Bravo Wachowski's .. Like Matrix .. Another Transformative Myth

Rating: 10/10 (18 March 2006)

"V" is a movie, politically speaking, whose time has come, as I was reminded last week when Feingold stood up to censure the president for surveillance of Americans and nobody stood with him. Philosophically, this movie is about the spread of an idea. A pure idea as indicated by the fact that Evie (Natalie Portman) never looks beneath "V"'s mask. With elements of "Phantom of the Opera" we know that there is an ugly facade beneath the mask, but the revealing of his face has not do to with fear. Fear is demonstrated as the bondage that enslaves society and in this future world, New Britain, the government has learned to use fear as their perfect tool. The absence of fear is freedom, and this is the pure idea which the film seeks to spread.
This is a deeply-affecting, multi-dimensional movie, thoroughly thought-provoking while marvelously entertaining.
Favorite ringers : While pondering keeping the masses controlled with the threatened assault on the Parliament, amidst other subtle references to 911.. "It's going to take more than a building to hold us together."
A news reporter, showing the press's dereliction of their duty, says something to the effect of, "I just report the lies, government fabricates them."
In discovering the origins of "V" in a government secret anti-viral experiment, the film's only recalled appearance of a black man receiving an injection reminds us of our own nefarious "Tuskeegee experiments" where unsuspecting Mississippi blacks were given lethal doses of syphilis.
As the vendetta's last victim accepts the welcome retribution of death she wonders, "Is it meaningless to apologize ?.." "Never," says "V." (That's good moral stuff, kiddies.)
A portrayal of the metaphysical notion that no one but ourselves can truly liberate or enslave us is delivered as Evie simply walks out of her cell,away from the torturers to return to "V"'s comfortable lair behind an unguarded door. (His house is a museum, like the Addams fam-i-ly.)
And finding that "V" himself was her torturer, can we think of him as a hero ? The answer to this movie moment is your answer to one of the movies central themes, "Does the ends justify the means ?"
Natalie Portman deserves an Oscar nomination.