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Ross
Levatter reviews "V for Vendetta": what it was, and what it could have
been. V for
Vendetta, directed by James McTeigue. Warner Bros., 2006, 132
minutes.
V As in MCMLXXXIV by Jo Ann Skousen
Turn their name upside down, because the Wachowski
brothers are Men on a Mission, Moved by a Message, Movie Makers with Meaning.
Like their Matrix trilogy, "V for Vendetta" presents a futuristic tale dripping
with meaningful dialogue (much of it alliterative with a capital V) against big
government, big business, and fear itself, "the ultimate tool of government." You
could call it "M for Melodramatic."
| | Jo Ann
Skousen is a writer and critic living in New York.
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The film is set in a dark Orwellian future where fascists are running Great
Britain, "the former United States" has been destroyed by "godlessness," ordinary
citizens are imprisoned for being out after curfew, and Big Brother orates from
giant plasma TVs. Our hero, V, is a masked terrorist — er, I mean, freedom
fighter — who wants to blow up Parliament as a way of uniting the common
folk behind the idea of freedom. Like Zorro, he dresses in black, etches his
initial on his opponents while sword fighting, and steals only from those in
power: "Stealing implies ownership," he says. "I merely reclaim things from the
government." Who is this Masked Man, and why does he have such a vendetta
against the government? Finding the answer leads us on an intriguing chase
through Hitlerian science experiments, conspiratorial politics, Holocaustic
detention camps, and Hollywood's obligatory pharmaceutical company connection.
The plot is engrossing, with enough twists and thrilling fights to maintain
suspense. Occasionally the film seems to teeter on the brink of corniness; can V
be taken seriously when he speaks through a grinning Guy Fawkes mask reminiscent
of the Joker in Batman, cooks breakfast wearing a frilly apron, and speaks in
pretentious Shakespearean quotations full of alliterations on his own name? For
the most part, however, it's an engaging and entertaining film — in part
because Natalie Portman is so believable as V's reluctant protege, Evey.
The film is full of profound mini-statements like "Ideas are bulletproof,"
"Symbols are given power by the people," and "Every action changes the future."
One newscaster wryly observes, "Our job is to report the news, not fabricate it.
That's the government's job." But when all is said and done, there are no
bulletproof ideas presented here. In fact, V sets himself up as a new kind of
dictator, turning his troops (the TV-watching public) into bizarre robotic
imitations of himself. They violate curfew, resist the police, and come out to
watch the demolition of Parliament, but what do they know of freedom and how to
use it? |
| The film seems
libertarian on its surface, but it offers no alternative to bad government except
to blow up the Houses of Parliament. |
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Yes, the film seems libertarian on the surface, with its antigovernment tag
line, "People should not be afraid of government; government should be afraid of
the people." But it offers no alternative to bad government except to blow up a
building I happen to love, the Houses of Parliament. The Wachowskis may want to
associate Big Ben with dictatorship (the original graphic novel was written when
Maggie Thatcher was in power, privatizing her way through Britain), but to me Big
Ben represents Peter Pan and Chevy Chase, summer vacations and "our finest hour."
I could no more cheer its demise than the demolition of ancient mosques or
Tibetan temples. The least expected message of this film results from a
casting coincidence (although V intones more than once, "There are no
coincidences"). The Chancellor is played by veteran actor John Hurt, selected for
this film because he evokes a chillingly authentic Hitlerian Big Brother. But I
couldn't help remembering that Hurt 22 years ago played Winston Smith, the
protagonist in the film version of George Orwell's "1984." Despite Winston's
valiant attempt to resist totalitarianism, the book concludes with the words: "He
loved Big Brother." In "V for Vendetta," Winston is Big Brother.
Perhaps this is the bulletproof idea of the movie: power corrupts. Che Guevara,
Fidel Castro, Leon Trotsky, and Mao Zedong all began as freedom fighters wanting
to overthrow a dictatorial government, then became mass murderers in order to
maintain their big ideas. "Veni, vidi, vici" — V is for the vanquisher, not
for peace. As true libertarians know, the only way to effect a lasting change is
to teach the principles of self-reliance, personal responsibility, and respect
for property rights, and that means annihilating the NEA, not Big Ben. Until that
happens, Winston will continue to become Big Brother, and so-called Freedom
Fighters will continue to destroy what we have without replacing it with
something better. It will take more than an army wearing Guy Fawkes masks to make
that happen.
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