Criticism of ‘John Wick 4’, Keanu Reeves returns greatness to the cinema

That this fantastic and orgiastic fourth installment of one of the most stimulating, inventive and enjoyable action franchises of the last decades has almost the same footage as the fundamental ‘Until the time came’, by Sergio Leone (169 minutes this chapter four; 166 that of the Italian genius) is by no means a coincidence. The first three chapters are equivalent step by step to Leone’s ‘Dollar Trilogy’, in the films starring Keanu Reeves a gold coin/medallion also in need of blood to delimit and settle issues of honor. From ‘For a Fistful of Dollars’ (the man with no name and no dog against the masters of a city that only exists in film fiction), ‘Death had a price’ (competition and common interests between murderers) and ‘The good, the bad and the ugly’ (in addition to the literal quote to the scene of Eli Wallach mounting his own gun, the search for a treasure and the assumption of a universe that sublimates common places and archetypes, both from the western and from the action cinema) to, of course, ‘Until the time came’, the operatic culmination of the western all’italiana. ‘John Wick 4’ is the culmination, one climax after another without a solution of continuity, of the Wick franchise.

‘Until His Time Came’ began by killing three characters (the previous trilogy) and revolved around three characters (the three previous Leone films) and three scenarios/plots linked by revenge. ‘John Wick 4’, which seems to have drunk all the westerns of Leone and his sons of bitches heirs and all the action movies of the last decades, replicates that same scheme, also making a bloody clean slate with the icons of the three previous films: the character of Keanu Reeves (the role of his life, let’s say it now) would be that of Harmonica/Charles Bronson, that anomalous force from the past (or from the Beyond… Wick won’t be a pale horseman?) who it comes to destroy the present and the future; he at heart a sentimental Cheyenne/Jason Robards is here that Zatoichi Donnie Yen; and the truly hate-blind Frank/Henry Fonda, the one who briefly embodies a re-encountered Clancy Brown. Next to them was the “future”, Morton, the railroad capitalist played by Gabriele Ferzetti and who finds an overacted and deliciously mannered French version in ‘John Wick 4’ in a Bill Skarsgård who enjoys every second he appears on stage.

And there are three settings, not by chance, of the feature film directed (as if it had been touched by the angel –of revenge- of the best action movies) by Chad Stahelski. Three locations that delimit a limitless masterpiece in its almost three hours. Full of neon and light Osaka, not only the nod to the Japanese ‘Yojimbo’ by Akira Kurosawa that unites Sergio Leone with the Wick universe, but also the homage to the entire oriental school of martial arts and yakuza cinema. The first step in John’s via crucis, and the first act (of course) of this opera. The second takes place in Berlin, an expressionist Berlin with tones reminiscent of the most hallucinating and hallucinating krimi based on the stories of Edgar Wallace. A Berlin of Cold War spy films, but above all the Berlin of the soap opera par excellence that has been beating in this Wickian franchise with its High Table, its rituals and its secrets, its kings of the underworld, alliances and dogs: the from Dr. Mabuse. This central segment of ‘John Wick 4’, whose climax (I repeat: the whole film is one) is one of abracadabrant and ceremonial overhead execution, bows to ‘The Crimes of Dr. Mabuse’, the return to the character by Fritz Lang in 1960 and with a Howard Vernon who is not far from the aforementioned Clancy Brown. And the third setting (everything in the film is a representation, a choreography and aria duels between his death voices) is Paris. Conceived of this final act as a journey (literally and ascending) based on chases, shootings, crashes and hand-to-hand fights through all the streets of the city, celebrates the cinematic greatness of cinema like no other film to date who was born close by with the Lumières and who would continue with the great icons of silent cinema like Buster Keaton, emperor of acrobatics and the impossible made possible without digital effects, which is the beacon he has illuminated (along with Hal’s Keystone Cops Roach or Harold Lloyd) this film quartet, and which in the French case also pays homage to the titles starring Eddie Constantine and the classic cascadeur work by Henri Verneuil or Philippe de Broca.

‘John Wick 4’ reinvents cinema, not just action. It doesn’t need any excuse for the plot, although it bequeaths us intimate moments as precious (and prophetic) as those with the ill-fated Lance Reddick as the protagonist. There will be those who underestimate the film with a “it is nothing more than one scene of fights and action after another.” Yes, and ‘Fast and deadly’, that western by Sam Raimi that receives in this fourth installment a date of disarming affection, just one of guys fighting a duel, or the cinema only 24 static images per second.

In ‘Until His Time Came’, actually the most important character was Claudia Cardinale’s, Jill. She was the one who brought the others together, her reason for being, for killing, dying and living. She was the true future. The Jill of John Wick is his wife Helen, but the Jill of all these wonderful films, especially this absolute gem that is ‘John Wick 4’, is the cinema, the love of cinema, for a way of explaining the stories that has nothing to do with thesis chatter, social agenda issues and “necessary” proselytism.

For those who wonder what cinema is, and for those marked by a love of the action genre

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DATA SHEET

Address: Chad Stahelski Distribution: Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgard, Laurence Fishburne, Lance Reddick Country: USA Year: 2023 Release date: 24–3-2023 Gender: Action Script: Michael Finch, Shay Hatten Duration: 169 min.

Synopsis: John Wick, legendary retired assassin, is back in action fueled by an uncontrollable quest for revenge. Having to fight bloodthirsty killers on his tail, John will have to push his skills to the limit if he wants to make it out alive this time.