[image:115:l] It’s such a rare thing to go to the movies and see something that challenges you to think or act. Few movies are about ideas as much as they are about actors, images, and technology. Still fewer are those movies that can combine good acting startling images, fx, and ideas. When that happens it tends to make for a movie that gets under my skin and becomes a favorite of mine. I’m happy to report that it’s happened again with V For Vandetta.

I’m not familiar with the 80′s comic by Alan Moore that this is based on, nor do I know Moore’s reasons for taking his name off the movies credits and disassociating himself from it. Obviously the original was not an allegory for the Bush administration while this certainly has Patriot Act era undertones. Taking place in the 2020′s we even see old news footage of anti-Bush demonstrations that are protesting events including Iraq that are alluded to as being part of the chain of events leading to the authoritarian Britain of the film’s present. Exposing and avenging a long running government conspiracy is at the root of the actions of the masked lead nicknamed V and played by a Hugo Weaving. We never see Weaving who is not so much a hero but the welcome villain the governemnt has created and that they and the people deserve. It’s a bit annoying to try and listen to a man speak who’s mouth I can’t see move, but on some level it works as a symbol of V’s status as the voice of the oppressed speaking from a collective muffled silence so that all may speak freely again. Fortunately for this theory it is backed up by later imagery of the film in which V’s role as everyman and his plan for the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot of 4 centuries ago, come together. I found the visuals of the movies culminating actions epic and exillarating for both the cinematic scope of them and their kinship to the themes that they gave visual representation for.

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There’s alot of dialogue to sift through and wax philosophic about in V and I’m not sure I agree with all of it; but it’s certainly all interesting and worthy of debate. V believes for instance that the people should not be afraid of their government but rather governments should be afraid of the people. While being an inspiring line that appeals to the anarchist in me I’m not sure I want to live in a world where average citizens run amok causing chaos when they’re not happy. Of course if the choice is one or the other I might waiver and I certainly want politicians fearing for their jobs. Preferably they’d lose them through voting rather than beheading though. Otherwise were in Robespeirre country and watching revolutions eat their young.

But much of what V stands for, says, and does is operating on that higher level of genius that is beyond simple black and white colorations. While he kills alot of innocent people he is admittedly a product of system, a sort of Frankenstein’s monster turning on it’s creator with all that creatures ill-fashioned clumsiness and lack of subtlety. And yet he is still charming, brilliant, heroic, and human. Natalie Portman becomes his connection to humanity and the relationship between the two is genuinely interesting and meaningful. At his core V may just be a vulnerable and rejected man just looking for a little acceptance and connection. Just feeling as if he’s understood by someone he respects and gets him makes a world of difference in the end.

The whole segment that leads to Portman shaving her hair is interesting in and of itself. I can’t mention much about it here due to its spoiler potential, but I will say that it connected with something I’d been thinking about alot lately regarding froth coming through hardship, and becoming free by losing one’s self and ego. [image:116:l]

I really liked the movie and don’t discount my bias towards its political message as being part of the reason. It’s probably not a non-partisan movie or one that conservatives would find as truly disturbing and incendiary as I did. At least not in a good way. The mask V hides behind is intended to look like the Gunpowder Plot mastermind Guy Fawkes and after the movie I wanted to don me a John Hinckley mask and take to the streets in the name of the ever decreasing abstractions freedom, justice, and liberty. This is probably one of the reasons many will dislike this film and I certainly don’t advocate a bloodspree. But in a country where the media is owned by corporations that own the politicians, a country where 1% control 90% of the wealth, and one in which the President makes laws and breaks them at will with no ramifications we might soon be at the point where we have nothing to lose but our chains.