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| V for Vendetta |
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  (8/10)
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Runtime: 130 |
| Public Rating: 9.41 (59 votes) |
Director: James McTiegue |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Action/Science Fiction/Drama |
Year: 2006 |
| Writer(s): Wachowski Brothers (screenplay), Alan Moore and David Lloyd (graphic novel) |
| Distributor: Warner Brothers |
| Reviewed by: Mel Valentin |
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"Remember, remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."
[Guy Fawkes, a rebellious British subject, tried and failed to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. He was captured, tried, and publicly executed for treason. Every year, Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated in Great Britain on November 5th to commemorate the date when the English monarchy was "saved."]
After a three-year hiatus, the Wachowski Brothers (Andy and Larry) are back with V for Vendetta, an adaptation of Alan Moore and David Lloyd's limited comic book series/dystopian tale about a masked vigilante/terrorist's struggle to topple a totalitarian government in a future, alternate version of England. Rather than direct V for Vendettathemselves, the Wachowski Brothers handed off helming chores to James McTeigue, a first assistant director on the Matrix trilogy. Contrary to expectations, V for Vendetta is an intelligent, thought-provoking film that's part cautionary fable and part call to political activism against the spectre of creeping authoritarianism in Western countries (it's also an action film, but that aspect of the film is arguably secondary). And yes, conservative critics and apologists will cringe when they come across the obvious references to the current administrations/governments in the United States and England.
Adapting V for Vendetta for the screen has taken more than twenty years. In 1982, writer Alan Moore and David Lloyd began their collaboration on a limited comic book series, V for Vendetta. V for Vendetta was written as a thinly veiled critique of the excesses of Margaret Thatcher's ultra-conservative government. V for Vendetta appeared regularly in a British monthly, Warrior, until its cancellation in 1985. Five years later, Moore and Lloyd completed the series stateside with DC Comics. When uber-producer Joel Silver (the Lethal Weapon series, Predator, the Die Hard series) purchased the rights to adapt V for Vendetta for the screen, it was highly likely that Moore and Lloyd's work would emerge altered, dumb-downed, and unrecognizable by fans of the graphic novel. Almost miraculously, the opposite happened.
Set in a near-future, totalitarian England, V for Vendetta centers on Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman), a young production assistant at the local television station, BTN. Out past curfew, Evey encounters several Fingermen, members of the secret police. The Fingermen have the ability to detain, interview, and "disappear" anyone unfortunate enough to cross their paths. They also round political dissidents and other "deviants" (e.g., Muslims, gays, and lesbians) through "black bag" sweeps. Evey's fate seems certain, at least until V (Hugo Weaving), a vigilante in black wearing a grinning Guy Fawkes mask, steps out of the shadows and saves Evey from the Fingermen.
Before the night is out, V shows Evey a spectacular sight, the destruction of the Old Bailey, London's central criminal court building, and Lady Justice, whom V describes as having betrayed her ideals of impartiality and fairness in exchange for safety and security from imaginary threats. V takes Evey to the Shadow Gallery, his underground home, which he uses as a repository for pilfered art and movie posters from Hollywood's Golden Age (e.g., the 1930s-1950s). Evey soon discovers that V's actions are guided by his unshakeable belief in the rightness of his crusade against the government, but it's also spurred by his desire for revenge against those who have wronged him.
The government's Big Brother-like leader, High Chancellor Adam Sutler (John Hurt), orders an immediate investigation, using the state's resources to seek out and eliminate V and his accomplices. The domestic surveillance agency is divided into the Eye (visual surveillance), the Ear (audio surveillance), the Nose (forensics), and the Finger (secret police). Chief Inspector Finch (Stephen Rea) is ordered to head up the investigation. Finch, however, proves to be a man of conscience, interested in uncovering the truth about V's past and V's connection to the government.
Evey's journey takes her from willful blindness and naiveté (in large part motivated by the instinct for self-preservation, especially after seeing her parents "disappeared" by the government for their active opposition) to politically committed opposition. That journey tentatively begins when she returns to the dangers of the outside world, doubtful of V's violent, uncompromising methods. Evey has to undergo a physical, mental, and emotional ordeal before emerging as a more authentic, committed person. Evey's protracted ordeal also happens to be V for Vendetta's most harrowing, disturbing sequence, due to Natalie Portman's intense, committed performance and Moore's masterful handling of character and layered revelations (the Wachowskis used Moore's writing practically verbatim).
From there, however, the plot deviates significantly from Moore's novel, including an unnecessary "cheat" scene where Hugo Weaving is allowed to unmask (he's still wearing a disguise, though). No such scene exists in the source material; likewise with the romantic subplot. While V for Vendetta has a handful of action scenes, most are brief, with the exception of the opening and closing scenes, plus another early scene set at a television station (and even those are brief by Matrix standards). In fact, there's more talk than action, but nothing approaching the Wachowskis' indulging themselves in trite, pseudo-intellectual navel gazing that fatally undermined the Matrix trilogy.
V for Vendetta's literary and comic-book influences can be ticked off with minimal effort: the dystopian novels written by Aldous Huxley (Brave New World), George Orwell (1984), Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451), and DC Comics' Batman character, probably the most iconic masked vigilante in any medium. From Batman, Moore borrowed the masked or secret identity, the vigilantism, the vast resources used to fight crime, and an underground hideout. The comparison only goes so far, though. Batman may be a vigilante, but he lives by a self-imposed code. Batman never murders his opponents, only detains them for imprisonment or institutionalization (e.g., jail or Arkham Asylum).
Moore made V an old-school anarchist, modeling V on 19th-century Russian anarchists who believed that targeted assassinations and bombings would lead to spontaneous revolution (they led instead to greater repression of political dissidents). V's political idealism and naiveté also makes him blind to the human cost of his actions. It also makes him particularly ruthless toward street-level police officers (not Fingermen) that are merely attempting to safeguard public safety. The end result? V is probably the most morally ambivalent anti-hero to emerge from a presumably mainstream Hollywood blockbuster.
Adaptation wise, characters and subplots are literally lost in the translation, with the heaviest changes coming after Evey's mid-story ordeal. As such, purists will be distinctly unhappy. As a practical matter, streamlining becomes a necessity in adapting literary works to limited running times, but the Wachowskis also made significant changes in the order events are presented. In the graphic novel, V destroys Parliament in the opening scenes; V makes a public announcement soon thereafter, which, in turn, sets the police procedural storyline into motion. In the film, the admittedly spectacular destruction of Parliament is postponed until the climax, while the Old Bailey (London's most venerated court building) and Lady Justice are the first to go.
V for Vendetta ultimately takes the position that political violence against totalitarian governments in defense of civil liberties and personal freedoms is just and necessary (the phrase “one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter” comes to mind). Although the Wachowskis have taken Moore's complex, layered story and updated it for contemporary audiences, they managed to keep most of Moore's challenging ideas or concepts, and with several exceptions, e.g., the obligatory confessional death scene, an undermotivated act of political suicide, and the slightly risible, naïve, "Malcolm X" moment, V for Vendetta is probably the first film to do Alan Moore's work justice.
Fans looking for Moore's name in the credits, however, will be disappointed if not dismayed. Moore insisted that Warner Brothers remove his name from the credits and promotional materials after Joel Silver inadvertently claimed in a public interview that Moore was supportive of the adaptation. Warner Brothers refused to issue a public retraction. At his request, Moore's name was stricken from the credits. It won't make much of a difference, though, at least not among comic book/Moore fans.
© Mel Valentin, 17th March, 2006
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