Generationally wealthy royals: they're just like us!
Queen Elizabeth II's favorite movie was reportedly Mike Hodges' gloriously campy "Flash Gordon." Her son, King Charles, is apparently a fan of morose singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. When Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud isn't ordering the mutilation of journalists, he evidently enjoys pro wrestling.
Entertainment is essential. It's what gets us through the drudgery of day-to-day life, and even the most monstrous people who've ever existed require this escapist outlet. Adolf Hitler was a cinephile. So was Joseph Stalin (huge Charlie Chaplin fan, that Stalin). Donald Trump reportedly loves Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Evita."
King Abdullah II of Jordan is no exception. In 2002, the first child of King Hussein visited Hollywood, and, keen on meeting Steven Spielberg, visited the set of "Catch Me If You Can." He was also a fan of "Shrek," which prompted Jeffrey Katzenberg to give Abdullah II a tour of DreamWorks Animation (though the executive cruelly subjected the royal to eight minutes of the looming flop "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron").
Abdullah II's cinephilia remains undimmed to this day. Very recently, he came to the rescue of the "John Wick: Chapter 4" production when they needed to get an aerial desert shot.
My Kingdom For A Black Hawk
In an interview with BuzzFeed, director Chad Stahelski disclosed that King Abdullah II furnished the filmmaker with a crucial piece of machinery. According to Stahelski:
"The king of Jordan gave us a Black Hawk. We were trying to get to a location we couldn't access, and he was nice enough to lend us a helicopter to fly the crew out to get the sunrise shot that you see in the movie."
This tickled Keanu Reeves, the film's pistol-packing star. "That's kind of cool," said Reeves. "The King gave you a helicopter to get a shot because [he's] a fan of 'John Wick.'" "The Jordanian government was awesome," replied Stahelski. "They were fantastic."
The shot in question didn't strike me as pivotal on my first and, thus far, only viewing. But when the potentate of an oil-rich country proffers a Black Hawk helicopter, you might as well accept. The "John Wick" movies trade heavily on their muscular production value. They're loaded with practical stunt work, and they eschew CG spiffiness whenever possible. They have as much in common with Reeves' "Speed" as they do with "The Matrix." As such, and for better or worse, they possess an understandable appeal to people with unlimited resources.
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