V for Vendetta is part 1984, part Robin Hood, part Matrix, part history lesson, and all political science as the Wachowski brothers’ adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic novel finds Hugo Weaving fighting a totalitarian British government some 20 years in the future. There are a myriad of messages in this majestic movie; it is a catchall commentary on the question of what happens when a government gets out of control. Weaving’s character, the enigmatic V, has been horribly disfigured, and so he keeps himself completely covered in all black, save for the pale white stylized mask of Guy Fawkes over his face. V’s agenda through the entire story mimics the spirit of Guy Fawkes’ involvement in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, an attempt to overthrow King James I of England and blow up Parliament. It was on the fifth of November of that year that Fawkes’ plot was discovered and the destruction averted. For never showing his face through the entire movie, Weaving did an excellent job imbuing V with all the depth and emotion appropriate to such a character. In particular, Weaving’s voice is so distinctive that it can—and often does—carry an entire scene all by itself. Natalie Portman also starred, as the TV reporter Evey Hammond, and in this role Portman proved that when she isn’t forced to use poorlywritten and overly clichéd dialogue, she can act impressively well. With a Wachowski brothers screenplay and their Matrix trilogy director James McTeigue also directing Vendetta, there was some worry that the special effects would be overdone. Not so. They were actually subdued, showing up only a handful of times during the movie; even then, they appeared only when appropriate for a knife-wielding revolutionary. But where the special effects were at a minimum, the sheer dramatic power was tuned so high it caused rockslides on Mars. V’s opening use of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture parallels the tone of the entire movie, which steadily crescendoes to the jaw-dropping, gasp-inducing mindblower of a final sequence, leaving audiences in shock and awe. Naturally, some will consider this movie a clear comment on the Bush administration. There are a couple of elements that support this idea, namely the characterization of the British High Chancellor, a religious zealot who uses fear to portray his government as safeguarding the people, and the bald power-mad government official who makes citizens disappear into his infamous black bags. In addition, the movie makes it clear that one character is executed for having a copy of the Quran, in what seems a clear allusion to some of the alleged events at Guantanamo Bay. It is worth noting, however, that the inner secrets of Norsefire’s rise to power in V for Vendetta preclude any analogy to the Bush administration’s policies and plans. In addition, the themes and historical allusions of the Vendetta story address a far larger question about how governments should behave, going back to some of the original Hobbesian and Lockian arguments about a government as a social contract, and what that contract should provide for the people. The movie concludes in the unambiguous words of V: “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” Previously, movies adapted from Alan Moore’s works have turned out to be utter flops. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a case in point. In that case, the adaptations to the story rendered the film a mere shadow of its former self, but the Wachowski brothers proved much more adept at rewriting Moore’s commentary on Margaret Thatcher’s administration. Overall, V for Vendetta is an excellent movie, despite a few shortcomings that make certain subplots a bit too trite for this reviewer’s taste. It is a story about justice, it is a story about fear, but above all it is a story about real people and real ideas, using astonishingly powerful symbolism to show that the ideas of freedom and hope can never, ever be killed.
