Classical film-making

Rating: 10/10 (15 May 2007)

I was so afraid this film would just be more opportunistic betrayal of my political ideals, I avoided it for two years. Wow, was I ever mistaken! This is a great film in the classic tradition - there's nothing confusing or 'avant garde' here, this is straight-ahead unabashedly Romantic film-making, and the best of its kind I've seen in a long time.
Yes, V is a terrorist - and the film never pretends he's innocent, in any way; yes, what happens to the female lead is both morally and emotionally ambiguous. And yes, the 'right people' in the film make serious mistakes, and the 'bad people' actually have an understandable argument to make.
All this makes this film a thinking-person's adventure film. Nobody here is a puppet on anybody's string.
And the final question - which must remain with an audience not living in a fantasy - is, what does it really mean to be free? and what are we willing to do to accomplish that? Just by the way, although the film ends by playing the opening of the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man", there are sly references throughout to the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK" - and the film knows this and earns the right to it, despite the total absence of "punk" in its visuals.
Easily the equal of "Cyrano DeBergerac" - a myth for the hell we currently pass through - highly recommended, to this generation and the next.