The Beekeeper - Military Jesus
Thoughts On: The Beekeeper (2024)
A retired veteran of the most elite extra-systemic corporation is pulled into action.
A solid action movie, very well put together and paced, but rather shallow and twisted in its overt moralising. The Beekeeper sees Jason Statham embody military Jesus to serve as the right hand of God and justice, murdering and maiming hundreds, shielded by divinity itself from bombs, grenades, bullets and sense all along the way. The brashness and full-throttle illogic pushing the plot of The Beekeeper is honestly impressive; it is with full confidence that it places military Jesus in the heart of chaos with deific powers that blast through the impossible so fast it'd be too exhausting to even apply rationality to. For this, The Beekeeper certainly does something interesting. It expresses such a deep theological, anti-state opposition to money and power-seeking lies and deception that it foregoes basic morality in the construction of its hero. All that matters in this narrative is the personal realisation of justice - a signification of a deep hatred for corruption, which itself is simply a manifestation of personal justice. Morality stands as a collective vision of right and wrong, but is corrupted by overwhelming individual power. This is what military Jesus comes to embody, just like those he kills; the fact he cannot die solidifies his corruption and the backward nature of this plot. I find this interesting as it seems to speak to the Rambo narrative that has developed in American action cinema since the 70s and 80s as a new vision of the American dream - one that seemingly cannot approach the aporia between morality and individuality without senseless bloodshed. I couldn't hope to solve this conundrum, but The Beekeeper certainly makes some twistedly violent fun out of it. A pretty revealing, though philosophically unsettling, movie that suggests truth, fickle as it may be, can only emerge from horror and war.
