V for Vendetta Post
I saw this as a fan's comment on Roger Ebert's website and I thought it was pretty interesting. I had read reviews of "V for Vendetta" but it seemed like the film didn't stir up anywhere near as much controversy that it was expecting. This guy obviously found out something different. Here's what he had to say:
From: Adam Hoover, Philadelphia, PA
I just wanted to remark on a trend that I have noticed about "V for Vendetta." I was reading reviews on Yahoo! of the movie after I had already seen it to see what other people thought. I thought that it was a good movie and I thought that it raised some good questions about true patriotism vs. blind allegiance. I know the 20+ year history/origins of this movie and know that it was not put out to attack President Bush. The trend that I wanted to remark upon was that while some of the positive reviews took a political slant to them and made Bush comments, every single one of the negative reviews said that the movie was a liberal's movie come true and was un-American.
Usually, the negative reviews have the common "this sucked," "it was too slow," etc. complaints. The really interesting thing is that none of the negative reviews had this. Practically every single review criticizing this film said that it was un-American. One suggested that this movie did not support the troops in Iraq (a far jump of logic as far as I'm concerned). Another review said that it was un-American to support a terrorist that wanted to fight against his own government.
I found this last argument to be very curious because I consider fighting against your own government to be very American as this is how our country began. I'm sure that Britain considered our forefathers in the colonies to be terrorists of some sort because they were opposing the ruling government and fighting back. I'm also curious to know if the people that saw the movie and criticized it for advocating fighting against the government would be content living under the rule of the government that was shown in the movie. I know that this movie was intended to make people think and that there were two violent extremes in the movie fighting for opposite beliefs, but I think that the really interesting observation that has emerged is how divided our country truly is. The fact that there are people who hate this movie solely because they are under the assumption that it is taking a crack at our President is truly fascinating. I did not feel that this movie had an anti-American theme to it. Do you think that people are being overly sensitive?
-In my opinion, I think people are being overly sensitive when they say that the movie is anti-American or even anti-government. It's criticizing the situation at present moment, and saying that if we don't alter our course or try to change things a bit, that this is the type of situation that we could wind up in. The ordinary citizens of this movie are a facsimile of ordinary American citizens of today; they go to work, they come home, eat dinner, sit in front of the tube, and are perfectly content to accept people like V as a terrorist and forget that he has a mind and a point of view and a means of expressing it. I think much of the reason that people pidgeonholed this movie as un-American was because they recognized so much of themselves in the people sitting on the couches, and that offended them. At this point it just becomes easier to label something as Anti-American in the same way that the Bush Administration did after we first sent troops into Iraq. It's as if these people who are calling V for Vendetta anti-American just assumes that there is a set of beliefs and values that exist as quintessentially American, and if the things that you believe contradict those values, then you can't call yourself American. I hate that. We were a society forged by debate, and V for Vendetta is just another argument, albiet a fictional one. It's as if those who would call V for Vendetta un-American don't like discussion or democracy, and would rather we just passively let those in charge make decisions and never have an opinion about any of it. I don't know. Any thoughts?
From: Adam Hoover, Philadelphia, PA
I just wanted to remark on a trend that I have noticed about "V for Vendetta." I was reading reviews on Yahoo! of the movie after I had already seen it to see what other people thought. I thought that it was a good movie and I thought that it raised some good questions about true patriotism vs. blind allegiance. I know the 20+ year history/origins of this movie and know that it was not put out to attack President Bush. The trend that I wanted to remark upon was that while some of the positive reviews took a political slant to them and made Bush comments, every single one of the negative reviews said that the movie was a liberal's movie come true and was un-American.
Usually, the negative reviews have the common "this sucked," "it was too slow," etc. complaints. The really interesting thing is that none of the negative reviews had this. Practically every single review criticizing this film said that it was un-American. One suggested that this movie did not support the troops in Iraq (a far jump of logic as far as I'm concerned). Another review said that it was un-American to support a terrorist that wanted to fight against his own government.
I found this last argument to be very curious because I consider fighting against your own government to be very American as this is how our country began. I'm sure that Britain considered our forefathers in the colonies to be terrorists of some sort because they were opposing the ruling government and fighting back. I'm also curious to know if the people that saw the movie and criticized it for advocating fighting against the government would be content living under the rule of the government that was shown in the movie. I know that this movie was intended to make people think and that there were two violent extremes in the movie fighting for opposite beliefs, but I think that the really interesting observation that has emerged is how divided our country truly is. The fact that there are people who hate this movie solely because they are under the assumption that it is taking a crack at our President is truly fascinating. I did not feel that this movie had an anti-American theme to it. Do you think that people are being overly sensitive?
-In my opinion, I think people are being overly sensitive when they say that the movie is anti-American or even anti-government. It's criticizing the situation at present moment, and saying that if we don't alter our course or try to change things a bit, that this is the type of situation that we could wind up in. The ordinary citizens of this movie are a facsimile of ordinary American citizens of today; they go to work, they come home, eat dinner, sit in front of the tube, and are perfectly content to accept people like V as a terrorist and forget that he has a mind and a point of view and a means of expressing it. I think much of the reason that people pidgeonholed this movie as un-American was because they recognized so much of themselves in the people sitting on the couches, and that offended them. At this point it just becomes easier to label something as Anti-American in the same way that the Bush Administration did after we first sent troops into Iraq. It's as if these people who are calling V for Vendetta anti-American just assumes that there is a set of beliefs and values that exist as quintessentially American, and if the things that you believe contradict those values, then you can't call yourself American. I hate that. We were a society forged by debate, and V for Vendetta is just another argument, albiet a fictional one. It's as if those who would call V for Vendetta un-American don't like discussion or democracy, and would rather we just passively let those in charge make decisions and never have an opinion about any of it. I don't know. Any thoughts?