Patreon Letter: 2nd June 2019

Hey folks,

Jackson here with my very delayed letter for last week! Been a busy week, but I've cleared off a bunch from my to-do list and now only this letter remains. Let's get it done.

So, this week I saw John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, and I liked it a lot. I will spoil the entire movie in a minute but for those of you who have not seen it, here is my general take: it's good, very good. Not quite as good as Chapter 2 but a worthy sequel and definitely still in another league from the original. 

My John Wick hot take is that the original film is, at this point, a vestigal entry that barely matters when compared to its two sequels. The original is a competent and stylised revenge film. It's good at being that I suppose, but 2 brings The Continental into the centre of the story and refocuses the series as one about power and how it is negotiated within societal structures. 2 and 3 are Foucauldian ass action movies and we're beyond lucky that this is the hit cult series. I really hope they know what they have and it continues to explore this as smartly as it has.

Okay I am going to spoil John Wick 3 now.

So, you know, turn back.

This is your warning.

So! John Wick 3 thoughts in specifics. It is, as they say, a mixed bag for me. I like it a lot but because it's now part of a smart series that is actually about things the bar is raised in just how good it has to be to not let me down. The opening half an hour is incredible, the moment where John Wick's hour runs out and he is declared excommunicado is basically one of the most hype things to ever happen, just fantastic booking, and it leads to some excellent fight scenes. He fights in a stable and uses horses as like, video game environmental weapons to buck at the right time and kick mooks dead. It's fuckin' wild.

But the real strength of the movie is revealed after John escapes the city, when the adjudicator arrives in New York, and we discover that they have been sent by the High Table to punish all those who aided John in his recent actions. Whereas John Wick 2 was a film about the ways in which our rules and social contracts bind us and can't be opted out of simply because they are absurd, that's not how culture works, 3 is a film about what happens when the absurdity of these rules is revealed. 

The adjudicator shows us that the rules do not come from nowhere, within the Wickverse the rules aren't simply how this society operates, they are a first and foremost a tool with which the High Table maintains its power. The Director is forbidden from assisting John due to the excommunicado, but John has a Ticket given long ago that in his mind, supercedes that. Suddenly amiguity is introduced and the adjudicator always - arbitrarily and without justification - rules in the interests of the High Table.

The Bowery King is told his power is no longer recognised by The High Table and he must abandon his position, as a result of arming John with the bullets used to kill on company ground. My mans is understandably pissed off at this because while there was a $20m contract on John's head at the time, contracts are optional and everything he did - including following the excommunicado - was within the letter of the law. He refuses to abandon his post and is seemingly killed (we'll get to that) for his trouble.

All of this owns. It's my favouriite shit in the film and I wish there was more of it. The film sets itself up for its ridiculous hitman world essentially falling into civil war as the High Table no longer sits as an ultimate source of power maintaining the balance between all the various factions. Unfortunately the movie doesn't have the space to get into that, there's not really enough dominos set up for the chaotic collision of self-interests that comes with the collapse of any hegemonic power to really be explored, because this is still a 2 hour action movie with more punching and shooting than dialogue. 

What it does do is still pretty interesting, as the plot revolves around two main thrusts: Winston's decision to stand against The High Table, and John's value as a commodity. 

See, John Wick isn't a very interesting character. Keanu does a great job but he's still a dorky guy playing a hitman with a soul who will always, always win. And it is in how these sequels have recognised that John's victory is inevitable that their strength has emerged. The questions in them have not been "oooh will John Wick win the day?" the central question is "who will John Wick fight for?" Winston and The High Table both make bids to get John on their side, to secure this unbeatable force of chaos for their own interests. The Elder says if he works loyally for the Table, he will never be threatened and be free to keep the memory of his wife alive. And so they send him to kill Winston, who offers no resistance but says if he changes his mind and goes to war against the Table, he might die, but win or lose, at the end of the day he will actually be free.

And at the end of the day neither of these things prove true. Winston was using him just as The Table was, the stand against the Table's first wave of forces was to show strength, and he uses that strength to parlay with the adjudicator where he declares all hostilities will cease if they reinstate him as the head of The Continental. His place in the current system of power restored, he shoots John and throws him off a building, the final destablising element removed.

It's a really good, depressing ending. Power remains in the hands of the table, and John's allies against the existing structures were merely looking for a better deal in the current order. The movie ends revealing that The Bowery King survived and he and John team up ready to drop the asteroid and burn the table to the ground in John Wick 4.

I hope that it's good. I really do. I don't know if the series has the ability to follow through on a story of what it means to oppose the existing seat of power in this society, power that despite the reputation of the series they have continually represented in soft and structural means rather than through bad guys killing his dog. Like, Em and I are often disappointed at how Gundam tackles this exact story and it's much smarter about it generally and has 50 episode seasons to really get into it. But they have not let me down yet and I'll be there to watch it when it comes out in two years.

Anyway I went on much longer than I expected there but yeah it's good! John Wick is good. The action scenes in the back half go on for too long, I'm the weirdo John Wick fan who isn't there for action scenes but for all the people talking. I hope the Continental TV Show is good because it's a perfect place to dive into all these ideas.

Okay enough rambling. Have a good week everyone!

-Jackson