John Wick – Keanu Reeves – Movie Review by Efe Teksoy

“JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4”, IS AN EPIC JOURNEY TO THE UNDERGROUND WORLD

Cinema Writer/Film Critic Efe TEKSOY; wrote the crime, action, and thriller film “JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4”, for America’s Los Angeles-based Internet Newspaper @alaturkanews.

BABA YAGA IS BACK

John Wick: Chapter 4, produced by Lionsgate, Summit Entertainment, 87Eleven Entertainment and Thunder Road Pictures, took its place in the vision as the sequel to the blockbuster series. The production, starring Hollywood star actor Keanu Reeves, is undertaken by American stuntman and director Chad Stahelski, known as the assistant director of John Wick’s first film and the director of two sequels. Actor Keanu Reeves went through 12 weeks of training in martial arts and stunt driving to do most of the action sequences himself. The successful actor says he doesn’t use stuntmen in 90% of the scenes. Fighting against The High Table to win his freedom, John Wick once again embarks on a dangerous journey into the underworld. This neo-noir and action-thriller, with a budget of $100 million, offers audiences an unforgettable action feast. Stars; George Georgiou, Lance Reddick, Lance Reddick, Clancy Brown, Donnie Yen, Hiroyuki Sanada, Bill Skarsgård, Rina Sawayama, and Ian McShane.

HELL’S GATE

In the opening sequence of the movie; The character of Bowery King, played by master actor Laurence Fishburne, quotes Italian poet and politician Dante Alighieri‘s classic book, The Divine Comedy (Hell-Canto Three), which is considered the masterpiece of world poetry. This quote from the book; These are the words that Dante and his guide Virgil read at the Gate of Hell. Inferno, designed by Dante, is in the form of a pit that narrows as you go to the bottom. In the movie, it tells us this at the very beginning, he tells us that this hell that John Wick enters will get narrower as it progresses and it will corner John.

THE POWER ELITE

The High Table Council, which is a powerful council that manages the criminal organizations of the underworld, draws the image of a strong organization by including many politicians, police forces and bureaucrats around the world. From a sociological point of view, it symbolizes that it is one of the power centers that rule the world and the class called the elite community at the highest level of society. American sociologist C. Wright Mills‘s sociology classic book The Power Elite is presented by the International Sociological Association as the 39th most important book written in the field of sociology throughout the 20th century. This book, which is a social science and social criticism classic, reveals the characteristics of the power centers that rule the world. The book; “The ruling elite consists of people who, thanks to their means and knowledge of life, are able to surpass the ordinary environment of usual and ordinary people. These people are in a position to make decisions that have big and important consequences.” says the sociologist Mills, stating that such people are in command posts of the major organizations and hierarchies of modern society. We see that The High Table in the movie also symbolizes such a mechanism and rules over a great power. Thus, the concept of The Will to Power, a doctrine of thought that the great German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche called the most fundamental truth of life, and also the political concepts of the German political philosopher and social theorist Hannah Arendt, the will to violence and obedience, emerged.

IMPORTANCE OF DETAILS

Another important detail is seen in the scene with the Marquis character played by the famous Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård. Founded in France in 1880, metalwork specialist Maison Pouenat is one of the leading producers of a small number of artistic ironwork. Pouenat’s famous (designed by Humbert & Poyet) handmade “Hug Chair” is seen in the speech scene of the Marquis character. This shows the audience that; It tells that the Marquis, who symbolizes the character of a charismatic French nobility in the film, is not an upstart, but rather a noble with style. French philosopher Roland Barthes, one of the founders of European semiotics (semiology) and a master of thought and writing in the twentieth century, In his work titled The Semiological Adventure, in which he reveals the basic principles and concepts of semiology, states that the color white conveys a certain idea about luxury. The Marquis, he is the antagonist of the movie, (in a smooth white outfit) is the symbol of luxury and elegance in the movie.

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

The scene in the desert at the beginning of the movie was made without digital enhancement. The place where John Wick meets the Elder is where the 1962 movie Lawrence of Arabia was filmed. Director Chad Stahelski cited The Warriors (1979) as his primary inspiration for this film. John Wick: Chapter 4, in the genre of action, crime, and suspense, is a gripping movie that will take you into a world of adventure.

EFE TEKSOY

 

REFERENCES

Roland Barthes, Göstergebilimsel Serüven (The Semiotic Challenge), translate. Mehmet Rifat-Sema Rifat, İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları press, 2018

C. Wright Mills, İktidar Seçkinleri (The Power Elite), translate. Ünsal Oskay, İstanbul: İnkılap Kitabevi Yayın Sanayi ve Ticaret Aş press, 2021

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