I finally got to watch “V for Vendetta” this weekend, and I have to say I just loved it.
I heard the following quote in the trailer that I saw a few months ago, and ever since then I’ve been dying to see the movie.
“People shouldn’t be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”
The movie is by the Wachowski brothers, the duo behind the Matrix, was directed by James McTeigue and features Hugo Weaving (as V, doing a great job “talking”, reminding us of Agent Smith) and Natalie Portman.
The movie is based on the popular graphic novel by Alan Moore, “V For Vendetta“, but it seems he didn’t really like it.
The story takes place in a dark future that is very reminiscant of George Orwell’s “1984”; after years of various wars, England is under “big brother” Chancellor Adam Sutler, whose party uses force and fear to run the nation.
Under this rule: people are living in constant fear; minorities and political dissenters are rounded up and removed; artistic and unacceptable religious works were confiscated. Cameras and microphones are littered throughout the land, and the people are perpetually sedated through the governmentally controlled media.
Taking inspiration from Guy Fawkes, the 17th century co-conspirator of a failed attempt to blow up Parliament on November 5, 1605, V dons a Fawkes mask and costume and sets off to wake the masses by destroying the symbols of their oppressors, literally and figuratively.
The reviews I read about this movie were mixed, and it amazes me why.
Some people say it encourages terrorism, although I don’t think it does.
The idea of the movie is simply that radical and drastic events often need to occur in order to shake people out of their state of indifference in order to bring about real change.
Of course use of force is never a good thing that anyone should promote, but sometimes and in certain conditions it remains as the only option.
Personally, I enjoyed the movie, both story-wise and artistically, and I truly recommend it to everyone.
My score for it would be: 8.5/10.