What I really fucking love about Hot Fuzz is that it is a rare piece of artwork that unapologetically defends liberal modernity.

A representative of the impartial, uniform rule of law & depersonalized state beings justice to a lawless, backward community run by a wretched clique of local grandees.

February 16, 2026 - 05:44 UTC

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When people ask me for a movie about philosophy, this is always the one I recommend. It’s also a full throated argument against utilitarianism, and what I love about it it shows what’s appealing about utilitarianism for the first half.
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I'm not sure I entirely agree about the utilitarianism angle here--the NWA doesn't really consistently display utilitarianism more than virtue ethics--most of the villains clearly think that they're the good guys b/c of their motivation to make the town perfect, not via a cost-benefit calculation.
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The entire Cornetto trilogy be like that (with the exception of The World's End's ending).
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I don't really see it for Shaun of the Dead; can you elaborate?

And I'd argue that World's End's rejection of regulatory busybodies telling you to do things for your own good is also pretty liberal!
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"we live in a society and we are not going to let you freaks run this town like your little club" is a pretty good distillation of liberal modernity
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Imma be that guy...

If one listens to the Director's commentary the film's creators note that they think it's ironic that, by UK standards anyway, the happy ending is that a tightly wound "Fascist", their words, ends up with their own fiefdom.

Their words for Nick Angel.

Just saying...
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that's normal: part of the genre / joke

"Dirty Harry" (1971) is about *a cop not following the rules* ("fascist")

next movie in "Magnum Force" the protagonist is now killing the fascist cops who aren't following the rules, but too much

= that defined cop movies since then.
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🎯💯 Filling out paperwork, shot like a Michael Bay movie.

youtu.be/u5ZbTMEcmx0?si=t9HcgsAUcNUpEnFT&t=212
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@eliasisquith.blog re. your excellent point on liberal celebrating media
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its like "Wicker Man if the cop was a badass"
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Now I will never unthink that. :~)
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It gives a farcical but remarkably on-point portrayal of the totalitarian response to modernity--total surveillance, centralized control over all culture and expression, and the liquidation of anyone who doesn't fit in.

And it shows the correct response to this threat: crushing the totalitarians.
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The NWA is terrified of the ebb and flow of a living, changing world and lashes out with atrocity in response. The ppl who crush them--Nick and Danny--are positively attracted to modernity and fight for it. Danny wants to have a good time and be left alone. Nick wants to live out his ambitions.
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Really incredible we got this line like a decade in advance by the exact same kind of guy who says it IRL.
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I also love how they uncover what looks like a logical conspiracy of material corruption - only for the real evil to be revealed as just the most parochial small-minded local community mentality taken to insane extremes.

"Crusty jugglers!"
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