March 11, 2007

V for Vendetta


The People's Choice topic of the day.

First a disclaimer: Jrex and I both grew up reading comics and graphic novels. Which means we love all comic movies. Yes, that's right, even ones like Daredevil. So, if you're not into that sort of thing, take this all with a grain of salt.

It's a dark and violent movie on many levels, but the violence is stylized (though I did occasionally turn and watch Jrex instead of the movie--but I'm a wuss, so that's not really saying much). I think the reason it wasn't a popular hit is that the main oppressed people group is homosexuals. It's just not a popular 'victim' group in the American mindset. The other factor is that it's an overall questioning of a totalitarian state. Sure there are the obvious Hitler/Nazi overtones, but there's also a bit of our current 'finest hour'. Within all that are also concepts of what constitutes self, sanity, and revenge/redemption which were thought provoking.

On top of all that, how can you not love a movie with the voice of Hugo Weaving? The movie never reveals V's face and only shows a glimpse of his hands, but with that compelling voice, he becomes a very seductive presence.

It's Beauty and the Beast, but the Beast isn't a nice man and Beauty goes through hell. Then, after all that, the ending is good without being happy. It's a tough sell for the average American moviegoer. Guess it shows we're not average after all (I know that's a shocker and I'm sorry to spring it on you without a spoiler alert...)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the movie review. But, it was confusing. It appeared that you were reviewing
Daredevil until you mentioned V.

Last night, we saw Miss Potter. Marvelous. I had read three reviews, all of which had complaints. On seeing the movie, I thought the complaints were unjustified. We thought it scored all the way.

Rachel said...

Thanks for the review. I'll have to put it on my queue. I've loved Natalie Portman since The Professional.

Anonymous said...

We tivoed it this weekend, so hopefully I get a chance to watch in soon, thanks for the review, we like comic book movies too, and I agree we're not the average movie goers either. I like Natalie Portman too, loved her in The Professional.

scarp said...

So, can I put in a request a for the next entry? I'd be intersted in the loss of Baltimore and the grieving process - for reasons I am sure are obvious to you. I also will understand if that is hard to get around to writing about, though...

Anonymous said...

Easily one of my top 5 films of all time...yes- it's true!