Self-Contradictory Philosophy Leads to Poor Political Argument

Rating: 1/10 (19 March 2006)

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"V," THE MAIN CHARACTER (played brilliantly by Hugo Weaving) acts from two contradictory motives, Revenge and Social Justice, while expecting the viewer to experience him as whole:
V switches between acts meant to serve one or the other without it being easy to identify during the watching experience which he is trying to fulfill. When acting from the motive of Social Justice he kills innocent policemen who have done no one any wrong. When acting from Revenge he kills an old woman while giving her a rose and having a tender conversation with her.
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"EVEY," THE OTHER MAIN Character (played very well by Natalie Portman) acts toward V with two contradictory motives, Revulsion and Love, while expecting the viewer to experience her as whole:
After initial anger at him for trapping her, she decides to cooperate with him. But while cooperating with him she tries to give him away to an evil priest. V then kidnaps, imprisons, and tortures her, for which she reviles him, calling him a "monster," only to switch almost immediately to loving him.
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THE MEDIA IS PORTRAYED as in the absolute control of the Government:
As a production of the Media, the Movie itself tells you not to trust the Media. The Movie tells you that what the Media tells you is sugar-coated lies about what are actually terrible atrocities.
But in real life it is the Media who tells you there are terrible atrocities going on, and that these atrocities are the Government's fault. It is the Media that criticizes the Government. One of those Media Outlets that does this is Cinema (witness George Clooney's recent movies). And this Movie belongs to said Cinema. And this Movie tells you not to trust the Media because it is controlled by Government. Confused? I know.
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CONSERVATIVES ARE PORTRAYED AS an evil One Party Dictatorship:
Thus the opposite of Conservatism is what the Movie is trying to drive you to. The opposite of Conservatism is Liberalism. Liberalism as a Theory of Government is Socialism (while Conservatism is Libertarianism. Liberals are never told there may be other ways of living out their Liberal Ideals than Socialism, and Conservatives are never told there may be other ways of living out their Conservative Ideals than by hating government.). Socialism, as it has played out around the world, turns into One Party Dictatorship.
So the Movie tells you Conservatives are evil by showing you what evil Socialists have done in places like the USSR, China, North Korea, Cuba, etc. Imagine if the point of 1984 (a novel of warning of Socialist policies) or Animal Farm (ditto) was to beware of Mutli-Party Democracy. This is what this Movie is trying to do. Confused? I know.
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IN LIVING THROUGH A Movie, one is meant to identify with the Main Characters, to live the Story with them. This is the fun thing about Stories:
But the main characters in this movie are fundamentally internally conflicted without admitting to the Viewer that they are so. Thus you are left feeling turmoil at the end of the movie without being able to identify why.
This is called "disequilibrium" and is a method used by cults to break in their new recruits. The feeling of internal split, contradiction, "disequilibrium" becomes so powerful that those who experience it will do anything to make it stop. (Thanks to a Psychologist acquaintance for explaining this phenomenon, used in brain-washing and cult-initiation).
Leaving the theatre what is most clear in the Movie-Goers' minds (though mostly their minds are confused) is that the People In Power are evil (because the way the Movie-Goer feels is terrible). And so the way to stop the terrible feeling the Movie-Goer has inside is to get rid of the current People In Power.
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THE MOVIE TELLS YOU the way to end Dictatorship is through Anarchy:
But what comes of the power-vacuum which is Anarchy (the word Anarchy does not mean "chaos" ((no matter what my Conservative friends might tell you)) but means "the rule of no one," or "no ruler") is a power-grab. Whoever has the most initiative grabs the most power, and a Dictatorship arises.
The day after this Movie ends is the day a new Dictator rises and fills the power-vacuum the destruction of the Government has left. But the Movie wants you to think the next day Democracy suddenly revives.
(The difference between this kind of revolution and the American Revolution is that the overthrow of the figurehead government ((England)) left the functioning governments in each State/Colony still in power. There was no power-vacuum to be seized by a dictator. In this Movie,the government is destroyed, leaving no power-structure at all. And where there is no power structure, power is seized.).
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THE WACHOWSKI BROTHERS WANT you to vote Democrat in the upcoming elections, they're just not quite sure why. Anyone who's had to write "thesis"/"argument" papers for school has had similar experiences. The only thing that makes the Wachowski's different from the average student is that the Brothers W are doing things on a much larger scale.