish something that is unique only to its\nown world. Right now Stahelski and everyone associated with John Wick\nare reaching greater, newer heights in action cinema that years from\nnow we will pinpoint as special in the same way fans of genre do so\nfor the likes of John Woo and George Miller. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite\nthe John Wick series introducing an entirely new cinematic language\nin the clear, graceful way Keanu Reeves moves through a mountain of\nenemies in an isolated space it isn\u2019t like we haven\u2019t been\nbuilding to this moment. Chad Stahelski is a director with a\ndistinctly unique take on action cinema, but much of what makes up\n\u201cGun-Fu\u201d is emphasizing building blocks of action cinema past,\nand the fact that the John Wick movies are in conversation with the\nfull breadth of action cinema makes them utterly delightful for those\nof us who love genre. Before getting into the nuts and bolts of what\nmakes Stahelski and Reeves form so special it is important to first\nunderline what actually is \u201cgun-fu\u201d. To be very blunt, it\u2019s a\nmixture of musical choreography, judo and gun violence. Stahelski and\ncompany are comprehensive in their movement, blocking and setting.\nReeves\nhimself has even compared this to dance in interviews.<\/a> The\ncentral figure of the mayhem is Reeves\u2019s Wick and the camera\nfollows his movement. It\u2019s in lock-step with how he processes\nbattle. The dozens of enemies he kills aren\u2019t given weight, because\nit is intoxicating to watch him clear a room. They do this by never\ngiving them facial features. These are the men and women who have no\nchance at killing John Wick. The bigger threats are introduced by way\nof dialogue and larger set-pieces, but Wick has become popular\nlargely due to these instances where Wick empties a room. If you pay\nclose attention to the violence it\u2019s all relatively simple, clean,\nand effective, much like Wick himself. He never exposes himself in\nthe environment and the most necessary aspect of his own defences\nhappens to be taking an arm or another limb and manipulating their\nbody so they cannot fire a gun. He does this through a series of\njudo-throws, rolling armbars and leg-takedowns. If his enemies can\u2019t\nuse their hands, they can\u2019t fire a gun, rendering them useless.\nThis is the fundamental truth of John Wick and in cinema this has\nbeen around since Akira Kurosawa made Sanshiro\nSugata <\/em>in 1943. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mixed martial arts has been massively popular in North America going on fifteen years now. With the introduction of UFC to Spike TV in the mid-00s it opened a public audience up to an entirely new world of physical combat and sport. Cinema has only been catching up relatively recently. Gina Carano\u2019s expert work in Stephen Soderbergh\u2019s Haywire (2011) <\/em>was the first shot across the bow of introducing an action cinema obsessed with mma. In a closed-quarters scenario encounter in a hotel room with co-star Michael Fassbinder they ushered a new kind of physicality to action cinema. Made all the more intoxicating due to the gendered nature of the fight. The consistent idea of women in action cinema is to use agility, speed and techniques such as head-scissors takedowns and movement that verges on professional wrestling\u2019s understanding of lucha to keep up with the stronger, more physically domineering men. In Haywire <\/em>though she stands toe to toe with Fassbinder and uses limb manipulation, positioning and a scientific approach to understanding the human body to gain an advantage over her opponent. None of this is sexualized, and it\u2019s maybe the best action sequence in any movie this decade for everything it would come to represent going forward in the physical combat of pictures in Hollywood. The John Wick films essentially work around the same ideas of understanding the human body, and in John Wick 3 <\/em>the curtain is finally pulled back. John returns \u201chome\u201d, to the people who taught him, and what are they doing? Amateur wrestling and Judo. It\u2019s a cinema of the human body, and in an age when green-screen stands in for much of the action in Hollywood produces it is overwhelmingly satisfying to watch a film that understands the human body can do things so much better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chad Stahelski doesn\u2019t just\nget his kicks over MMA though, and the other aspect of carnage which\ninspires his action cinema language comes from first and third person\nshooter video games. The notion of clearing a room of bad guys is\nfundamental to making John Wick a satisfying action movie, and that\nis also what makes the video games that function on the same idea\nwork. He doesn\u2019t use cinematic form to copy the games, but to\nmanipulate their function with that of cinema to create a symbiotic\neffect. No possible target is ever killed off-screen. We can see them\nin frame coming and in real time we see John Wick react. Pins to be\nknocked down, but it\u2019s in that split second of recognition that we\nsee through Wick\u2019s eyes. We can understand his thought process as\nsoon as he moves to take an arm or fire a weapon. Stahelski worked on\nThe Matrix <\/em>films\nas a stunt-coordinator and a lot of the CGI in those movies functions\nsimilarly to video game action and anime of the period which\nemphasized the very best aspects of those mediums. He learned well\nfrom The Wachowskis to use everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Wick 3 <\/em>even\nreaches back to wuxia during the final confrontation of the film.\nThis series of movies is gun and martial arts obsessive, but above\nall else the human body is the ultimate tool. When confronting two\nassassins hired to kill Wick he finds himself completely outmatched\nand outsmarted. He keeps reaching for his gun to put them away, but\nthe gun doesn\u2019t work in this scenario. It\u2019s obvious signalling.\nWhen they knock Wick down and reach to kill him they let him live,\nmore interested in proving themselves than spilling blood. They\u2019re\nhonoured to fight with him and Wick understands that in order to\ncompete with them he has to disavow the gun. Instead, he takes off\nhis belt to make up for his slower movements compared to their\nability to fight with small knives and great agility. He has to be\nsmart and when he eventually overcomes them he lets them go.\nUnderstanding that this was an exhibition. That may seem strange to\nsome audiences who aren\u2019t familiar with martial arts from the east,\nbut for anyone who loves Lau Kar-Leung it makes perfect sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The John Wick movies are a\ntotal overdose of action cinema unique to the mind of Chad Stahelski.\nIf you follow the insides and outs of the genre it is infinitely\nrewarding to see where the filmmakers are pulling from with each\nfilm. In earlier John Wick pictures they used EDM and pop music\nstructure to introduce battle, and now they\u2019ve fully come into\ntheir own as a total representation of everything action can be and\nstand for. There\u2019s nothing new in the plotting of John Wick 3, as\nmuch of it revolves around the same rules and mythos of the\nhigh-table and notions of honour and revenge, which is beginning to\nresemble Yakuza politics more and more. The reason why people come to\nthese movies is the action sequences, and outside of maybe Paul W.S.\nAnderson there\u2019s no one better in mainstream Hollywood at the\nmoment. I can\u2019t wait to see where they go with the fourth film and\nbeyond. As Matt Lynch said, \u201cNo one\u2019s making action movies like\nthis\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Matt Lynch\u2019s brilliant letterboxd account he has stated multiple times that \u201cno one is shooting action like this\u201d in…<\/p>\n

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