And the frozen mask just smiles

Rating: 9/10 (18 March 2006)

How do you go about adapting one of the greatest comic books in history without alienating the long time fans who've worshipped the pages it's printed on since day one? This is a question that has to have troubled Hollywood execs a lot given the number of comic-to-movie conversions in the past few years, but the pressure must have really been on for the Wachowskis when making V For Vendetta. The original graphic novel is an adult oriented title about a masked madman terrorising a futuristic fascist England written during the Thatcher era and as such is bristling with political vitriol and a twisty-turny plot packed with intricate detail, lovingly crafted with such passion it has become one of the industry's most hallowed titles. Thus, it is a tremendous relief to say that after the disaster of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and the "I can't believe this is based on the comic" misfire of From Hell that writer Alan Moore has finally had a work translated perfectly to the screen, even if he did insist on having his name removed from the credits.
But then, V is a million miles away from the likes of The Punisher or Spiderman. The comic existed for one run only and had a very concise story to tell, rather than having numerous incarnations and interpretations of the same character, so the move from page to screen would be slightly easier to make as the boundaries are more clearly marked. However, if it had been an exact re-interpretation, the movie would have been about nine hours long, full of slow moving conversational scenes and rather painful to sit through (what makes a good comic does not always make a good film), but the end result is near perfect in its execution.
The Wachowskis you see are not afraid to hold back the venom. Their futuristic England is a nightmarish dystopia that seems unbearably close as families gather round comfortable middle class homes to watch the latest propaganda spin, ministers spouting hate-fuelled rants about the evils of foreign nations, terrorists, free-thinkers and homosexuals in the name of safe-guarding the public. Kudos to them too for having the sheer audacity to continue making the film in the wake of the July 7th Tube bombings which has major resonations in the plot; the scenes of the enigmatic vigilante tearing London apart with explosives worryingly near to home.
And yet, despite witnessing this lunatic blasting our capital to smouldering ruins, V is an electrifying focal point. His face is never shown and while his highly intelligent rants are always tinged with madness, he remains a captivating anti-hero. After all, can he really be considered an 'evil' terrorist when the regime he is fighting is corrupt, paranoid and willing to lie repeatedly merely to cover their own tracks? Yes, he murders his enemies, but as his story unfolds it's hard not to feel some sympathy for him.
Not that V for Vendetta is all heavy-handed politics and debates on the blurring boundaries between hero and villain. While the likes of Munich and Syriana tackle the current world state with gritty realism, V for Vendetta is considerably more vaudevillian. One slow motion knife fight near the climax is jaw dropping and scenes like Natalie Portman's baptism in the torrent of rain plunging from the sky become increasingly melodramatic as the running time ticks by. But then, this is a film more likely to reach a mainstream audience than Syriana and the integration of damning cultural criticism and theatrics-ridden entertainment is expertly accomplished.
Sure, quite a lot of the comic book is left out. The internal party rivalries are abandoned almost entirely, many of the supporting characters don't appear at all and the ending is slightly different, but the differences between the two mediums are not so great as to distance them entirely. And fans of the original wondering about the torture scenes need not fear, they are included in near identical shot-for-shot translation. This was an excellent film, tremendous entertainment and intelligent to boot; my friends and I lasted a mere four minutes after the end credits before having a political discussion. For now, Alan Moore can sleep safely.