In film its not just the action on screen but its the audiences reaction. This is obvious, obviously. John Wick films get this done perfectly. I’m not going to go on a long essay ramble like usual today because in all honesty I didn’t even feel like writing today. I’ve had a long week of loss and I’m fucking burnt out and not done yet. So I will briefly talk about Settings in film like production design and ideas of Loss, seeing how I’m going through my mothers death now and have had a lot of loss in my life so far and how I’m trying to escape to far away destinations and settings in films lately. This brought me to seeing John Wick 4 today which perfectly melds those two things together getting the reaction much deeper than just watching people get shot in the fucking dome for almost 3 hours, even though that is in its self a dark joy, especially when you believe they deserve to die because your on the Anti Hero’s side.
So Loss. Death is a bitch quiet bluntly. Its what we are all trying to avoid because none of us know what’s on the other side. Don’t let anyone tell you that they know, they fucking don’t, that’s the only true fact of it. That fear guides all of us good or bad. It Guides John Wick. He says he wants to keep her memory alive. That I believe but underneath that he has dealt with so much death I think it scares him. John even in the first film while still grieving he cant help but to put himself in danger driving fast almost smashing into shit at an airport tarmac. They all tell him he is the boogeyman and killing is his only purpose. I think he believes that too, what ever your good at you seem to do most, it becomes comfortable. Like me I cooked forever was a chef because it came easy when I was young so I kept doing it, I’ve tried to change over the years but I’m still stuck in the business, somehow I cant get out, I feel John, it always pulls ya back in. The loss that drives him is not just of his wife but of his purpose, the killing. Its strange even in toxic environments how we as humans can find deep purpose. Me now trying to figure out my own loss of my mother I’m angry. Not angry enough to kill 500 goons like John Wick but angry so we as audience feel his loss because that stage of it rings true. He doesn’t know how to accept his grief in a healthy way as I Don’t now. All I want to do is kill 500 beers, only problem is I’m sober so the best I Have is film to escape into. His struggle is all of ours just dialed up to 11. Each film brings this home and even the questions of can the dead hear us or even care rings deeply true. We don’t know so what do we do? Protect the living, keep living and try to accept. His acceptance is much different than most of ours but he fought against anything that got in his way as we all do when we can’t accept the idea of loss. Whether it be a wife, puppy, home, friend, or profession that is the loss, we lash out projecting so we have the reaction, not just to his killing but the deep meaning behind his rage we can hardly articulate or tap into without falling apart. Loss is a catalyst for action even if Wick choose the worst form in vengeance. We are angry at living itself when things we love are dead.
A place, a space we exist in, whether on screen or in reality it becomes something we live in, our minds will render it tactile even if only in moving pictures. Settings of Ken Adam the production designer of the Bond films from the 60s through the 70s made me want to travel. The only reason I traveled for a year and a half I realize now is because those films made me want to explore the vastness of the world. They were the first films that globe trotted for me. It blew me away how much a Volcanic layer could become so etched in my mind that I would have to go see one in real life. The magic of sets, miniature or not made me wonder and marvel at what the human mind could create. The beauty of straight lines or chrome sliding doors gave full atmosphere making the production design a character in itself. My partner said to me the other day that environments are very important to me. She is damn fucking right. I love non places like elevators, or parking garages, or airports. They are the space in between mostly where I feel my mind always is that’s why I love experimental jazz and electronica too. A setting can make or break films. if they don’t feel lived in or aren’t detailed enough or are boring or too over done it can change how you feel in an instant. the Director Kogonada who did ‘After Yang’ understands this concept completely because the audiences beautiful mind transports them to these place and if they aren’t rendered correct for the feel of the film than an audience can feel it immediately. We as humans are very intuitive so the John Wick films need to do the same thing to give them more grandeur which Chad Stahelski does. The great action films like the Mission Impossible films, Bond and John Wick series all employ great setting and designs of the settings. The production of the places turn it from just action films to some other world even though you are still grounded on Earth. John Wick understands this deeply. Its almost indescribable how important setting is for action. Die Hard would have never been as big as it was it not first set in Nakatomi Tower. John Wick 4 especially takes you around the world, making you a world traveler and in turn to places you could never go as a normal civilian. How fucking cool is that, you get to see then experience that in turn become part of it, with your brilliant little brain this setting which now is its own character, to you. You become the world and it becomes you. Living in these alerted states of reality in beautiful locations is pure escapism, its like being on molly, trust me I’ve been on every drug in the book at one time or another. John Wick is not only action it is also grand staged settings. The Locations from Berlin to Rome to Paris to Morocco to New York to Osaka then the Different Neon clubs in each place and the Continental hotels and Museums to the underground Bowery all form together as a collective world that we are not supposed to see, of elegance, grime and violence this underworld that is behind everything. It becomes these places that create a fantasy that is almost supernatural in its beauty and depth, an underworld you have never seen before. You escape to far away lands to battle Johns demons which become yours as you seep into his world, now that is fucking cinema.
Now I’ll stop fucking blathering on and you can feast your eyes on some beautiful sets from the John Wick films.
