A Review of Kingsman: The Secret Service, a Movie by Matthew Vaughn

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In contemporary popular culture and media, diversity and social commentary are practically non—existent. Many of these movies are very similar to each other, in plot, cast, and production crews. In this paper I will be discussing the film Kingsman: The Secret Service, which was released in February of 2015, featuring Colin Firth, Samuel L Jackson, and Taron Egerton. Kingsman: The Secret Service provides a thought-provoking social commentary on political issues regarding climate change and corruption, while also tackling the subject of elitism presented d1rough classism, sexism, and racism, creating an action-filled movie full of comedic moments with a strong political message, Kingsman follows the story of Gary “Eggsy” Unwin, a young man from a rough neighborhood in South London.

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He is offered a chance to become a secret agent for Kingsman, an independent spy agency put in place to preserve peace after WWI.

While he is training to become a spy, the story shifts to focus on a larger ploti Celebrities begin to go missing, politicians are acting strangely and are having secret meetings with business mogul Richmond Valentine, and a professor of environmental sciences is kidnapped and then returned without a fight, Harry Hart, codename Galahad, who is acting as Eggsy’s mentor, is sent to investigate the strange occurrences, He discovers that Valentine has a secret plan to kill two thirds of the population to help reverse climate change, and that he’s kidnapped famous and influential people to keep them safe, even if they aren‘t willing to go along with his plan After a mission goes wrong and Harry is incapacitated, Eggsy must become the man he’s been training to be, and, with the help of his friend Roxy Morton and the tech genius Merlin, he must save the world.

The characters in Kingsman: The Secret Service all come from different backgrounds, which serves as interesting social commentary on elitism. Eggsy is treated poorly because he comes from a bad neighborhood and has an accent usually attributed to the working class. Roxy is faced with discrimination because she is a woman, the first in fact to even be considered for the agency. Valentine is the rich, intelligent founder of his company, and has put himself in a position that demands the kind of respect not usually given to a black man from a poor family, Valentine‘s sidekick Gazelle is portrayed as beautiful and powerful, even Lhough she uses prosthetics for legs and would be considered disabled Through these characters, the writers and directors of Kingsman show an advance in diversit, but also continue to fall back on some of the negative stereotypes that persist in society.

The story of Eggsy Unwin begins when he is about seven years old. His father also had a chance to become a Kingsman agent, but unfortunately died in the line of duty saving Harry Hart and two other agents from a grenade. This leaves Eggsy living with his single mother Michelle, who later remarries to Dean Anthony Baker, a gang boss in their neighborhood who abuses both Eggsy and his mother, and completely neglects their new daughter. Life quickly goes downhill for Eggsy, summed up nicely by Harry Hart in the beginning of the movie, saying “Huge I.Qr, great performance in primary school, And it all went tits up, Drugs, petty crime, never had a job.” The introduction of Eggsy’s character ends with him stealing a car from a man in Dean’s gang, driving it through downtown London, and then crashing into a lamppost to avoid running over a fox, culminating in him facing eighteen months ofjail time. He is released by Harry Hart calling in a favor, and then begins “the most dangerous job interview in the world,” along with eleven other recruits.

One of the first scenes we see classism present itself in is when the recruits first meet each other. The difference in status is immediately apparent. Eggsy is wearing an Adidas jacket and shoes with jeans, while the other boys look like they’ve stepped out of a catalogue, all dressed in slacks, nice sweaters, and expensive shoes. They begin to make fun of Eggsy immediately, teasing about his name and asking where he went to school, mentioning Oxford and Cambridge, two of the oldest and most respected universities in the UK. Eggsy stands his ground and tells them he went to neither, which prompts one of the boys making ajoke about how he must know Eggsy because he probably worked at a fast food place. This immediately serves as a way to distance Eggsy from himself, and to show that he’s of a higher social status As the movie continues, it is clear that Kingsman is incredibly elitist.

All of the agents are middle aged white men who basically look the same, and the leader, Chester King, codename Arthur, is incredibly rude and stuck in his old ways, which leaves him to be very frustrated with Harry Hart for choosing Eggsy as a candidate At first glance, Kingsman seems to be yet another indication of old white men in power, and many reviews of the movie mention the pasty complexion of every single agent However, towards the end of the movie, the audience finds out that Kingsman in itself is very corrupt, and only the new agents who are outside the expected model can save things, which begs the question; did the writers and producers mean to prove a point with the spies by saying that old systems of power become corrupt very easily and turn to violence to keep themselves in power, or did they simply fall prey to the James Bond trope of attractive white men saving the day? Overall, the story focuses on Eggsy’s transformation into a gentleman spy, though Harry Hart makes a good point when he quotes Ernest Hemmingway: “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”

Harry sees that Eggsy is more than his background, and in doing so, allows Eggsy to see that himself and save the world, Though Eggsy did come into his own power and help stop Valentine’s evil plan, he did not do it on his own Roxy Morton, one of his fellow recruits who actually ends up getting the job as a Kingsman agent, is instrumental in stopping Valentine, She also happens to be the only female agent in Kingsman, and the first female recruit One of the most powerful things about Roxy is that she is a complex character. Often in spy films, the woman is simply a sex object, someone who wears tiny dresses and is saved by the protagonist Roxy is very far from that She is the best recruit, and doesn’t have any romantic interests in the movie at all. One character tries to insinuate that she has a crush on Eggsy, but it’s so ridiculous that it’s not thought of seriously at all.

Though Roxy obviously comes from a very wealthy family, she faces discrimination due to her genderl Chester King, leader of Kingsman, says to Eggsy “At least the girl has bigger balls than you” after she completes a task that Eggsy failed. This implies not only that Chester didn’t think she was capable, but that her succeeding makes her more masculine, and therefore stronger Roxy Morton is the complex, well written female character we’ve all been asking for. She’s afraid of heights but flies to the edge of the atmosphere anyway, because it‘s her job to do so Most of the movie, she doesn‘t wear much makeup and wears rational clothes, matching the other recruits However, she also shows that it’s possible to be powerful in a dress and heels, as when they go clubbing to find an important person She proves that it’s possible to be beautiful, strong, and complex without simply being the romantic interest. In every spy story, there is a villain, Richmond Valentine is the “colorful megalomaniac” in this film, an interesting contrast to the usual evil. One of the first things presented about him is that he can’t stand violence or blood.

This in itself presents a clue into his twisted thinking and reasoning behind his plan to save the earth. In one introductory scene, a news reporter talks about a new Hollywood movie about his life, titled Rags to Riches, implying that Valentine came from a poor background. One of the ways the directors reinforced this was to outfit him in a tracksuit and snapback, clothes that are typically not worn by billionaires who graduated from MIT Valentine is an odd mix of extravagant and strange, like a child with too much money on his hands, At a fancy dinner, he pairs McDonald’s hamburgers with expensive wine, and has extremely flawed logic. Valentine subverts expectations about how rich and famous people should act, and proving that growing up as a poor black man does not limit your future Though he adds diversity to the almost ghostly cast, it‘s unfortunate that it had to be in the role of the villain, His sidekick, Gazelle, is also a woman of color, and the two of them comprise the only POC main characters.

By casting only the villains as people of color, the directors, possibly subconsciously, are continuing the negative connotation between evil and darker skint Focusing more on Gazelle as a character, she is a very interesting creation. In the original comic, she is a large black man, acting as the typical bodyguard to the man in powert By changing her gender to female, the directors chose to flip some of those expected stereotypes. Gazelle is also important because she does not have legs, and would be considered to have a disability. However, she uses this to her advantage by turning her prosthetics into weapons.

Not many movies can boast that they have a badass disabled woman of color as a main character. Unfortunately, as mentioned before, she is a villain, and is ultimately killed to save the world. Overall, Kingsman: The Secret Service makes some attempts at diversity, but continues to perpetuate certain stereotypes, especially related to race While the movie deals with gender very well, the female characters are still incredibly outnumbered by men. Even though the film employs actors of color, they are cast mostly as villains, and in the case of Valentine, perpetuate certain stereotypes of black people, including his clothing and his unsophisticated personality.

As for the character of Eggsy Unwin, the film does an excellent job proving that social standing does not preclude one from saving the world, Taking Eggsy’s transformation with a grain of salt however, it’s possible to conclude that Eggsy was able to save everyone only after he donned the standard Kingsman suit and glasses, and changing his chav accent to the “proper” English that most of us recognize, it’s important to appreciate the attempts at diversity and at revealing the problems with social oppression, while also understanding that it‘s nearly impossible to create a completely perfect film, especially if the production crew and writers are mostly white men This is a problem that perpetuates Lhroughout Hollywood and other production companies, and shows in production.