‘John Wick’ director Chad Stahelski names his five favourite films of all time
John Wick director Chad Stahelski began his career as a stuntman, first working on 1994’s The Crow. It was towards the end of the decade that Stahelski first teamed up with his future frequent collaborator Keanu Reeves on The Matrix, and he later worked as a stunt coordinator for the rest of the movies in the franchise.
Of course, Stahelski would work with Reeves on his recent John Wick action film franchise, a refreshingly modern take on the genre. We’ve just seen the release of the fourth film, and to get a clue as to the inspirations behind the series as a whole, we can take a look at Stahelski’s favourite films and see where John Wick gets its biggest inspiration from.
Given Stahelski’s penchant for action, it’s unsurprising to find one of the genre’s greatest-ever movies on his list of favourite films. Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai contains some of the best action sequences ever filmed, and they ought to be praised for their sense of reality.
“I’m a huge Akira Kurosawa fan,” Stahelski said, “You can tell that Parabellum is the closest thing to a western chanbara film—which is a Japanese slang term for a samurai/sword-fighting movie. John Wick is basically paying tribute to all the great samurai and spaghetti westerns out there. That’s where we get it.”
In light of that, Stahelski’s next pick also makes sense: Sergio Leone’s widely-admired 1967 spaghetti western The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. “Let’s support Sergio Leone, too,” Stahelski added. “If you look at the composition and the editorial style of Seven Samurai and Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, obviously, Leone and Kurosawa are very close. Both in style and thematics.”
There are influences for John Wick from all over the cinematic world, though, and the franchise is best known for its hard-hitting gunfire. Stahelski also named the aptly titled Bullitt as one of his favourite films and noted its influence on the first John Wick movie. “John Wick 1 was heavily influenced by Steve McQueen, by Bullitt,” he said. “The Mustang and the turtleneck… Also, French Connection, that sort of thing. All those great 1970s films were a big part of John Wick 1.”
As well as gunfire, the John Wick series would be nowhere without its awesome hand-to-hand combat, and Stahelski rounds off his list with two martial arts classics. The first is The Raid Redemption, released in 2011, which is Gareth Evan’s tribute to the fighting style of Indonesia. “John Wick 2 was really influenced by Hong Kong and Asian films, and John Wick 3 went even crazier and was heavily influenced by The Raid. Gareth [Evans’] stuff, it’s great,” Stahelski said.
He then paid his respects to Zhang Yimou, particularly his film House of Flying Daggers from 2004. “I worked with him briefly when I was prepping a show for Legendary Films – I didn’t stay on that show, the timing didn’t work out, but I got to work several months with Zhang Yimou, which was great,” Stahelski said. “His use of colours, that’s what we used in John Wick.”
Stahelski added: “My cinematographer Dan Laustsen and I were very influenced by the artistic way he used colour, because Zhang Yimou is also a photographer and amazing artist. It’s funny; when asked what my influences in action are, I usually choose them based not on the actual action choreography. It’s the vibe, the thematics of the action. Or how it’s shot and composed. That’s very important to me.”
Chad Stahelski’s five favourite films:
- Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1967)
- Bullitt (Peter Yates, 1968)
- The Raid: Redemption (Gareth Evans, 2011)
- House of Flying Daggers (Zhang Yimou, 2004)
