Terrorist or Freedom Fighter?
V for Vendetta Brings Politics to Forefront

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
gunpowder, treason and plot,
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.

If you're looking for a fast, pulse-pounding action movie like The Matrix, the new Wachowski Brothers film may leave you cold. If, however, you like a little cerebral exercise, combining philosophy and politics, V for Vendetta may be to your liking. This film of revolution and revenge in a fascist state does little to disguise its politics, but the story may give audiences something to think about.

V for Vendetta
V (Hugo Weaving) attacks a corrupt Fingerman (Alister Mazzotti) in the action thriller V for Vendetta. (Warner Bros, 2006)
Directed by: James McTeigue
Written by: The Wachowski Brothers (screenplay), based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd
Starring: Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, and John Hurt

Rated R (for strong violence and some language)
Running time: 132 min.

FilmGuru's Rating : 9 out of 10.

V for Vendetta combines political ideas and terrorist actions. It is set in a dystopian future where the United States has collapsed and a theocratic totalitarian regime has risen in England. The government oppresses its people, controls the media, and uses secret police to silence opposition. Into this fascist state comes V (Hugo Weaving), a man with the most dangerous weapon of all: an idea.

The mask V wears is the face of Guy Fawkes, a British traitor hanged in 1606 for his part in the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament. Each year, the British remember Fawkes on November 5th, the date of the failed plot. But despite the fact that the plot failed, the idea is remembered.

Like Fawkes, V believes that violence makes a stronger statement than words alone. When he blows up an historic landmark in London, however, the government spins it and the media reports that the building had been scheduled for emergency demolition. As a result, V is forced to take over the emergency broadcast system and relay a message of his own. In a recorded message, he rallies the people of England to join him in one year (on November 5th) to blow up Parliament.

V is nearly captured, but escapes with the help of Evey (Natalie Portman). She is quickly assumed to be an accomplice by the authorities, and she finds herself on the run. As a fugitive, however, she discovers that V is not alone in his subversive nature. Her colleague at the station, Gordon (Stephen Fry), hides her and says that if the government searched his place she'd be the least of his worries. He, too, is anti-establishment. When he throws out a censor-approved script for an improptu television show ridiculing the government's bungling of the V terror, he is quickly "black bagged" and disappears.

The story is part Phantom of the Opera, with the masked V living outside the system in the abandoned tunnels of the British Underground. There he surrounds himself with art and literature reclaimed from the government's storage facilities for "obscene" works. When he brings Evey into his world, she is stunned by the beauty of it all but still questions his violent motives.

Slowly Evey begins to understand the sacrifices made by her own parents who were "black bagged" for their opposition to the government. Unlike her parents, she does not have the strength of will to fight back. V, seizing on an opportunity, puts Evey through a horrific experience to make her understand what it means to live without fear, even the fear of death.

The film takes a dual story approach. One story tells of V's lust for vengeance against those who committed atrocities at a detaining facility for political prisoners. The other with his efforts to bring Evey (and by extension everyone in England) over to his cause. His methods are cold, calculated, and cruel. V manipulates the public as easily as the government does, but with a different end. Instead of creating a mass of submissive sheep, he is stirring society to the brink of anarchy.

It is easy to see events in the film as mirrors of our own current crisis. One might be inclined to dismiss these parallels as nothing more than exaggeration, but it is difficult to do at times. When Chief Inspector Finch (Stephen Rea) begins to piece together V's motive for the murders, he finds himself also asking some horrific questions about the government and Chancellor Sutler (John Hurt). It doesn't take a detective to see the allegory between Sutler and current criticisms against President Bush.

Some voices arose before the movie was released that audiences would not react well to a terrorist anti-hero. In light of the details of the story, however, it is not nearly so easy to label V as a villain. True, he is an anarchist bent on the destruction of the government. But in the black and white world of Hollywood, the broad brush paints that government as totalitarian and oppressive. V is no more a terrorist than legendary heroes like Robin Hood or the Three Musketeers, who also fought against those in power (Prince John and Cardinal Richelieu) for the good of the people.

The power of V lies not in his violent acts nor the anarchy he creates. It is in the power of ideas: the power to give courage when people have no hope, the power to give strength when people are made to feel weak, and the power to see a brighter future in the darkest, bloodiest of times. V may be for Vendetta, but it is also for Victory.