Does fascism justify terrorism?

Rating: 7/10 (24 February 2007)

In the near future, after the United States collapses and England is plagued by a biological terror attack, a Christian fundamentalist (John Hurt) is elected chancellor, and immediately enforces Nazi-esquire restrictions and curfews. He creates a propaganda ministry which controls all media, and a secret police called the fingermen.
Evey (Natalie Portman) is an aspiring actress who works as an assistant at the state-run TV station. One night, she is accosted by three fingermen. Out of the shadows comes a mysterious man (Hugo Weaving) wearing a cape and a Guy Fawkes mask, and referring to himself only as V. He is trained in hand-to-hand fighting and speaks poetically and articulately.
The following morning, he attacks the TV station where Evey works. He forces them to play a DVD, in which he explains his admiration for Guy Fawkes, his grievances with the government, and his intention to do what Fawkes failed to accomplish 400 years ago: blow up Parliament. Feeling obligated to help the vigilante who saved her, she helps him escape when the police surround him.
As Evey and V become friends, we learn that her entire family fell victim to the government, as did V. He is not just fighting for the freedom of England, but for his own personal vendetta against those who made him the monster he knows he is.
Stephen Rea is well cast in support as Inspector Finch, assigned to find V and bring him to justice. Hugo Weaving creates a sympathetic vigilante, despite the fact that we never see his face. Natalie Portman is perfect as Evey, the character she famously shaved her head to play.
Many of the themes have been examined before, most obviously in George Orwell's masterpiece "1984," but also in the second "Star Wars" trilogy, in which politician uses a crisis to force himself into the position of a supreme leader. What is new is the dilemma of who is a freedom fighter and who is a terrorist.
"V for Vendetta" is intelligent and disturbing. The imagery is beautifully artistic, the characters complex and sympathetic, and the future frighteningly Orwellian. The final battle between V and the police is gratuitously violent and unrealistic, but it makes a point: Ideas cannot die and one man can make a difference.