Every Franchise Needs a 'Wick Is Pain'
We're overdue for educating a new generation of cinephiles.
When DVDs arrived, movie fans knew we were being spoiled. The leap from VHS to DVD1 was massive, not only in experiencing movies the way they were meant to be seen (farewell to pan-and-scan), but also including a wealth of special features to make the package more enticing. I spent hours digging through commentaries and making-of documentaries on my discs for Fight Club and The Lord of the Rings. Studios were incentivized to make such additions because the home market was so valuable in boosting a film’s profitability.
Sadly, with the arrival of streaming and the dropoff in physical media sales, studios no longer felt obligated to invest in these special features, which meant you could be awed by a film’s production, but only insofar as the latest marketing materials (like a featurette) were willing to show you. Wick Is Pain, a feature-length documentary on the making of the four John Wick movies, feels both like a throwback to the glory days of DVD bonus features and a challenge to other franchises to do more than surface-level marketing when sharing a behind-the-scenes look.
Director Jeffrey Doe is still “selling” something—in this case, the John Wick franchise as well as the stunt company behind it, 8711—but the willingness to show the harder, less glamorous parts of filmmaking is what separates this from standard EPK (Electronic Press Kit) fare. The film examines the backstories of John Wick co-directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch and why the first John Wick was such a massive lift despite its relatively low price point. More importantly, the documentary doesn’t shy away from the on-set friction between Stahelski and Leitch or the learning curve of first-time directors. As Leitch explains, they wanted to become lead directors in part because they felt they were already handling major aspects of blockbusters by tackling the action scenes. However, they learned there’s far more to telling the overall story once you’re in the director’s chair.
These kinds of details are not only educational but also inspirational. While smartphones have radically democratized filmmaking, there’s no shortcut for trying to make your movie work. When Stahelski and Leitch look at their assembly cut and absolutely hate it, feeling completely deflated by what they’ve done, they’re reassured by star Keanu Reeves and producer Basil Iwanyk that editing is where you find the movie. Stahelski and Leitch were not filmmaking novices, but it’s heartening to see them realize they still had a lot to learn beyond making exciting action scenes.
Doe also does a fine job of making this documentary feel specific to Wick rather than a broad story of first-time directors taking on a Hollywood picture. One of the most fascinating segments comes with exploring the origins of “gun-fu,” the Wick series’ signature style, where kills can be done at close range without ever cutting away. As the film explains, firing blanks at a close range is still incredibly dangerous, but with CGI tools, the filmmakers could augment airsoft pistols and eventually plugged guns to create the illusion of close-quarters gunplay.
Every successful franchise should seek to be so open with its fans. What is the point of succeeding in a competitive landscape if you can’t show people all the ways you struggled, failed, and eventually triumphed? I understand studios wanting to keep the stories behind their fiascos private, but where is our documentary about the stunts in the Mission: Impossible movies or the changing personality of the Fast & Furious series? Perhaps a lot of egos were cast aside during the DVD era to make the product more appealing, but we’re now heading back towards the idea of “the dream factory,” where filmmaking is so grandiose as to be mystifying. This only leads to greater misunderstandings among increasingly vocal fan bases.
Watching Wick Is Pain only deepened my appreciation for the John Wick series (well, not for Ballerina, but I think there’s a tell there that, for some inexplicable reason, Lionsgate went with Len Wiseman as the director rather than an experienced second-unit helmer from 8711), and while the documentary isn’t included on any physical media purchase, it’s well worth a separate pick-up. Hollywood should be interested in educating its fans, not only because these documentaries can turn a profit, but because it makes people further invested in both the franchise and Hollywood filmmaking. We all know the industry is a rough business. There’s no point in shying away from the pain.
While LaserDisc was also a major leap forward from VHS, it was too expensive to gain a mainstream foothold.