Unique, emotional and truly thought-provoking - this is a brave film

Rating: 10/10 (6 October 2006)

V for Vendetta is a political thriller funded by Britain and Germany about a terrorist super hero - not your typical Hollywood blockbuster! It is based on the graphic novel of the same name and was written by The Matrix writers, The Wachowski Brothers.
The film opens with Guy Fawkes attempting to blow up the Houses of Parliament on the 5th of November, 1605. This date, now known as Guy Fawkes Night, Bonfire Night or Fireworks Night, is celebrated every year in the United Kingdom when we have huge public bonfires on which a dummy or guy is set alight.
Everybody in the UK knows the story of Guy Fawkes, but few people question why he would have wanted to do such a thing - this film does.
It tells the story of a political idealist code-named V who has chosen freedom over oppression, seeking the complete reformation of the one-party fascist police state that is now England.
Clearly a reference to Nazi-Germany, but also a reference to the post-9/11 world that we live in today, this film shows us a dystopian England which came about as a consequence of a war started by the USA , which left the US destitute, almost doing the same to its Coalition of the Willing, ie. England.
But as the war is brought to London, Sutler, the extremely religious Undersecretary for Defence of the Conservative party (played by John Hurt), launches a secret project in the name of national security - the holocaustal mass experimentation on society's degenerates, namely homosexuals, ethnic minorities and religious minorities, in order to develop a virus that can be used as a weapon against alien threats.
But instead, the virus is secretly used on Britain and Ireland, and when the public fear there is no more hope, Sutler comes forward with a vaccination. With the public now looking up to him to sort out the country, Sutler appoints himself the newly created position of high chancellor and the malign authoritarian state is formed under the new dictatorship named Norsefire.
Already it can be seen that this film raises some serious and very relevant points; for example, whether or not a perceived outside threat justifies a diminution in civil liberties. In the UK today, the government is creating some quite oppressive laws, such as being able to detain suspected terrorists almost indefinitely without proof of guilt, in the name of making the country safer.
I am not saying that this film portrays a realistic future; V for Vendetta clearly takes place in a fictional world with a comic book reality, but it is because this story's action packed story is so cleverly weaved into such a serious plot line that this Hollywood film is so brave.
Stephen Fry's character, for example, is murdered because he owns a Koran, and the character V, played by Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith in The Matrix) is in fact the hero and the terrorist of the story! Believing that "violence can be used for good", his vengeful and violent approach to justice taints his political idealism and leaves you disagreeing with and, at times, truly disliking the story's hero.
V even tortures Natalie Portman's character, Evey, and uses the murder of her family to teach her not to fear death and be prepared to die for the coming revolution.
The acting in this film is superb from all concerned, the action is big budget and yet the story is very intelligent. V for Vendetta is unique, emotional and truly thought-provoking.