The idea of the vanguard has serious limitations.

Rating: Null/10 (15 October 2006)

I thought this movie was excellent as a movie, but at the same time it would be a serious mistake if anyone thought anything like this would work in real life. V was counting on "the masses" rising up to vindicate the struggle against the dictatorship, but it doesn't work that way. Resistance may be clandestine, but revolutions can never be, and the idea that a few brilliant brave men and women are going to lead the rest is by its very nature elitist. That is a good recipe for corruption further on down the line, and there is nothing to prevent the transference of one dictatorship to another, no matter how high-minded in its origins. The clues are that V and his comrades are active and interesting (there's no denying that), but the people in their houses and pubs are mere decoration. Why weren't they involved? The trench-coat mafia parade at the end doesn't count. Didn't they have an actor's union card? The movie business in real life is elitist, and this is necessarily reflected in the plot (stars and supporting players). Additionally, it would have been stronger if Evye had been tortured by real government agents, and had become fearless thereby. However, the idea of control of a virus used as control of the population is interesting, and has echoes in the LSD and syphilis experiments, and as some have implied, in the (manmade??)HIV virus.