They get it , and politically miss it

Rating: 7/10 (5 September 2006)

It starts off with a testimony to the importance of free speech; i.e. IDEAS. The movie purports to show the power of that basis for all freedoms: the freedom to speak your ideas, your insights, your criticisms. Since these freedoms have been suppressed by a conservative-style government (anti-immigrant, homophobic, anti-Islamic, etc.) , kept afloat with the help of servile media, the answer lies in "V" as freedom-fighter. So far, so good - and it IS good, but where Hollywood (always) turns the blind eye is that IN REALITY, it is on the nation's liberal left campuses for example, that any opinion other than that of say, gay activists, is condemned as homophobic; any opinion contrary to unlimited abortion-on-demand is seen as anti-feminist; to oppose racial quotas is to be seen as "racist." The media is continually in the hip pocket of the left, and the IDEA of free-speech that "V" is championing are the very ideas liberal left-wingers will literally not allow to be spoken on campuses, in most Hollywood movies as well as the mainstream press. Having lived 4 years in the mideast, let me say it is obvious neither the Wachowski brothers, the director or the screenwriter had actually read the Koran, which they make a point of protecting from the angry xenophobic gov't. Had they done so, they would have seen that everything "V" id FOR is OPPOSED in a book that would suit well on any fascist's shelf. Mein Kamp would have been the same choice. Aside from turning real-world politics 180 degrees on its head, it's a fun movie that demonstrates Natalie Portman is the real-deal and hopefully we'll be seeing and hearing a lot more from her.