“JFK” and “Natural Born Killers” director Oliver Stone has revealed he is not a fan of “John Wick: Chapter 4,” citing a strong distaste for the video game-like physics and violence on display.
The multiple Oscar-winning director, producer, and screenwriter served as an infantry soldier during the Vietnam War, with those wartime experiences informing several works of his, including his iconic films “Platoon” and “Born of the Fourth of July”.
Speaking with Variety, Stone spoke about modern cinema’s pop-culture-driven franchises and cited “John Wick 4” as an example of the problem – namely the lack of realism and impact in terms of on-screen violence.
He goes on to explain it’s not just an issue with the “John Wick” films but plenty of other movies as well these days, citing everything from Marvel movies to the “Fast and the Furious” franchise:
I saw ‘John Wick 4’ on the plane. Talk about volume. I think the film is disgusting beyond belief. Disgusting. I don’t know what people are thinking.
Maybe I was watching ‘G.I. Joe’ when I was a kid. But [Keanu Reeves] kills, what, three, four hundred people in the f—— movie. And as a combat veteran, I gotta tell you, not one of them is believable. I realize it’s a movie, but it’s become a video game more than a movie.
Its lost touch with reality. The audience perhaps likes the video game. But I get bored by it. How many cars can crash? How many stunts can you do? What’s the difference between ‘Fast and Furious’ and some other film?
It’s just one thing after another. Whether it’s a super-human Marvel character or just a human being like John Wick, it doesn’t make any difference. It’s not believable.”
The “John Wick” films take place in a heightened fantasy version of our present-day – a world filled with a not exactly underground society of assassins who engage in massive gun fights in major public places with little to no repercussions.
In addition, all are decked out in fancy suits that go beyond being just bulletproof – they render bullets about as ineffectual as dried rice. The result is plenty of stylish choreographed combat that’s often inventive, but the lack of realism is argued as something that limits any real stakes for the characters in the film.
Stone himself is certainly familiar with issues of screen violence. His “Natural Born Killers” was one of the most controversial and notably violent films of the era, with Stone himself accused of glorifying violence.
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