V for Vendetta
Starring: Natalie Portman, Stephen Rea, Hugo Weaving, Rupert Graves, Stephen Fry
Directed by: James McTeigue
2006 Warner Bros. Pictures Action
Written by the Wachowskis -- Andy and his transgender brother, Larry -- and directed by first-timer James McTeigue, their assistant on The Matrix, the film flies on a rhythm all its own. There's nothing Neo about V, the masked avenger who uses bombs, daggers and his telegenic charisma to take down a regime that has left him a burned remnant of its ungodly experiments.
Hugo Weaving -- Agent Smith in the Matrix movies -- plays this terrorist grandmaster behind a fiberglass mask that makes his vocal wit and physical eloquence doubly remarkable. Never mind that the Shakespeare-quoting, rose-carrying V comes dangerously close to Phantom of the Opera kitsch. Or that his politics can be as simplistic as Billy Jack's. V has his mojo working.
And so do the filmmakers. The source material is the 1989 graphic novel illustrated by David Lloyd and written by Alan Moore, who wants no part of what the Wachowskis have wrought. Moore took his name off the film's credits. Moore's novel skewered the 1980s England of Margaret Thatcher. In the Wachowski update, England is a police state ruled by Chancellor Sutler (John Hurt), a fear-mongering, gay-bashing, Islam-hating dictator who strips citizens of their civil rights and religious freedoms in exchange for protection from bioweapons of mass destruction. Some see parallels here to BushWorld. Come on. The chancellor, as acted to the hilt by Hurt, can't be W -- he's hyperarticulate.
V for Vendetta, more fun and less self-referential than those appalling Matrix sequels, is an action film that is not afraid to stop for thoughtful debate, a wry laugh or a lesson on how to fry an egg for a pretty girl. That (the girl, not the egg) would be Evey (Natalie Portman), a slave at a chancellor-controlled TV network. The station has its own Bill O'Reilly figure in the blowhard Prothero (Roger Allam). And the chancellor has his own Dick Cheney in Creedy (Tim Pigott-Smith), who aims his buckshot at Deitrich (Stephen Fry), a closet gay who mocks the chancellor in a TV comedy skit. Poor Evey doesn't know where to turn.
On her first meeting with V, who saves her from rape by police thugs, Evey is taken to a rooftop for some fireworks. Not the sexual kind. V raises his hands like a conductor and directs Evey to watch as the Old Bailey blows up and lights the night sky. It's V who set the bombs, in honor of Guy Fawkes, the Catholic vigilante who futilely tried to blow up Parliament on November 5th, 1605. V, in his Fawkes mask, is determined not to fail, vowing that next year, on November 5th, 2020, Parliament will be history.
V sweeps Evey away to his secret lair and shows her his Shadow Gallery, where he keeps forbidden artifacts, such as the Koran, and listens to the Velvet Underground. It's there that she learns of V's brutal history and his reasons for murdering coroner Delia Surridge (a superb Sinead Cusack). V's politicalization of Evey is the film's core. She evades arrest from Finch (a haunted Stephen Rea), the cop on the V case, but not the hands of a hidden tormenter who jails her, shaves her hair (Portman sacrificed her own locks for the role) and pushes her hard to betray V.
Portman's English accent goes in and out, but not her performance, which becomes the heart and soul of the movie. Scratch the lousy Star Wars films and Portman, from The Professional to Closer, is one of the best actresses of her generation. Here she's dynamite, especially when Evey finds a letter written by a lesbian victim of torture and begins to understand V's true mission.
Though the film runs with the outsiders in society, the Wachowskis don't ignore the dark side of V's character. Cinematographer Adrian Biddle, who died in December, plays with light and shadow in ways that provide depth even when the script settles for glib.
Setting indelible images to a deft score by Dario Marianelli, McTeigue speeds us along to a thunderous climax at Parliament. Calling Warner Bros. irresponsible for releasing a film that rouses an audience to action is like calling the Constitution irresponsible for protecting free speech. The explosive V for Vendetta is powered by ideas that are not computer-generated. It's something rare in Teflon Hollywood: a movie that sticks with you.
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Review 1 of 25
Vulcan writes:
Unfortunately the 5 Star rating system is incapable of providing a selection of 0 Stars, as this would be the level to which i and any other normal entity would rate this motion picture. This film is obviously appealing to the individual who is looking for a cheap action 'Flick', V For Vendetta provides the viewer with a slap bang, sticky tape substitute for a good film. V for Vendetta sorrounds around a TERRORIST and his seeking to overthrow the current government in England. The film follows him as he parades around in his Guy Fawkes mask promoting his communist ideas at an epic proportion unseen since the days of USSR. Willing to destroy any order that is established within England and replace it with pandemoniom by spreading his Bolshevik ideals like some sort of Hideous Skin disease. He achieves this through the commondering of television stations and broadcasting his terrorist ways. * If your the type of movie 'Buff' that is after a good serving of Weak plot and mindless violence, i say Go for your life, Watch it. But as a politically minded individual i would prefer to watch the tele-tubbies, instead of the mind-numbing idiocracy thats occours within this...... Film?
Hardly able to call it a film, Assuming the criterion for a Good Fiction film is that it has a plot and Engages the mind into. Watch this film To see what i mean.
May 9, 2008 04:22:26
Review 2 of 25
Brastacks writes:
OK British Sci Fi, but the acting was not convincing. Another young chick and old man story and the special effects were at best those of a beginnner. What for it on DVD.
Feb 5, 2007 14:37:46
Review 3 of 25
james14 writes:
3.5 of 4 stars. Provocative and tremendously exciting and thrilling! Makes up for the God foresaken Matrix trilogy!
Oct 20, 2006 19:07:57
Review 4 of 25
Ralinia writes:
-Thank god someone had the guts to create this
movie! It's about time! With any luck, that
majority of Americans that believe only what is
reported upon, may open their sleepy eyes. I am
no conspiracy theorist, but I do know when I am
being snowed. Our government has great practice
at it. I love the way this movie portrayed us
and them. In an entertaining, yet very real
lite. Wish V was real and right here in
America. Hope we can all find the V within
ourselves. Great cinema.
Sep 18, 2006 12:54:12
Review 5 of 25
kevlar writes:
The Anglo/US Oligarchy (aka 'Coalition of the Willing') certainly would not approve of this movie because it has such a sad ending for them. Bush, Cheney, Rove, and Blair must have sobbed at the films end when The People reclaimed their democracy. For this reason alone "V for Vendetta" should not be missed.
In this production we finally see a modern cinematic endeavor seeking to show people where our present political path is leading us.
Nevertheless this is a feel-good movie for most. Viewers are delighted as members of "the party" are systematically hunted down for sport and revenge in an entirely refreshing manner. Moviegoer's are given generous helpings of revolt as our hero "V" makes the pharmaceutical pill-popping stunt-double of Rush Limbaugh die in his own vomit. They are rewarded again when a child-molesting stand-in for Pat Robertson's religious right is returned to his proper place in hell.
The central players in the future corporate oligarchy are licked one at a time until the Vaudevillian protagonist gets to the center of the tootsie-pop. There he finds the real terrorist behind the bio-weapons attacks in the form of their very own chief executive. Whether High Chancellor Sutler is most likened to Bush, Blair, or Cheney is difficult to pinpoint, but take your fantasy pick. I personally liked to fancy that it was King Cheney, with Rumfield personified by the Gestapo chief. All of these vermin are killed like dogs, and it's fantastically entertaining.
This movie should remind audiences of the dangerous union between a corporate media and corporate government. We all know that western media is more of a government propaganda machine now than ever before, and "V for Vendetta" reminds us why this is so dangerous. Fascist fiends like Hitler, Cheney, or Sutler will stop at nothing to satisfy their political will to power. The favored tactic they all share is to perpetrate attacks on their own people and then blame them on an imaginary bogeyman. We've seen it with the Reichstag, the World Trade Center, and in this film with the bio-attacks on children.
We should all take seriously the fragility of democracy as the political ambitions of right-wing ideologues can be devastating. Where is V when WE need him?
Sep 7, 2006 23:17:54
Review 6 of 25
DeathTrendSetta21 writes:
V for Vendetta was very entertaining and powerful. There was never a dull moment in this movie. I loved every part of it. This movie makes you realize that our futures are indeed headed for chaos. V!
Aug 21, 2006 06:27:55
Review 7 of 25
EDMUNDDANTES writes:
An entertaining and powerful movie everyone should watch over and over again until every American gets the message!!! The future depicted in V is the future we are headed for unless an American V comes forward to open our eyes and lead the way!
Aug 5, 2006 19:42:57
Review 8 of 25
steamerman writes:
Yawn!!! Another left-wing, homophile, anti-establishment, anti-God, propaganda effort. Even Goebbels would not have been as blatant as this. Riddled with political inconsistancy (for example - blaming conservative politicians for using spin, when it was the Blairite camp who were it's most famous proponents). Ah, if only there was some right-wing film producers.
Otherwise, not a bad movie, would have given it a higher score, only that the above mentioned problems counted against it. Maybe someday these people will leave their politics at home, or at least not be so obvious!
Aug 4, 2006 10:23:37
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