In awe of such masterly artistically political propaganda

Rating: 10/10 (23 June 2006)

When The Matrix came out i was very suspicious, and having just seen V for Vendetta, now I'm sure. The Wachowski brothers may not actually be real life revolutionaries but they sure do understand them. Completely and utterly. Not since i read Jack London's "The Iron Heel" have i been in awe of such masterly artistic communication. Virtually everything you see on the screen is designed to heighten the impact of the plot and dialogue - the costumes, bleak weather and mood, everything - it's so interesting to watch. I remember raving about how they didn't waste a single second in any scene of the first Matrix and they've basically done it again with this film. The director could maybe have saved a further 2 to 3 minutes but that's it.
But it's the plot, dialogue, theme and ideas behind the movie that make it so thrilling to watch. As a revolutionary sympathiser that is. For those who think Che Guevara was a cold blooded murderer, and Fidel Castro a dictator, you're probably a bit shaken if you actually sat through the entire movie but you definitely wouldn't say it was much good. You'd probably want people to quickly move onto their next movie fix, like those guys at the end of The Truman Show who wanna know what else is on after Truman signs off for the last time.
For those who think the Cuban revolution is one of the most inspiring & heroic stories of all time, much better than what fiction can come up with because it is real and still undefeated (yay!), then i guarantee there's a good chance that if you go to see V for Vendetta, you're probably going to whoop and sing out "Yay!" like I did when something happens to a big building that represents the current political system.
Where the flaw of the first Matrix film was the implication that a saviour would deliver us from the system, Vendetta makes no such mistake. I thought the dominoes was a nice touch in case there were some unclear about the masses part of the answer to the social problems caused by the current system.
This movie will reverberate for many years to come because it manages more than any other in recent times to express the real issue of the day. And that is a tiny rich minority have vast power which is wielded through State machinery. Of the total amount of Terrorism that happens in the world, probably 99% is State Terrorism and the rest individual. The Bush gang think they can get away with the charade in Iraq, but then films like Vendetta are released into the wild and the similarities are just too many and obvious for people to not at least think about it for a bit. But the film also looks into the near future and what doing nothing will lead to. But not in any sappy, liberal way - the message is its gonna take lots of guts and courage and it will probably scare the living sh*t out of you.
One more thing: V for Vendetta introduces a completely new side of politics to all those without much political consciousness. If you go to see the movie, you might just come out a changed person. You might not have gone through the hell that Evey Hammond did (a very effective plot twist, my awe is squared) to experience a sufficient enough radicalisation to become a hard-core Marxist-quoting revolutionary overnight, but again, it introduces a side of politics sometimes completely alien. In any country where the people have no real interest in voting in 'democratic' elections (like Australia where I live for example), I hope they go "oh, so that's what politics really is ...". If that is their reaction, the Wachowski brothers would most likely see their film as a success.
Sirs, you have more than made up for selling out with Matrix 2 and 3. I am in awe ... 10 out of 10.