Superb

Rating: 10/10 (10 April 2006)

The film makes several allusions to the famous Guy Fawkes plot when the Catholics (including Guy Fawkes) placed 36 barrels of gunpowder in a cellar under the palace of Westminster in England. on November 5, 1605, in hopes of improving their lot by blowing up James I and the English Parliament and by placing Elizabeth, daughter of James I, on the English throne as their puppet ruler. However, Fawkes was arrested with the barrels of gunpowder in the tunnel under the House of Lords and was tortured with unspeakable methods until he divulged the names of the conspirators. Lord Salisbury as prime minister then began to use the plot to taint all of the Catholics. The reverberations of this plot contain the energy sustaining V for Vendetta. This film supposes that a similar plot against the present British government is going to lead to another extreme reaction and to the rise of a totalitarian government similar to that found in 1984. V for Vendetta is the underground resistance to that totalitarianism that stoops to using terrorism against the British people to maintain the conditions of its absolute power. The movie is full of pageantry and suspense and mystery. And, V is Zorro on steroids, who fights against overwhelming evil.