Monday, September 25, 2006

V for Vendetta


V for Vendetta has been criticized for being pro terrorism. It is also said that it attacks the Bush administration. I would disagree that the movie is pro terrorism, and that if it is attacking the Bush administration, the Bush administration deserves to be attacked.
In an Orwellian future, Brittan is run by a hypocritical police state. The bureaucracy can do whatever they want while preaching religion, while the people are ruled by fear of the "fingers." Dissenters are sent away, never to be seen or heard from again.
In the midst of this, one man with knowledge that the government is behind the evils that agitated the peoples fears and allowed the existence of a police state makes a stand. He does so behind the guise of a Guy Falkes mask. He makes his stand with explosions, fireworks, and music.
The use of explosions to blow up public buildings is what is considered being a terrorist act. I will give two reason why it is not. First: The building were blown up at night, so no innocent bystanders would be harmed, let alone V warned of the second building a year early. Second: V was overthrowing a tyrannical government. We was a one man militia.
To prove my second point let me quote the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these Truths to be self-evident , that all Men are created equal , that they are endowed, by their Creator , with certain unalienable Rights , that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness . That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed , that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it , and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Yes, you read that right. It is the right of the people to abolish such a government. Sure the movie is set in England, and I am sure the British hate this document. The criticism, however, is coming from the USA, where this document is the source of our freedom. It is not terrorism to want to be free and to take that freedom by force.

The movie was good. The message was true and honorable. Good prevailed over evil. Natalie Portman is hot! I have never read the comic so I can't compare on that front.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

2 comments:

MainMor said...

Eh... read my review sometime over on Vox... My problem with the movie is that it seemed to have focused on 1 thing as being the reason for the government being Orwellian.We saw 1 instance of another reason and heard about 2 more...but they were hung up on driving home the point that it was homosexuals that was tearing apart their society and that was their reasoning for being all big brother.When it was shown to be a reason the first 2 times I was "Ok, yeah I can see that being a reason..." and then there was very little of anything else.I found the society believable but the way they got to that point unbelievable... it felt inconsistant. But the movie was still good... but every time they brought back the point that it was all about homosexuals... it pulled me out of the movie. Because I kept thinking "Ok... so what else is the government doing?"When Evie was talkign to V in his home and she asked him what all the stuff was I wanted to shout out "Judy Garland pics and Pink Curtains?"But then when they moved on and the other dialogue and action... it was dead on perfect for me. So I would have to give a 9/10 rating. For myself it would have been a perfect 10 if they had added or shown some more of the things the government was cracking down on or lessened the point of homosexuals being the evil entity.It felt cartoonish and 2 Dimensional in that regard.

Carrie said...

I think homosexuality was just one of the many things that the government deemed too dangerous to allow the public to do. Homosexuality is the epitome of being liberal now-a-days and I think that the movie people decided to focus on that story just to show that the goverment was stripping away all liberal thoughts (not just being gay) to leave only the ones that the government approves in order to better control the population. A population without original thought is just cattle.The goverment was attacking all sorts of radicals, liberals, anything that didn't fit into their cookie cutter mould of the perfect society. Just because one of their main focuses was the story of a gay couple I don't think makes it only about gays. Anyways hehe, I thought the movie was great, but also can't compare it to the comic, although I have heard that it is really quite different - different motives, etc (obviously they had to make it suitable for the here and now, which is a completely different atmosphere than when the comics were released - people are a lot more sensitive about the topic now).