V for Vendetta: The Best Cautionary Tales Entertain

Movie Review

V for Vendetta: The Best Cautionary Tales Entertain

April 7, 2006

We live in an age in need of cautionary tales, and while big budget, action-adventure movies are not the usual form they take, the Wachowski brothers of “Matrix” fame are definitely up to something provocative, and yes perhaps even subversive here. In this film the brothers take second billing as screenwriters and producers, while the director’s chair is taken by their protégé James McTeigue. While the Wachowski’s trademark is omnipresent, fortunately this film can trace its creative lineage to the thought provoking, original “The Matrix” rather than its two disappointing sequels. Many of the professional reviewers of this film "got it wrong" or didn't get it at all. They focused on its comic book origins and the previously mined literary territory it is derivative of. It is much better for the viewer of V for Vendetta to relax and enjoy being swept along by the roller coaster ride of its surprising, and yes, sophisticated plot, allegory, symbols, and message. The echoes of so many tragic and vengeful literary characters are represented in V: from Frankenstein, to Beauty’s Beast, to The Count of Monte Cristo, to The Phantom of the Opera, to Zorro, and yes also to both Batman and his nemesis the Joker. But these literary allusions strengthen the narrative rather than detract from it.

But V is a very different kind of comic book animal, whose motivation and demons are compelling in spite of the broad, archetypal brush strokes with which he is painted. The Wachowskis have improved and updated the original material, crafting a movie that is plot driven, and provocative. They go far beyond the “action-adventure” genre the ads and trailers suggest, and into mystery, romance, and political intrigue with compelling cinematic mastery.

So, who is this V? As played by Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith of the Matrix movies) he is the always masked, lone, cloaked terrorist, fighting a near future, totalitarian, fascist regime. He lives underground in a London, multi-roomed, gothic vault where he is surrounded by stolen artifacts of culture forbidden by the regime, and Julie London’s “Cry Me A River” plays mournfully on his “Wurlitzer Stereophonic” jukebox. He takes as his alter ego the persona of Guy Fawkes, the English, 17^th century, Catholic terrorist who attempted to blow up parliament and king on November 5^th, 1605. Fawkes hoped to bring about a revolt against the repressive protestant government of the time. He was apprehended and along with his co-conspirators was hung, drawn, and quartered. But he remains a vibrant part of modern day British culture where he is burned in effigy with much merriment every November 5^th.

In V for Vendetta, now comes the England of a dystopian near future where the overwhelming geopolitical, economic, ethnic, religious, climatic, and pandemic issues of the present have led to a state of pervasive chaos and fear. In this atmosphere freedoms are willingly given up to strong leaders who promise safety and security. It is clear that the film makers are grinding a present day political axe here, but it is done so seamlessly, within the context of compelling story, that it does not come off as preaching. This film presents us with the perplexing questions of “when do the ends justify the means?” and “how does one tell the difference between a terrorist and a legitimate freedom fighter?” Some may be offended by the conservative politics and fundamental religious clothing in which the fascist government is dressed, but this is really just a metaphor for any rigid and exclusionary belief system which is intolerant of diversity. When V proclaims “People should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people!” he is updating a host of similar exclamations made by our founding fathers at the birth of the modern form of government we call democracy. Those patriots of the 18^th century were a group with intimate firsthand knowledge of the repressive effects of despotic leaders and religious intolerance; and they designed a government to prevent the will and beliefs of a few being imposed upon “the people”.

V is a monster “created” à la Frankenstein by a totalitarian government. But in his world, the average person is so cowed by the pervasive control of the monstrous fascist state, that only another monster, motivated by a need for vengeance, can successfully strike the spark which lights a revolution. The best literary heroes are conflicted, and here we have V who trumps them all in that regard. Quite disturbingly, he is as mentally ill and sociopathic as the political leaders he is planning to topple. V is physically and emotionally injured, disfigured, traumatized, egotistical, sadistic, vengeful, and violent. He is also a cunningly intelligent manipulator who is charming, charismatic, well read, cultured and possessed of unusual physical and mental talents. So, what you may ask is there to like about him and identify with? Despite the perpetually smiling Guy Fawkes mask he wears, Weaving is able to communicate V’s tortured complexity and humanity through vocal intonation, posture, and gesture. Natalie Portman, acting a surprising range of convincing and moving emotional states, is his reluctant compatriot and the foil who brings back some of his humanity as the Beauty to his Beast. But V’s methods are reprehensible, and in the final analysis, the only real difference between V and his fascist antagonists is that his ideals are liberty, freedom, open-mindedness, and altruism, while theirs are power, control, and intolerance. To V’s credit though, he is well aware that he and his antagonists are a yin and yang cut from the same monstrous cloth.

Film is an intensely visual medium, and here in the service of plot and emotional texture the cinematography is as oppressively dark as vibrant Technicolor can get. The explosive and artfully depicted special effects scenes are riveting, but few in number, and they support, rather than substitute for the drama. Two particularly emotionally evocative, visual scenes stay with you long after the final credits have rolled. In one Evey (Natalie Portman) goes through a gestapo-esque torture and then experiences an emotional rebirth on the roof, in the rain, with the camera following enormous, shimmering rain drops down toward her outstretched arms and upturned face. In the other a crescendo pattern of falling dominoes intercuts with a montage of revelatory scenes, and like Stephen Rea’s Inspector Finch with whom we have followed the clues, all begins to become clear to us. As artful and satisfying a pair of scenes as you will see in any movie for some time to come.

Hollywood super hero entertainment this movie is, but also a moving cautionary tale about how easily we tumble toward totalitarianism when fear is close at our heels.

A thought provoking treat…and linger a moment at the closing credits for a perfectly chosen ‘60’s anthem rendered in Dolby digital.

© 2006 Philip W. Sullivan All Rights Reserved