KINGSMEN VS THE GLOBALISTS

Given the absolute scorn directed at the British working class these days—especially post-Brexit—by much of the sneering middle class and second-home poshos, not to mention the establishment media, it’s always refreshing to recall the deliriously subversive, climactic finale of Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman back in 2016. As a sort of riposte to the permanently glum Daniel Craig-era Bond, the Kingsmen (played by Colin Firth and Taron Egerton, with the help of Merlin, played by Mark Strong) just about manage to avert a mass depopulation event engineered by an eco-zealot, genocidal maniac portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson—while the heads of globalist elite politicians and military generals explode like fireworks to the sound of Elgar's Land of Hope and Glory.

Perhaps especially in light of the woke puritanical orthodoxy we've been subjected to for the past decade or more—led largely by ideological academics, managerial-class wonks, and out-of-touch legacy media journalists who seem to believe they alone define what is good and bad in modern society—both the film and that infamous scene feel like a band of naughty schoolboys gleefully running amok in the halls of a strict, joyless prep school.

Sadly, Vaughn and his team failed to match the un-PC brilliance of the first film with the woeful sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, in which they kowtowed to badly judged political interests, abandoning the countercultural punk spirit that made the original so refreshing.

Still, while it lasted, it was glorious—and one can only hope there's a British Stanley Kubrick, Lindsay Anderson, or Alan Clarke waiting in the wings to bring something even more rebellious back to our cinema screens. For a while, I thought perhaps Jonathan Glazer might be the 'Punk Terrible' to bring a certain rebel spirit back to British cinema, but he’s become increasingly less subversive since his masterful debut Sexy Beast in 2000 and his brilliant Sony Bravia “Paint” ad in 2006.

So, for now—until the revolution, both literal and cultural, comes—I’ll just have to return to the Kingsman “head exploding scene” for inspiration.