Sometimes the most outrageous violent films give a view of society that we don’t want to see in a documentary or a serious dramatic film. For whatever reason the American psyche will accept a message told in an explosive format, violently communicated, and shot to pieces in front of us.
The Beekeeper starring Jason Statham, and directed by David Ayer, is another rage-fueled example of the agent versus the system genre.
The two best previous kinds of these films that proceeded are :
–Licence to Kill/1989 Starring Timothy Dalton as James Bond, directed by John Glen
–Machete/2010 Starring Dannhy Trejo as Machete, directed by Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis
In “License to Kill”, James Bond goes off-script at times during his work for the British intelligence service but remains loyal and true to the mission given to him. However, in the 1989 movie, Bond portrayed by Timothy Dalton, he goes completely off the reservation due to his best friend’s murder and his new wife’s assault. He takes matters into his own hands and becomes openly defiant to his superior, M. The film taps directly into the Zeitgeist of that era, where drug dealers and cartel heads had a lot of protection, and governments seemed powerless to deal with them.
Similarly, in the film “Machete”, the protagonist, Machete, starts off as a federale for the Mexican Government. But he is betrayed by his own chief, and his partner is killed, leaving him with a strong anger for the system. The movie progresses as Machete gets caught up in a web of deceit and conspiracies while trying to do what he believes is right.
In this movie, Jason Statham’s character, “The Beekeeper”, is taken in by a kindly widow who is later betrayed by hackers who have implanted a bug on her computer, then act to help her.
(Does this sound familiar?)
The hackers use specialized data mining systems to breach the computer of this woman and take all of her funds, including a charity fund she helped maintain. When normal channels fail to fix the issue, Jason Statham’s character takes matters into his own hands. During the course of the movie, these hackers get away with their actions, and it shows how they are assisted by those who may have government connections. The Beekeeper is a unique character who has free and total access to maneuver and act as they see fit to address and balance the systems in America. The movie highlights concepts such as the protection of the elderly, the technological divide between generations, and the fact that there is little that can be done when these types of situations occur. While this is an enjoyable escapist film, it is highly violent, and finding ways to solve problems in our own way, without violence, may be a better option.
