Silly, but irrepressibly stirring

Rating: 8/10 (29 October 2016)

As I write there are 2050 reviews of this film, so I imagine everything there is to be said is already here. That's 2050 people who cared about it enough to put finger to key, and the vast majority adding to the polarisation created by it.
I don't read graphic novels, so I came in blind. The first time I saw the film it captivated me, the second and third time I saw how silly it is, but remained enchanted, and I believe that is what the movie set out to do. There is something about V which stirs the spirit, and those who place it among the greatest are simply able to overlook its faults in the way that hope springs eternal. And anger punches the air.
Everyone needs a saviour, and with the aplomb of Zorro, self- sacrifice of Christ and the righteousness of Batman, V makes heroes of us all, shoulder to shoulder. It's a fantasy of the enlightened that their fellow citizens, even if at the eleventh hour, come to share that enlightenment.
I cannot see how The British, and particularly Londoners like me, can watch the shots of an army of masked, smiling revolutionaries marching shoulder to shoulder through the streets of the capital amidst the architectural symbols of power and not be emotionally overwhelmed. Those scenes alone for me made the entire project worthwhile.