Movie Natters: March 15, 2006 Archive

Unmasking "V for Vendetta"

Posted at 6:40 PM on March 15, 2006 by Euan Kerr (4 Comments)

The Wachowski brothers are redeemed! After writing and producing a great movie, "The Matrix," and spinning it out into an overblown trilogy with impenetrable spiritual aspirations, they are back with a taut, challenging thriller.

"V for Vendetta" is set in a London of the near future where a totalitarian government led by a wild-eyed dictator rules with a combination of a manipulated media and a vicious secret police.

Suddenly a masked avenger appears to challenge the system. Known only as V, he dresses as Guy Fawkes, the man arrested as he tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in November 1605. V (Hugo Weaving) stumbles across Evey (Natalie Portman) and recognizes a kindred, if unwilling, spirit. V launches his campaign against the government by taking over the national TV news channel on Guy Fawkes night (November 5th.) He announces he'll blow up Parliament in a years time and invites lovers of liberty to come watch. His action launches a wild year-long chase.

Hugo Weaving as "V" in "V for Vendetta" (Image courtesy of Warner Brothers Entertainment)

This film features some fine performances by Portman, who only seems to get better with each new film, and Weaving, who doesn't let the fact that he is wearing a mask get in the way of developing the emotional density of his character. John Hurt plays the dictator, Chancellor Sutler, with phlegm-flecked intensity. Stalwart performers Stephen Rea, as the police investigator, and Steven Fry as a television presenter tired of toeing the government line add depth and humanity to the plot.

First time feature director James McTeigue provides lots of action, but most of the gymnastics are really of the mental variety. "Vendetta" pokes at the flimsy tissue separating freedom fighters from terrorists. As Evey quickly learns, V is prepared to go to extremes to further his cause.

While he targets the government officials, he is clear as to who is responsible for allowing the dictatorship to exist. "If you are looking for the guilty" he says during his broadcast,"Look in the mirror."

I've been enjoying how this film, and its circumstances, make your head spin.

Here we have a movie, released during a war where both sides accuse each other of terrorism, made by a huge entertainment corporation, Warner Brothers Entertainment, about a man, V, bent on bringing down the government, who bases his exploits on a historical figure, Guy Fawkes, who is either a villain or a martyr, in a story written by a man, Alan Moore, who claims his material was stolen from him.

To try to explain: V styles himself after Guy Fawkes, who is still burned in effigy every November 5th in Britain. Supposedly it's a celebration of King James (he of the King James bible) being saved from an awful fate. However most people have forgotten the story, and Fawkes is more celebrated than the King. Historians now acknowledge that Fawkes, and the others in the Gunpowder plot, all Catholics, were probably set up by the Protestant elite who were looking for an excuse for a sectarian clampdown. It's hard to decide who were the bad guys.

The film is based on a graphic novel by maverick comic book writer Alan Moore. As laid out in a New York Times article last weekend "The Vendetta behind 'V for Vendetta'" he demanded his name be taken off the film, as he feels he has been ripped off by DC Comics which published the graphic novel. He has walked away from characters with which he is best associated.

In some ways it is almost more fun to think about than the film itself.

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