I found myself wondering how I could enjoy something like the excellent fifth episode of Barry Season Two, but not the mindless entertainment of John Wick. The carnage in John Wick exists as a form of pornography-it's violence for the sake of violence. John McClane seems to delight in killing terrorists in Die Hard, but his violence serves a purpose: to rescue scores of people from their captors. There are, of course, countless violent movies that choose to ignore the emotional fallout of gun violence. It doesnвЂ™t bother to wrestle with the effects-physically or psychologically-of gun violence. It has nothing to say beyond the excellently choreographed fight scenes. For the most part, John Wick just silently and effectively kills in order to achieve the tranquil life of which he dreams.The movie exists solely for the action and violence. But we're never exposed to this emotional struggle or his battle with the violent life he's forced to lead. Sure, John Wick is a character who, despite being a hardened killer, is a reformed wannabe pacifist in search of a peaceful life.

ThatвЂ™s specifically the case with a movie like John Wick, where the overall plot involves a violent revenge fantasy. Revenge fantasies are entertainment, and they've been part of Hollywood for decades.Д«ut for me, it's becoming harder to come to terms with on-screen gun violence in a country defined by real-life tragedies. IвЂ™m not saying the violence in John Wick: Chapter 3 is problematic or responsible for mass shootings in our country, nor am I suggesting anyone should feel bad about enjoying this movie or others like it. If film is no longer where we go to escape these horrors, it could be a place where even our blockbusters strive to better understand it. I was in California for an internship at the time, but when I eventually saw The Dark Knight Rises in the theater, it was a chilling experience. One of these was the Aurora Theater shooting in 2012-again, just down the road from my parentsвЂ™ house. Since then, there have been eight mass shootings in Colorado, where I lived for 25 years. I was confused, and didnвЂ™t understand why my mom was crying when she picked up my sister and me from school. I was a 9-year-old third grader in an elementary school down the road from Columbine High School, and the idea of a shooting where we go to class made no sense to me. I vividly remember the first time my school was put on lockdown. This isn't my won't someone think of the children moment, but a reckoning with my own gut reaction to movie violence in a world that's more fucked up than the fantasy one we create. But, in this viewing with the very real-life effects of gun violence fresh on my mind, it was impossible to treat this film as escapism. I knew it had been accused of Hollywood gun pornography, yet I still accepted it as it was: entertainment-nothing more than a popcorn action film. Because I had seen both John Wick films, I was familiar with the ultra-violent revenge fantasy.

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