Over the late spring & summer of this year, I wrote 2 new articles for Post Modern Conservative that have a lot of relevance to the kinds of things I have tried to write about over the years here at E.D.

First is an essay about the John Wick movie series & how it reflects a proper postmodern conservative mindset. “John Wick & Postmodern Conservativism”

Here’s a paragraph from that essay:

Stahelski & company film their story with imagination & boldness. The John Wick movies feature more creative gunplay (in a style now called “gun fu”) & martial arts (much of it in the Hong Kong vein) action than American cinema has ever seen. The incredible stunts call back to the great comic actors & films of the silent era. The cinematography & locations are much more vibrant & colorful than American audiences have seen lately, outside Zack Snyder’s visions or, beyond America, Zhang Yimou’s Chinese films. The locations aren’t just chosen for their basic visual appeal either. Each setting conveys mood, emotion, & character. Like the great silent films, the John Wick movies often develop character via visuals. Stahelski & Reeves bolster all of this with references to classical art (pay special attention to the Louvre scene in Chapter 4), architecture, fashion, design, & poetry. There are even literate allusions throughout the series to The Odyssey & The Divine Comedy. The John Wick series is about the pre-modern offering help to the post-modern. So the good & the beautiful stand out, even amidst brutality.

Second is a review of 2 2023-released Guy Ritchie-directed movies: Operation Fortune (which I liked) & The Covenant (which I loved & highly recommend). “2023 Guy Ritchie Double Feature”

Here’s a paragraph from the Operation Fortune section of that essay:

The reason to see Operation Fortune is the characters, or rather the actors portraying them. It’s a pleasure to watch Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Cary Elwes, rapper Bugzy Malone, Josh Hartnett, & the gorgeous Hugh Grant play off each other, even if they don’t always mix well (Plaza, I’m especially looking at you). One scene, a private fundraising event on a yacht, middle of the movie, throws all the characters together brilliantly. Layers of deception, manipulation, action, costuming, art, & fashion abound, brought out by Ritchie’s impressive visual style. It’s not the best he’s ever been, but he shows he still has it. It helps, too, that Ritchie puts these beautiful people into ridiculous situations & playfully mocks them, as he always does, reminiscent of the way intelligent directors such as Howard Hawks used to have fun mocking stars like Cary Grant. That one scene makes Operation Fortune worth watching.

Here’s a paragraph from the The Covenant section of that essay:

The Covenant proposes that America actually did have the power it needed to complete an orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan but was simply unwilling, or too weak-minded, to do so. Ritchie’s tale is small-scale & restrained, but he represents each of the kinds of players. The older, war-weary soldiers who just want to serve their country well, but with an unrewarded pride. The young recruits who don’t understand their objective. The high-ranking officers, politically compromised. The locals trying to live life in an essentially pre-modern world with which the West keeps meddling but simply does not understand, locals caught between US occupation on one side & Taliban murderousness on the other. & the affected Afghan & American families. Ritchie uses his fictional but finely detailed & researched story, filmed & acted well, to convey his vision of a successful American Afghanistan Withdrawal.

Also, not related to E.D. but instead about me, I wrote a wintry poetry chapbook that you should check out if that sounds interesting to you! Songs for Christmas: Twelve Poems & Pictures for Winter & Yuletide

To whet your appetite for Songs for Christmas, if you would be interested, here is one of the shorter poems contained within the chapbook:

“December Sunset”

Let the wind whip the world’s bones,

Let the snow build into banks,

Let our earth freeze beneath ice,

Green spring will arrive in her time.