Obscurity, yay

[ravenclaw42]

It was time for another totally obscure animated icon to be made. I'm pretty sure it was a Firesign Theatre skit (really hilarious radio comedy group -- I cannot recommend highly enough what are arguably their two best albums, "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers" and "How Can You Be In Two Places At Once If You're Not Anywhere At All") that

Comments

[yma2]

I saw the vertion they showed at teh cinimas, not the directors cut. The film itself didn't impresse me that much, but as I said I did love Baldwin.
I think I agree with you about the Mask thing. The use of a mask, both in visuals and themes, really does a lot. I'm VERY, VERY glad they didn't show V's face in V for Vendetta. If they had done that it would have ruined it. Because the point of V is that he doesn't have a face...
Actually, when you think of it it's rather interesting...
In these two situations the use of masks is utterly opposed.
Baldwin used his mask to reinforce his identity. He WAS King Baldwin, he maintained his identity as 'king,' as 'leader' through use of the mask. When the mask is taken off there is a lepar, not the king. The Mask is again used as a sort of... new identity. The mask IS the person Baldwin, more so than the flesh is.
Contrast that to V. The point of V is that if we did see him with the mask off he would be human also. V isn't a person, he's an ideal. An icon. You can't kill icons. If the mask was taken off, if we knew who V was, then he wouldn't be V, he'd be Joe Bloggs who takes an alternite identity of V. But under the mask he'd always bee Joe Bloggs, the 'person' of V would be lost.
This is what Valarie lears at hte end (or at least at the end of the comic) it doesn't matter who V is under the mask. V isn't a who. He's a what. Anyone, everyone, no one can be V, that's his greatest gift.
So to take the mask off would ruin the effect. It's about the lauding of an ideal.
But in the film the removing of the mask shows, as you said, the strengh of the man. That he managed to carry on, was so beautiful under the weight of this curse. The removal of the mask serves not to break the ideal, but to elevate the man. And it works so well. A wonderful and poinient moment in an otherwise mediocher film.
So yeah, that's my thoughts on masks.

[yma2]

EDIT: I mean the film of Kingdoms of Heaven, just to clarify that last paragraph.