P for Provoking

Rating: 8/10 (19 March 2006)

V for Vendetta (2006); Dir: James McTeigue
Remember Remember the Fifth of November" is much like "Remember the Alamo," but, in V For Vendetta, the British rhyme is used more like Fox News Channel's constant recalling of 9/11. And, why not, as V For Vendetta has been rewritten to boldly extend the current state of the United States, and question our leadership and media coverage.
If V For Vendetta makes you a bit uncomfortable in its heroic bombing of landmarks, it may have done part of its job. But, is the audience ready for a call to rebellion yet? V For Vendetta opens with a theatricality which cuts in and out of the movie, as you see Evey (Natalie Portman) getting ready for a date with Gordon Deitrich (Stephen Fry), while V dons his Phantom of the Opera mask to go out for the night. As Evey is caught after curfew and about to be molested by roaming bands of government-hired enforcers, V swoops in and rescues her from her fate. V takes the saved heroine to a rooftop to watch his late-night demolition of Old Bailey, a British landmark.
Naturally, the national news station has a field day with the story. But, V takes the Government news station hostage to send his own message that in a year, there will be a revolution.
You see, in this futuristic world, the British government has been taken over by a Hitler-style government leader, Adam Sutler (John Hurt) who has been broadly painted to look like Hitler and George W. Bush. It becomes at once a tale of "What would happen if the Third Reich had become the one remaining world power" and "What the US as the Third Reich would do." In addition to painting Sutler equally like George W. Bush and Hitler, it also takes jabs at America and her penchant for starting wars, citing this as a leading cause of the Sutler rise to power.
If the movie seems a bit confused to what it is, its probably because it tried to chew a little too much off. It at once attempts to be a combination of blockbuster action, fantasy, superhero comic book, science-fiction parable, and fairy tale. It also is, at once, Orwell's 1984 with the theatricality of The Phantom of the Opera, with a bit of Farenheit 451 thrown in for good measure. On top of all this, it becomes an indictment of America, American government, by creating its downfall, and creating an uprising resembling our current leader.
V For Vendetta is a very ambitious movie for a first-time director, and its easy to tell where the Wachowski's stepped in on his style. Considering James McTeigue worked as first assistant director on all three Matrix movies, and the Wachowski brothers wrote the script for V For Vendetta, it is challenging not to make comparisons to the former movies. The Wachowskis made The Matrix by deftly weaving armchair philosophy, martial arts, science-fiction, neo-noir, and blockbuster action into a fluid cinematic tapestry the likes of which had not been seen before. Since they wrote the screenplay for V For Vendetta, and produced it, it is hard to say where their participation ended, but they were trying for a deftly woven fabric here as well.
However, McTeigue may not have been up to the task. McTiegue's visual sensibilities are rather meager, and his cinematic language not deep enough to keep the movie into a single flowing unit. With a few gorgeously made sets, and the occasional brilliant frame, V For Vendetta is its own worst nightmare, as it shows brilliance in the portions of what could have been. More than a few different portions of the movie were flat and seemed rather pedestrian in the visual choice.
But, the real star of the movie was not the visuals, it was the screenplay and the ideas behind it. Essentially, the Wachowski Brothers made a call to action for the ousting of our President, if not the restarting of the American government. Don't kid yourselves viewers, the transfer to Britain was mainly used as a white rabbit, and to keep the Guy Fawkes mask (who is not known by the American populace). The script goes from idea to idea, sometimes fully exploring one or two, and having a decent fixation on the plight of the homosexual.
But, whether or not the audience is ready to see terrorist bombings used heroically is a challenge. Not only is it a challenge due to the fact that bombings are nasty things, it is a challenge as we associate bombings with the evil Middle Eastern Religious Fanatics. It raises the question, do those terrorists have a point to their bombings? Are they trying to get out from under the foot of an oppressive government? I think that, which I find happenstance, the movie comes out on the same weekend as Operation Swarmer makes an interesting comment on how we should be questioning our government.
So, is the movie good? It depends on why you go to the movies. If you go to the movies for an easy action movie, you may have come to the wrong place. If you're looking for eye candy, there's been better. If you don't mind having your mind provoked, this is the best place to be.
B+