Fight Work: Kingsman: The Secret Service's Church Brawl

With director Matthew Vaughn you now what you're going to get. An offbeat take on a familiar genre with plenty of laughs, Mark Strong will show up somewhere as will amazingly choreographed action sequences. Despite a small filmography as a director, Vaughn has put together an impressive collection of action blowouts including Hit Girl and Big Daddy's rampages in Kick-Ass or Magneto and Azazel going ham in X-Men First Class. But his crowning action achievement has to be the massive church shootout/brawl from 2015's Kingsman: The Sercret Service.

The Setup

After spending most of the film tracking tech baddie Richmond Valentine, Kingsman Harry Hart follows a tracking signal to a small hateful church in Kentucky. Convinced Valentine isn't in attendance, Harry attempts to leave. But when Valentine turns on a device that amplifies aggression and murderous brawl breaks out and Harry unleashes his incredibly lethal skill set.

Why It Shouldn't Work

A running theme of Fight Work has been how each of the scenes work really well in the context of the film. Sometimes it's meta-text, and sometimes it's the joy of our hero finally coming into their own. There is an emotional investment in the battle. This scene doesn't have that. Yes the audience wants Harry to survive and the audience should see what Valentine's device can do but there's no reason for a scene this expansive or violent. And yet.....

Why It Works

The Setup Eliminates 'Innocent' Victims

From the second their minster speaks, it's clear that the church in question is an analog for the Westboro Baptist Church. Why is this important? Well it's kinda a major bummer to have your hero murder a bunch of nice people in a church because a "go kill crazy" signal got pumped into their brain. That is, unless the audience already kinda sorta wants these people dead. Now I'm not for murder, but if we're talking people that picket soldiers funerals with posters that say "God Hates F****" there's a part of me that's ok with them not being on the planet anymore. It's not morally right, but when a brawl for survival breaks out, we're not going to be too shook up by Harry's killing spree.

Manners Be Gone

By this point, we've gotten the impression that Harry is like James Bond on steroids...but we've never really seen him cut loose. He's very reserved and proper. As his saying goes "Manners maketh the man." So seeing him unleash every skill set in his aresenal against an army of assholes is really satisfying. Gun play, gadgets, stabbing, fisticuffs, a grendae (just 'cause). It's the kitchen sink and the kitchen of Harry's moves all thrown into one scene.

And it also plants the seed as to what Eggsy might be capable of once he graduates from Kingsman training.

Stellar Action Choreography

Matthew Vaughn is a natural when it comes to staging action scenes, especially scenes that blend martial arts and firearms (see Kick-Ass). The reason his scenes work is because this blend is so fluid. It's a lot of cool looking moves, one after another, that looks awesome when they're paired together. There's nothing logical about posing while you fire a pistol, but if it looks a martial arts pose and works for our hero, yeah that's pretty awesome. Mix it up with some blades, punches and keep the camera far enough away to see Hary's every move and you'll keep eyes on screen. And if you pair it with other action film tricks...

Long Takes (Or At Least Looking Like It)

It takes a lot of effort to properly stage a long take in an action scene and you need to make sure your actor can do it. Thankfully Matthew Vaughn knows how to make this scene look like a long take. There's a lot of small moments for cuts, a gun fires at the frame, someone's body jumps in front of camera, but it never takes away from the flow of the scene and makes it appear as if Colin Firth is wrecking people in a seamless string of movements. It makes Harry look even more bad-ass and once again, puts us in his point of view.

Ramping, POV, and Sound

Ramping is the film technique used in a number of 300's battle scenes. You play things at a normal speed, slow things down before a big blow and then speed things up again. Like any action scene technique it's been grossly oversused but Vaughn is smart enough to blend it with other tricks. In particular the scene does a great job and putting us in Harry's POV. 

The camera follows his motions, be it a reload or pulling out a gadget, so even if we don't see every blow or take in the chaos around we feel like we're thinking the same things Harry is thinking. Before he pulls his flame thrower or grenade, we already know what's coming next, so get to briefly anticipate the move and then get to set it come to fruition. Oh man someone's about to tackle Harry! Will he dodge it or stab him in the face? The entire scene is a series of small build-ups and payoffs that either speed things up, slow them down, or move the camera to keep us guessing.

We even hear things as Harry does including the post-grenade sound droning as his ears recover, which oddly enough includes the song chosen for this fight scene...

Free Freaking Bird

Classic rock tracks are some of the most overused elements in filmmaking but how perfect is the "Free Bird" solo for this scene? The blistering guitar work matches the scene's chaos. The fight work seems to speed up and slow down as the battle does. Even the church like organ cue before the carnage starts. Everything feels timed together like the most brutal dance number you've ever seen. It's this attention to detail that takes a mindless show of violence and makes it into a showstopper.

The Extra: Cartoonish Brutality

Kingsman's unique take on the James Bond model is less about its setup (aka a bunch of nobels tested into secret agents) but taking campy Bond antics to R-rated places. And in this case that means goofy levels of violence. Lots blood of semi-gruesome deaths one after another. It's actually cringe-worthy in some spots and if nothing else its memorable.

Verdict: Unneccessary but Endlessly Watchable

The setup for this massacre is completely contrived at best, but Vaughn's mastery of action film-making (be it staging, sound, or camera work) means the audience never dwells on it enough to care. Can't wait for more of the same.