Kingsman: The Secret Service

Sequel: “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” (2017)

Gary ‘Eggsy’ Unwin (Taron Egerton) is something of a prodigal genius. Not that he’d let on about his giftedness. Or admit to his prodigal… ness. He’s had a bum lot in life. His dad died when he was a preschooler, and he’s lived a lower class life with an abusive stepdad ever since. He’s tired of it, but he’s given up. So he coasts, acting out when pushed around by the wrong people. There’s still a spark in him, he just doesn’t see it anymore.

Harry Hart (Colin Firth) carries a burden. Not that you could tell based on his crisp suit and gentlemanly demeanor. He’s the sort that looks to have it all together. But his heart is heavy knowing that his mistake cost a man his life, and cost a young family their dad.

Known in the Kingsman—a super secret independent international intelligence agency—as Galahad, he believes that helping Eggsy is the right thing to do. Not just because he feels responsible for his father’s death, but also because he can see the last remaining spark in the young man and wants to fan it into flame.

Little does either of them know that they’ll need it to fan into an inferno if they’re to have any hope of stopping Valentine—an eccentric, lisping Earth-conscious, violence-averse, self-made Silicon Valley-esque billionaire (played by a brilliant Samuel L. Jackson)—from causing the people of the Earth to purge themselves in order to save the planet.

Content of concern

LANGUAGE—The Kingsmen are very concerned with conducting themselves as perfect gentlemen… except when it comes to their language. 108 variations of the f-word plague the script, as do 34 uses of sh*t. God’s name is abused eight times, three of those being paired with d*mn.

Half a dozen uses of a** litter the rest of the proceedings along with a dozen or so British vulgarities like “bloody” and “wanker.” In one scene, during an angry rant/sermon, a pastor uses offensive terms to refer to Jewish people, black people, and homosexuals.

SEXUAL CONTENT—A woman offers to have anal sex with a man if he can save the world. When he does, her bare backside is displayed as they happily prepare to consummate their agreement. A joke is made about a threesome, and one man makes a reference to ejaculating in someone’s fast food order. A young man watches his parents makeout on their couch. Elsewhere, a quip about “winning someone over in the biblical sense” is made. Women are seen in bikinis on the beach. Man grabs women’s backside as they ascend steps. There are obscene gestures.

VIOLENT CONTENT—Violence is a key component of the Kingsmen’s world, and they practice their particular brand with a certain calculated, balletic brutality.

The camera soaks all of their (and others) work with glee, as eyes and heads explode, dozens (if not hundreds) of people’s bodies are bashed, bruised, snapped, shot, stabbed, impaled, crushed, sliced, exploded, and even immolated.

The most unsettling scene takes place inside some form of Baptist church in rural southern America, that seems be a stand-in for the infamous Westboro Baptist. Outside, the church sign says, “America Is Doomed.” On the inside, the bigoted pastor’s over-the-top sermon spews blatant hate for blacks, Gays, Jews, Catholics, the divorced, and more. The pews are filled with hypocrites. When a visitor is confronted as he tries to leave in the middle of the service, he verbally jabs them by saying he is a Gay “Catholic whore” married to a black man who works in an abortion clinic.

Then we’re made to watch for several uncomfortable minutes as the church congregation is driven into a bloodthirsty brawl by Valentine’s malevolent tech—played for laugh for laughs. All those different ways to break bodies and take lives that I mentioned in an earlier paragraph? Those are all present at least once during the bloody scene. In just one scene.

Elsewhere in the film, a man threatens his stepson with a kitchen knife and a woman, not under her own control, tries to hack through a bathroom door to attack her toddler-aged daughter. People are routinely shot or stabbed in the head, and a few men lose limbs to bullets or sharp blades. One man’s body is sliced completely in half, and the audience watches as the pieces slide apart from each other. Another long scene features dozens of people’s heads exploding—literally—like fireworks.

DRUGS/ALCOHOL—Kingsmen are quite fond of their fine wines and whiskeys, and plenty of both are consumed casually over the course of the film. On a few occasions, drinks are spiked, with varying effects.

Themes

Galahad sees a lot of potential in Eggsy, just as he also saw it in Eggsy’s dad so many years ago… and he is determined to help the young man take hold of it, in spite of the class system that has separated “lesser” men like Eggsy from the Kingsman (and others) for so many years. “Nobility is not about being better than another man,” Galahad admonishes Eggsy, “true nobility is being better than one’s former self.”

This idea is the core of the Christian faith, but is also, sadly, something we too often lose sight of in our day-to-day. Our faith in and redemption through Christ doesn’t make us better than anybody else (Romans 10:11-13). Instead, true faith and redemption means we are saved from and better than our former selves through God’s grace (Philippians 3:13-14; Ephesians 2:8-9).

It’s not about the berating or putting down of others due to the specks in their eyes; it’s about the beauty of God’s forgiveness that helps remove the logs from our own (Luke 6:41-42).

Curiously, the film’s treatment of violence brings up its own interesting set of problems. It’s obvious that Valentine’s plan to cause planet-wide genocide to save the Earth for a select few is wrong, much in the same way that HYDRA’s plan to do the same in Marvel’s “The Winter Soldier” was wrong. Even if he (and HYDRA) believes that taking these lives will, somehow, save more lives in the end. The end does not justify the means. We all tend to agree with that.

But, then again, usually only to a point. The Kingsmen themselves are not above taking lives to save lives, and they take quite a few lives, as they try to save the world. And, the audience obediently agrees with—and cheers for—them, because they are taking out the bad guys. But, as far as Valentine is concerned, he also is trying to take out the bad guys. The audience cheers because they side with the film’s “good” guys, but it’s important to think about the reality of subjective justice and who gets to decide what is right and what is wrong, and who is “good” and who is “bad.”

Conclusion

Those looking for a sharp sendup of the spy genre are going to find exactly what they hoped for in “Kingsman.” The script is crisp, and the action is unique enough to stand on its own even as it occasionally parodies. It is homage with a winking wit and plenty of charm, and Samuel L. Jackson nails the role of an understated, but undeniably megalomaniacal villain.

Which makes the violence all the more unsettling, since we’re supposed to laugh and cheer as bodies hit the floor after being dispatched with bloody panache. In spite of a little bit of lip service via Valentine’s personal distaste for blood and death, there seems to be very little real interest in dealing with the heavy cost of violence.

Just as trying to tell people to be better with their finances while you teach them to gamble is counter-productive, so is trying to make a statement about the need for less bloodshed while asking people to laugh as dozens of people’s heads explode. Even if you’re trying to be tongue-in-cheek about it, the message is quickly lost.

Artistically, it has all the gadgets it needs to be a great film in this genre. But, unfortunately, it also packs in several unnecessary pieces of gear that weigh it down and make the trip one not worth the cost—which is a shame. Especially when we know what could have been, since other movies have managed to accomplish the same objective with less baggage (see “Get Smart”).

• Violence: Extreme
• Profanity/Vulgarity: Extreme— • 103 or more f-words, (some used sexually), including “Holy f***!” “mother-f***** and “I will f***ing gut you!” • “popping one’s cherry” • “b*nged” • “Jesus” • “For G*d’s sake” • “Oh my G*d” • “G*d-d*amn” • “pr*ck” • “d*ckhead” • “balls” • “bollocks” • “t*ts” • “a**hole” • “a**” (3) • s-words (18+) • “son of a b*tch” • “F*g lovers!” • n-word • “p**”
• Sex/Nudity: Heavy

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.

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