Can the revolution happen without a leader?

Rating: 9/10 (25 March 2006)

Just saw it and was DEEPLY impressed. Yes, acting and cinematography were top-notch, but it was the updated socio-political commentary that gave the film its punch. The novel, written in the Thatcher/Reagan 80's, was projecting the politics of conservative corporate greed into the future, and look how far we've already come since then....
Most thought-provoking was Finch's comment to his colleague upon uncovering administrative malfeasance -- if your government facilitated and/or perpetrated actions against its own people that were subsequently blamed on domestic/foreign terrorists, "Would you want to know?" (Such a question exposes the root of national denial, through which we're all going to hell in a hand-basket....)
V's liberation was by fire, and Evey's is by water. His is mythical, impossible to grasp except through enjoying the fantastical world created in graphical novels. Hers is real and intensely moving. It is the kind of freedom from fear that is faced down by untold others throughout history. Even now as I write this, and as you read it, someone somewhere is coming to terms with the ultimate value of some truth beyond one's own life. Evey experiences and surpasses that unspeakable terror which others (i.e. the great majority of us) prefer to project out into the world as "terrorism" -- and without facing such a fear we acquiesce to almost anything in order to believe we're "safe."
Evey's name isn't merely similar to that of V, but is a metaphor of the first woman as life-giver, and thus subject to the natural and inherent "temptation" of preserving life. Is there ever a war worth fighting for, dying for, killing for? This film says yes.
While the faceless V behind his mask is a virtual No One, he emerges as the voice of Every One -- and the movie's final moments express this beautifully. Only problem is, most folks have to be much worse off before they rise up, with or without leaders and cool costumes. Bread and circuses (i.e. "Britain") will indeed prevail a good while. But perhaps some day when a barely literate populace no longer has easy access to graphic novels, and global warming brings the seacoast lapping up the sides of abandoned coastal cities turned slums, the revolution will come....