Opening line and tag line to a darn fine movie, and thus an appropriate post for today.

I’m wearing my Guy Fawkes mask as I write this, I can only hope and presume you all did similarly.  But if not, let’s talk about Guy Fawkes day before getting into the actual review for V for Vendetta.

Guy Fawkes Day…what the heck IS it all about.  I don’t actually get it.  Well, I do to a certain extent.  But, as the character V properly does when introducing himself, Guy Fawkes himself seemed to be both “victim and villian.”  Maybe its just one of those weird customs, but for someone who was voted the #30 all time Briton seems to get quite the strange…honor?  It’s a large shame that he was just beaten out by David Bowie.  Then again, I could see the argument for David Bowie beating out Winston Churchill.

But nevermind that, I suppose.  We are here to talk about something that is far more homage to Guy Fawkes then.  As already stated, V (somehow given lots of feeling and amazing character through a mask by Hugo Weaving) does play both villian and victim.  Unlike most of our recent comic book heroes, we get all of our backstory throughout the movie, and when we are introdued to V out of the shadows his plots are already coming to fruition.  If I were back in my jr. high days of memorizing random bits of fun movie lines (I wonder if I can still do the iocane powder bit from Princess Bride?) I might have commited to memory the full introduction V gives to us the audience, as well as Evey.  But I degress, I feel better letting his quotes do the talking at the moment.

V: But on this most auspicious of nights, permit me then, in lieu of the more commonplace sobriquet, to suggest the character of this dramatis persona.
V: Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.
[carves V into poster on wall]
V: The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.
[giggles]
V: Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it’s my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

Now THAT’S an entrance.  Just who the hell is this guy?  What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?  Do we like him?  Is he insane?  What does he have against the world?  And what school did he go to?

Once again, we find out that the brothers Wachowski are able to create a dynamic movie, full of on the edge of your seat action and explosions, while creating a huge, deeper subtext.  Though I suppose I’m the only one who enjoyed a majority of the Matrix movies.  Hmmm…that might be a fun topic for another day.  But the messages here are fascinating.  There is a corrupt government in the eyes of V, and we are witness to his possible solutions.  What is fun is that, somewhat like the Matrix as well, we are thrown into the world only partly understanding what’s going on.  For this, it works.  It’s the distant future.  We don’t know exactly what happened, but we know Americans screwed up and I atleast have this image in my head of some sort of zombie freakshow going on.  They needed strong government to establish order.  And so it did.  But when you just step back and look at the movie…a battle between Fascism and Anarchism doesn’t seem like it should have a winner.  But what we do know is something’s gotta give.

The movie is dark, through and through because of that constant battle.  There will be casualties and sacrifices.  In a scene that, in a sense, should be hilarious (complete with Benny Hill theme) we are taken aback, too busy considering the ramifications of the satire we are witnessing.

While a minor character in many sense, the detective who bridges the investigation of V and gives us lots of the nifty backstory becomes a fabulous character.  He very much reminds me of Captain Renault from Casablanca.  Dead serious.  I think Inspector Finch, due to the nature of the role, ended up getting a bit more of a black/white consistancy in his development, but I like romantazing of their similarities.  There is something about these characters who know a bit more about what’s going on then they let know, and also get played a bit, manage to figure things out, and manage to wear their respective badges with honor.  I could be far more detailed, but why ruin a good plot? Lt. James Gordon (Batman) is another one, come to think of it.  There’s something about those minor characters that allow us to see the human compass as work that I find terribly fun.

Well, I know I haven’t posted in forever, and this has been a short one, but this is one of the times I wrote before re-watching the movie.  And I need to finish cleaning my place (which takes alot longer when you are wearing the Guy Fawkes mask).  So I leave you with random forshadowy trivia and…a spoiler-tastic clip.  Enjoy.

And your random fun fact…next time you watch V for Vendetta, or when you do for the first time, notice the graphic novel on the desk by Evey right after V’s broadcasted message.  Yep, The Watchman.  Atleast I’m pretty sure.

Also, I completly ignored it, mostly out of wanting unbiased answers. Natalie Portman…what did you think of her here?