five'll get you ten

Rating: 10/10 (26 August 2006)

When "V for Vendetta" came out, maybe reviews called it the first pro-terrorist movie of the post-9/11 world. And seeing what kind of society the movie portrays, it's hard not to sympathize with the terrorist (or is he a freedom fighter?).
The movie portrays an arch-totalitarian England sometime in the future. Because of the wars waged by the United States, the whole world exploded into war, the US got reduced to a third world country, and the fascistic Adam Sutler (John Hurt) seized power in England. Imposing devout Christianity on everyone, he rules with the slogan "England prevails!".
However, Sutler's days just might be numbered. A masked man known only as V (Hugo Weaving) seeks to overthrow this dictator on November 5, to commemorate Guy Fawkes trying to blow up parliament. V had gotten disfigured some years earlier from an explosion in a chemical plant where he was a test subject, and thus wears this mask.
One night, V rescues young Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) from Sutler's thugs, and slowly but surely draws her into his world of rebellion. As it is, Evey has a reason to go along with V: her parents were political activists murdered by Sutler's forces. So what will this all come down to? I must say that this movie really draws you in. While uneasy about supporting terrorist activity, one realizes that there's no alternative. Naturally, that brings up the issue of the current state of the world. Is Sutler Bush, we may ask. (No, Sutler actually has a brain.) I think that my favorite line in the movie is "We report the news, not fabricate it. That's the government's job." All in all, this gives movies based on graphic novels a really good name. I wholeheartedly recommend this movie. Also starring Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry and Tim Pigott-Smith.