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Dirk
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
237 Posts |
 Posted - 03/26/2006 : 10:40:22 AM
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It looks like the Wachowski brothers have decided to tell the tale of a black-costumed superhuman vigilante who fights against the powers-that-be in a bleak, authoritarian vision of mankind's future. I, for one, was surprised.
Quite a shock that the Wachowskis would follow up their Matrix films with this completely un-Matrix-like movie. Or did they follow this film with the Matrix? Apparently they were working on a version of V for Vendetta in the 90's before going in a completely different direction and telling the tale of Neo, et al. Isn't it astounding how they can switch gears so dramatically?
I, for one, was completely blown away by this movie. I mean, just look at the chilling similarities to today! This is something that could really happen (if it isn't happening already, which, for all we know, could very well be the case)! Look at how the government of England is run by a cabal of right-wing authoritarians! They may have called the evil despot "Sutler," but I for one see in him all the characteristics of one George Dubya Boosh! The way he's a religious fanatic and attempts to impose his own morality on the people and is secretly spying on everyone and wants to control the media and such. And how about that TV commentator fellow? Why, he's just like Bill O'Reilly, spewing his right-wing rhetoric while actually being a big fat hypocrite! Plus there's the persecution of homosexuals and Muslims. Aren't there thousands of homosexuals and Muslims being rounded up and put into camps in America right now? If not, it won't be long! It's like this movie has a crystal ball and is looking into the future. AND, in a completely mind-blowing twist (not to give anything away), there's a high-ranking church official who turns out to be a pedophile. WOOOOAAAHHH!!! WAIT A MINUTE!!! Haven't I read something like that in the news just recently??? About priests who have a secret desire for small children??? HOLY CRAP! The events of this movie seem like they're ripped right from today's headlines!
I don't know how the Wachowskis could write a movie like this. It takes a pretty fantastic imagination to come up with a bleak, authoritarian view of the future like that. Did you notice the subtle touches, like how there are pictures of the Chancellor in every room, as though he's watching everyone? To drive the point home, they might have put "The Chancellor is WATCHING YOU" on the pictures, too, but I guess it's the old Wachowski sense of subtlety coming into play.
And if you think that this film is just "The Matrix - Redux," think again! Remember how annoying all the drawn-out, pompous, vapid monologues in the Matrix sequels got? Remember how annoying the speeches by the Architect and the Merovingian were? Well you won't find that here. Check out this mind-blowing speech by the movie's protagonist:
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 it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation...
Ho ho ho! It goes on from there, but you get the idea of how unpretentious the film's dialogue is. I know I'm rambling, but seriously, you have to see V for Vendetta. It's like nothing you've seen before.
P.S. - Just to head off all you critics who are trying to establish some ridiculous connection between this movie and the Matrix (which is completely different), there are NO track-of-the-bullet effects. But check out the neato track-of-the-knife effects in the scenes where V spins his weapons in slow-motion! KILLER! |
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BrainFromArous
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
USA
102 Posts |
Posted - 03/26/2006 : 5:36:07 PM
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Fascist!
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Boards don't hit back.
(Bruce Lee) |
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Gristle McThornbody
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Germany
186 Posts |
Posted - 03/26/2006 : 7:37:30 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Dirk
Check out this mind-blowing speech by the movie's protagonist:
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 it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation...
Ho ho ho! It goes on from there, but you get the idea of how unpretentious the film's dialogue is. I know I'm rambling, but seriously, you have to see V for Vendetta. It's like nothing you've seen before.
Sounds like someone looked up "alliteration" in their picture dictionary.
"Hi, I'm Bob Evil!" |
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Prankster
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Canada
727 Posts |
Posted - 03/26/2006 : 9:51:04 PM
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I knew one of you guys would eventually make a post like this.
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Check out my online comics at [URL]http://www.phantasmictales.com[/URL]! |
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Prankster
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Canada
727 Posts |
Posted - 03/26/2006 : 9:57:25 PM
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By the way, you're aware that the movie is based on (and relatively faithful to) a graphic novel from 20 years ago, right?
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Check out my online comics at [URL]http://www.phantasmictales.com[/URL]! |
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BrainFromArous
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
USA
102 Posts |
Posted - 03/26/2006 : 11:29:57 PM
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Faithful? I dunno, Prankster...
quote:
Moore: I've read the screenplay, so I know exactly what they're doing with it, and I'm not going to be going to see it. When I wrote "V," politics were taking a serious turn for the worse over here. We'd had [Conservative Party Prime Minister] Margaret Thatcher in for two or three years, we'd had anti-Thatcher riots, we'd got the National Front and the right wing making serious advances. "V for Vendetta" was specifically about things like fascism and anarchy.
Those words, "fascism" and "anarchy," occur nowhere in the film. It's been turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to set a political satire in their own country. In my original story there had been a limited nuclear war, which had isolated Britain, caused a lot of chaos and a collapse of government, and a fascist totalitarian dictatorship had sprung up. Now, in the film, you've got a sinister group of right-wing figures — not fascists, but you know that they're bad guys — and what they have done is manufactured a bio-terror weapon in secret, so that they can fake a massive terrorist incident to get everybody on their side, so that they can pursue their right-wing agenda. It's a thwarted and frustrated and perhaps largely impotent American liberal fantasy of someone with American liberal values [standing up] against a state run by neo-conservatives — which is not what "V for Vendetta" was about. It was about fascism, it was about anarchy, it was about [England]. The intent of the film is nothing like the intent of the book as I wrote it. And if the Wachowski brothers had felt moved to protest the way things were going in America, then wouldn't it have been more direct to do what I'd done and set a risky political narrative sometime in the near future that was obviously talking about the things going on today?
http://www.mtv.com/shared/movies/interviews/m/moore_alan_060315/
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Boards don't hit back.
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Prankster
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Canada
727 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 01:55:42 AM
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Yeah, I know Moore had problems with it. But it's still superficially faithful to the comic. You can certainly argue--and I'd agree with you--that it trims a lot of the interesting themes and ambiguity, but my point is that the Wachowskis didn't pull the political commentary out of their butts. Most of it was already there, in the comic. And the comic was written before Bush Sr. was president, let alone Bush Jr.
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Check out my online comics at [URL]http://www.phantasmictales.com[/URL]! |
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TheFoywonder
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
833 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 04:30:27 AM
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I very much enjoyed V FOR VENDETTA and must say that after all the talk about it being an allegory about the Bush administration I really didn't see too many parallels. There's bits and pieces here and there that bring current events to mind but the future totalitarian British society portrayed in the film really seems to more closely resemble North Korea, Saudi Arabia, any number of other dictatorships around the world, and, of course, Nazi Germany. Somehow a real life V doing what he does in the film to those governments probably would be hailed a freedom fighter by the very people that are claiming this film glorifies terrorism.
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KreenWarrior
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
111 Posts |
Posted - 03/27/2006 : 10:20:00 PM
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Does it have parallels to the real world? Of course. But they don't dominate the story. Rather, it's the story of a believably dystopian world. That word, believably, is important. Unlike the ridiculous over-the-top oppression of 1984 and Brave New World, the world of the movie is oppressed... but it's clear that it's really established and run by people who are human. Mistakes are made, most people still don't really trust the government, but are relatively happy with their lot in life.
It'll be relevant 20, 30 years from now, assuming the world doesn't change drastically. It's about oppression, and people being willing to sacrifice their freedoms and their morals for safety... and also be able to realize their mistakes and fix them. It's a universal message, and it's applicable to today precisely for that reason.
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KreenWarrior
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
111 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2006 : 12:43:48 AM
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| Oh, my above post probably sounds a little fanboyish, so just to be clear, I'm not saying VfV is the movie to end all movies or anything. I liked it a great deal, but that's purely opinion. |
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Prankster
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Canada
727 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2006 : 12:49:36 AM
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I will say that the comic was a more detached and universal view of fascism vs. anarchy--relevant to the time it was written, yes, but meant to encapsulate "fascism" as an idea rather than trying to equate it directly with current events (in that case, the Thatcher government). Moore even specifically "cleared the slate" by positing a nuclear exchange that drove England to the state we see in the film, rather than trying to pretend it was just a logical progression from how things stood in 1982.
By throwing in a few bits of obvious Bush-baiting and a conspiracy-laden backstory, the Wachowskis (since no one seems willing to accept the credited director, James McTeague, as being more than a hired hand) muddle their point. But it's stupid to dismiss the movie just because innocent people aren't actually being hauled away to detention camps right now. Um, in America at least. It's meant to be a cautionary tale, not an expose.
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Check out my online comics at [URL]http://www.phantasmictales.com[/URL]! |
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cschack
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Norway
124 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2006 : 12:41:02 PM
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I just saw it and was pleasantly surprised. It lost too much in the transition, as adaptions invariably do, but overall it's a good flick. Certainly more worthwhile than a Michael Bay opus. And it's by FAR the best Moore adaption, which admittedly is not saying much. (I noted that the best bits were the ones taken straight from the book, like Valerie's "speech" to Evey.)
"Imagination without skill gives us modern art."
- Tom Stoppard |
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