V for Vendetta

Victory through Vendetta.

 

V for Vendetta is a swift and smugly entertaining portrait of revolution. Albeit, this is a Wachowski Brothers revolution, meaning there must be wildly theatric heroes and crisply tailored CGI stunts all set comfortably in an oppressive Totalitarian society. But this is more than The Matrix with a Victorian flare. V for Vendetta offers up a convincing vision of the near-future paired with an operatic comic book tale of love, mystery, and a Guy-Fawkes-masked rebellion. 

Premiered on 2006, the film is obviously based on the 1989 graphic novel  written masterfuly by Alan Moore, one of the most talented writers the comic book world has ever had.  The Wachoski brothers are huge fans of the novel (aren't we all?) and took the liberty to use their own succesful filming tricks to make the film fresher and not just a carbon copy of the source material, although there were changes, they were all minor and won't spoil the mistique written on 289 pages of pure vendetta.

V for Vendetta's storyline is about a futuristic tale that unfolds in a Great Britain that's a fascist state. A freedom fighter known as V uses terrorist tactics to fight the oppressive society. He rescues a young woman from the secret police, and she becomes his unlikely ally...

New Britain rules.

Adam Stutler, the new british Hitler.

Now, let's get down to business

Our hero is V (Hugo Weaving), a masked vigilante/terrorist with a mind for the subversive, a taste for the eloquent, and a hand for knife-wielding acrobatics. His accidental apprentice (or maybe hostage) is Evey (Natalie Portman), a young woman V saved from the fondling grasps of corrupt Fingermen (kind of the CIA for the V for Vendetta world) as she hurried across town past curfew. Our oppressor in this world is High Chancellor Stutler (John Hurt), whose persona is shown primarily through a five-story tall projection of his ever-angry head. The exposition for this near-future lies mostly in the implosion of America after the middle-eastern war expanded into a world war that reached its tendrils even through Western Europe. America folded into civil strife while Britain became the final bastion of modern civilization after a biological attack isolated the island into a zone of quarantine. Stutler rose to power in the chaos and now rules Britain with the mantra "England Prevails!"(Inspired by the nazi mantra "Deutschland über alles") Rest assured, however, this is not a reality governed by rolling robots and giant overhead blimps; it's a world that's, instead, very similar to ours. The technological innovations are hidden subtly into the film's environment, refusing to take precedent over the historically opulent flavors of England's architecture. V for Vendetta has a flare for the theatric and operatic, after all. There's no room for bleeping robots and bounding technology. 

V also masters the fine arts of cooking.

On the eve of November 5th, when Britain traditionally celebrated freedom and truth, V launches a subversive plot to topple High Chancellor Stutler and his surrounding administration. Hijacking the British Television Network, he broadcasts a speech that sets the date one year from November 5th as the date of the revolution. Our story takes place in the interim year leading up to the supposed revolution, with the evolution of Evey's politics, the ongoing vendetta V has set against the players of a mysterious government plot, and the deepening hole V digs for Stutler and his boys to stumble into once that fateful date arrives. "Remember, remember the fifth of November."

What separates V's rebellion from the teeming hordes of other cinematic coupe d'etats made over the years is that V for Vendetta approaches the topic with one eye held straight at the politics of the present. Hot button headline topics continually rear their heads here. Bush is paralleled to Stutler, the news media is heavily clouded, our hero is paired with images of suicide bombers and subway attacks; not to mention the undeniable fact that we are asked to sympathize with an outright terrorist. Is terrorism justified when paired against a strict oppressor? In the political climate of today--where the title of terrorism is threatening to mirror the clout McCarthy granted the title of Communism--V for Vendetta's answer to that question is a sure-handed yes. 

Ideas are bulletproof!

En garde my rusty friend!

But V for Vendetta is no heavy-handed political allegory. At its heart, V for Vendetta is entertainment. And as any entertainment with a hand in Victorian elegance, V for Vendetta must have romance. But before you conjure images of the Fawkes mask flying in a sweaty bald-headed scene of lust, realize first that there also is a master-grasshopper dynamic between Evey and V. The romance is formed as an understatement and rarely addressed, let to simmer below the surface and lend more chemistry to scenes that would otherwise ring hollow.

Natalie Portman may have stolen the tabloid exposure with her shiny shaved head, but Hugo Weaving is the masked performance that steals the show. Much of the role's success lies in the writing, for V is made not to be simply a mask. There's a theme throughout the film asking whether behind masks of revolution, there lie fighting men and women, or only their ideals. V answers this question with charisma. Contradicting the common mantra that masked figures must be laconic, V, in fact, probably has the most lines of all. The character is full and rich with quirks and personality, but still exists with that essential air of mystery. Weaving achieves the same level of iconic performance that he did with Agent Smith in The Matrix. It really is that good, besides his pronunciation management takes every line he utters into a legendary level he himself can only afford.

Cops on the wrong side of the story.

Eve Hammond, a fearless woman.

Does the movie stay true to the graphic novel?

There's been debate over the quality of adaptation the Wachowski Brothers offered to Alan Moore's original graphic novel. Moore has publicly separated himself from the film, quoting in the New York Times that "the screenplay's rubbish." Well, before we all walk away from the ticket line, remember primly that Alan Moore will be the first to tell you himself that he is a selfish, pretentious prick. He knows it, and we know it. Let's move on. The screenplay's fine. In fact, it's a near-masterpiece. What the Wachowski Brothers have done is find the right balance between the theatrics of the graphic novel, and the solemnity to the richly Victorian narrative. They form a dynamic that plays to both sides, allowing for a story that sparks both political debate and giddy entertainment. We'll first shake our heads at the sentimental, soft-focus flashbacks and silly sub-plot for "nuclear human experimentation"; but when mulled over, we realize it's just the comic book mentality showing its spots. After all, V wouldn't start all his sentences with v-words had this film shunned its comic roots. And anyway, V for Vendetta is a vividly vivacious and voluptuous volley of a very violently fun time. 

Vendetta for the masses!

Now, if are still one of the few humans who haven't seen the movie yet because you believe the original comic book was way better, had more sub plots, more characters and [insert your reason here] Here's a small summary pointing out what similarities & differences have both the comic book and the movie.

1. The comic book is longer and has alot of sub-plots, and is more anarchy vs. facism. While the movie is shorter and is more freedom vs. facism.

2. In the comic book V kills all the people at lark hill different ways, and instead of killing Prothero, he drives him insane.

3. In the comic book Evey is 16, and is trying to be a prostitute when she is caught by the fingermen, instead of going to see Gordon.

If Evey was a slut like in the comic she'd look like this.

And she'd have plenty of facial vendetta.

4. In the movie they portrayed Gordon as a homosexual, when in the comic book he becomes her lover.

5. The color schemes used in the original graphic novel didn't have the bad guys wearing black & red. Throughout the film, if compared with the graphic novel, the colors used are stronger and less "cold" giving characters a sense of strenght and importance you can't get the same way in the original comic book.

There are alot of little differences in the movie/comic book. If you are interested in seeing the movie, i'd recomend it, it may not follow the book, but it does have a better ending. Or, if you have seen the movie and want to read that book, i also highly recommend that as well.  

Here's the movie trailer: