Bohemian Cinema By Jonathan Pacheco

“V for Vendetta” (2006)

Directed by James McTeigue

Satisfaction:Thrilled Tags: Satire, Action, Future, Comic

Important ideas can make a film important, regardless of whether or not the film works as a whole. Sometimes important ideas can even save a film, to a certain extent. V for Vendetta is a film with important ideas, and it is a film that works. The added bonus is its decent timing.

Welcome to the England of the future: selected arts are banned, curfews are in place, and it’s all being run by Chancellor Sutler (John Hurt). The young Evey (Natalie Portman) works at the British Television Network, and one evening, out to meet a gentleman caller for dinner, breaks curfew and is cornered by the chancellor’s “finger men,” who have a different kind of civic duty on their minds. Enter V (Hugo Weaving), swooping in to save Evey, wearing, like any good vigilante, a cape, a hat, and a mask…of Guy Fawkes.

V has a mission: finish the job that Guy Fawkes started centuries before, which is to blow up Parliament and shake up the system. During the year leading up to the event (which he announces over a BTN broadcast), V also wants to hunt down specific important individuals in London to enact revenge for some past sins of which we’ve only scratched the surface.

Investigating V and digging into his past is Inspector Finch (Stephen Rea), a member of the Chancellor’s council, but a man who’s so jaded by the government that he can barely bring himself to mumble the nation’s motto, “England Prevails.”

The film is not perfect, but sometimes bold films don’t have to be (A.I. comes to mind). I call it bold because it proclaims the power and rights of the People loudly and clearly: “People shouldn’t be afraid of their governments—governments should be afraid of their people.” Not the most original of notions, but one we’ve forgotten about nevertheless.

Some publicity has been made of what time period the film is representing. Is it WWII? Is it today? Is it the future? I believe it’s a mixture; the graphic novel was created some time ago, and the Chancellor’s passionate speeches smack of Führer, but the Wachowski’s seem to be injecting the story with some references to the 21st Century.

In the end, there’re still questions to be answered: what’s V’s point? If you blow up a building and overthrow a government, creating chaos, who will take over after that? History tells us that after acts like that, an even more strict government will take over, which I’m guessing is the opposite of what V wants to accomplish. Is V’s goal anarchy?

Perhaps it is (just look at his logo). Regardless, V for Vendetta paints a clear picture of a grim future where a terrorist is the only one with the right idea. Hopefully, it won’t have to come to that.