Tremendously important film

Rating: 10/10 (4 August 2006)

I consider this the best film I've seen so far this year. The messages of a fascist government run amok, terrorizing citizens, manipulating the news by creating false stories planted to divert attention from what's really going on, and a leader who's imperialism derives from a somnolent, lazy populace. Sounds familiar? It is - it's the US today.
Like Orwell's 1984 and his other writings on the topics of governments suppressing people in ways big and small, this film gets right to the point: anarchy is useful at the point at which people have lost all power to control their leaders and violence must be utilized to fight back. Of course, this leads the corrupt leadership to declare anyone not on the same page a "terrorist". And we all know how terrorists are dealt with - secret prisons, no trials, tremendous abuse, murder and dumping you into a hole where you'll never be found again.
As for the actual actors themselves in this piece, Natalie Portman finally has given a performance that reminds me of the superb talent I saw all those years ago in "The Professional" w/Jean Reno & Gary Oldman. This is the Natalie Portman I've been waiting to see again, in a dark set piece, where her talent to disappear into the role and become Evey works on pretty much every level.
Hugo Weaving, the ominous Agent Smith of the Matrix trilogy and of course the Elf King, Elrond, is terrific as V. The mask he wears may hide his face, but the inflections of his voice, his body language and his humanity come shining through nonetheless. A brilliant actor who's highly underrated - this guy deserves an Oscar yesterday! V for Vendetta reminds us that it's so terribly easy to slide into a fascist leadership - all it takes is for we the populace to become placid, lazy, lax in who we elect and fearful. The largest component of this slide is FEAR - and a corrupt leadership will use it at every single turn. Hence we get SARS, Avian Flu, WMD which do not exist in Iraq, global warming, you name it. By keeping us afraid and cowering the government can do pretty much what it wants. And this Administration, like that in the film, seeks to become not a government with checks and balances, but one of imperialism enforced with violence, surveillance, monitoring and well armed forces. Though written as an indictment of the Thatcher regime in the UK, in the 1980's, the film basically deals with the same themes that plague "democracies" today - corruption, self-dealing, secretiveness at all costs and keeping the populace under control at all times using charged language such as "terrorist" to describe anyone who seeks to invoke change for the better.
This film is a warning. If you fail to heed it's important message, then you deserve to lose the freedom you don't have the smarts to cherish at all costs.