Friday Review: V for Vendetta

I've never read the original comic, so I'm going to assume that it's fairly close to the film. It's a strong film about corrupt government, the human condition, and the fight for freedom. I'll start with the good things about this film and work my way to the few bad things about it, so get ready.

So, what's the plot of all this? The world is turned into an almost Orwellian-like society that's very frightening, yet still familiar to us. It takes place in Europe and introduces us to a world where citizens are watched constantly by the government, which is bent on keeping its citizens under its thumb. Islam is definately banned, the name Christian is used in a way reminiscent to the Inquisition, and homosexuals are shipped off to an undisclosed area. Not to mention that there's a curfew on the citizens, a Bill O'Reilly figure who doesn't even try to hide his arrogance, and patriotic posters around every corner.

V is a mysterious man whose goal is to end government tyranny. He seems to think that this can be accomplished by blowing Parliament off the face of the planet, and I had hoped that this would have been fleshed out a bit, but it wasn't. At any rate, V strives to create chaos, and to wake up the people.

We get to watch his story through the eyes of Evey, who winds up, through an unfortunate series of events, in V's domain, where she must learn to either accept the mantel of being a political activist, or to learn how to live in a world that seems to be becoming more corrupt each day.

First of all, V is a strong, charismatic character. He has the wit and mouth of Cyrano, but a mind that mirrors the likes of Ralph Waldo Emmerson, George Orwell, Eric Blair, and Ayn Rand. His face is concealed by a Guy Fawkes max, not an inch of his flesh showing under his quirky costume, thus is he the very embodiment of an ideal. Since we know so little of V, he appears to be just that - a walking idea of freedom.

Cast as his "sidekick" is Evey, a fairly normal girl who winds up getting chased by the police and turning to V for refuge. She gets the most character development, her head shaved on-screen, and manages to be convincing as the character who is supposed to draw the audience into V's conspiracy-filled world.

The special effects are very crisp and nice, and, most importantly, they don't overpower the story. Think Matrix, except it's a little more than eye candy and a plot that's difficult to follow. They really shined while making this film, and it never manages to look really fake.

As far as political messages go, it's easy to see how so many of my fellow Ron Paul supporters are drawn to this film. It's not because they want to blow up the Capitol Building or anything, but because this movie demonstrates the kind of suffering that can happen when a government gains too much power. It's chilling how close to reality some of the stuff in this movie is, and it's probably as close as I'll ever come to seeing a live-action 1984.

Here's where the movie seems to falter for me. It was originally written (I read) as an attack on conservatism. From an American standpoint, if you look at political conservatism through the eyes of the Founding Fathers, it is a champion for personal freedom, with socialism and communism being the fascist wing. The government's role in V for Vendetta is hardly conservative, particularly since it's reminiscent of 1984, which was Orwell's vision of what a world engulfed by socialism would look like.

In the end, I think it's a powerful film, and it should be watched by everybody. Unfortunately, people seem to think that scenarios such as these are possible only in a Hollywood setting, which is most certainly not the case. It's stories like these that remind us to stand up for ourselves in the face of tyranny, even when that tyranny claims to be protecting us.