Freedome Forever!
Ah, V for Vendetta. Good, clean, revolutionary fun for the whole family. Assuming your family doesn’t mind rooting for a terrorist with a fetish for theatrical masks and bombs and who enjoys stabbing the shit out of people. Good times. Beware, spoilers behind the cut.
I know people are already claiming this movie to be left-wing propaganda against the ever-so-innocent and protective government. You could easily say that, but frankly, you’re not bothering to look beneath the surface. This is a movie about revolution, about sticking it to man and literally blowing up all his shit. People die, innocent lives are lost, and no one really comes out looking good or bad in the whole thing. Shades of gray. Like the real world, you know.
Yeah, V is the hero, and you do root for him. But he is a guy who has no qualms about killing people who are doing their job. He sets up assassinations. He causes mass hysteria. He blows up two gorgeous buildings that are the symbol of British unity throughout the world. He physically and psychologically tortures the girl he’s in love with, making her think she’s going to die for her ideals right up to the last minute. Literally. This is not a hero sort of guy in the cleanest of terms. But then again, were George Washington and Thomas Jefferson heroes? Did they not cause a civil war that didn’t become a true war of independence until we won? And let’s not forget the whole slave-owner thing and the 3/5 rule in regards to said slaves. And the fact that they were rich white guys who fought to preserve their status at the top of the new American heap as part of what was essentially the Virginia Mafia.
So basically, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. And frankly terrorists don’t become freedom fighters until they win. Before that (and often enough, even after), they’re just psychotic criminals who are either too degenerate or too full of themselves to fit in with the rest of society. And V for Vendetta will have you asking yourself these questions for days to come. Just don’t read the graphic novel before you see the movie. Because it does diverge from the source material quite a bit. But the spirit of the ideas is intact.
Freedom Forever!
I know people are already claiming this movie to be left-wing propaganda against the ever-so-innocent and protective government. You could easily say that, but frankly, you’re not bothering to look beneath the surface. This is a movie about revolution, about sticking it to man and literally blowing up all his shit. People die, innocent lives are lost, and no one really comes out looking good or bad in the whole thing. Shades of gray. Like the real world, you know.
Yeah, V is the hero, and you do root for him. But he is a guy who has no qualms about killing people who are doing their job. He sets up assassinations. He causes mass hysteria. He blows up two gorgeous buildings that are the symbol of British unity throughout the world. He physically and psychologically tortures the girl he’s in love with, making her think she’s going to die for her ideals right up to the last minute. Literally. This is not a hero sort of guy in the cleanest of terms. But then again, were George Washington and Thomas Jefferson heroes? Did they not cause a civil war that didn’t become a true war of independence until we won? And let’s not forget the whole slave-owner thing and the 3/5 rule in regards to said slaves. And the fact that they were rich white guys who fought to preserve their status at the top of the new American heap as part of what was essentially the Virginia Mafia.
So basically, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. And frankly terrorists don’t become freedom fighters until they win. Before that (and often enough, even after), they’re just psychotic criminals who are either too degenerate or too full of themselves to fit in with the rest of society. And V for Vendetta will have you asking yourself these questions for days to come. Just don’t read the graphic novel before you see the movie. Because it does diverge from the source material quite a bit. But the spirit of the ideas is intact.
Freedom Forever!