V For Vendetta: The Movie

Actually, anarchism is never mentioned in the comic. V has one speech about anarchy, but that's it. Though I agree the comic is much more about anarchism than the movie, which is about more vaguely defined anti-fascism. However, I find Moore's handling of anarchism rather problematic as well: the idea of a single mastermind, V, working alone to change the society, forcing Evey into her anarchist "enlightenment", killing lots of people on the way, etc, seems kinda problematic with the ideas of anarchism, even if V himself thinks he is an anarchist freedom fighter. Moore tries to solve this problem by making V a symbol of anarchism, i.e. he's not a real person rather than an idea (which is why we see Evey's face when she takes the mask off), but V for Vendetta is still more of an fantasy superhero take on anarchism rather a story about what a real anarchist revolution in a fascist state might be like. But I guess stories like this are always parables, so I really like the comic still. However, what I didn't expect the movie to do was make V less of an hero than in the comic - it actually criticized his deeds more.

the policeman storyline is good, the imagined britain is good, the plot is okay, though the flashbacks are needlessly confusing. it's not totally clear what order things happened in and why.

but it was much clearer about v being fucked-up than the comic. the only problem there is, we still have to spend lots of time with him.

i'm not an anarchist and the ending failed to fill me with hope. i did like seeing parliament blown up though.

also, i think it was invented for big summer movies like 'independence day', but i never like those 'scenes of random people in their homes/pubs watching tv' scenes.

i did read the comic but forgot that. they all had flat-screen tvs. this obscurely annoyed me. perhaps it needed more 'brazil' type oddness.

How did you feel about the ending in the comic? Because I think the very final scene (with the policeman) was actually grimmer than in the movie, i.e. there was nothing to suggest that the people were actually gonna build a better anarchist society.

how does stephen fry come across to people who aren't used to him as a tv wit? i can't quite take him as a Real Actor.

where do you get off with the 'ugh trash' thing? it's especially ludicrous given the james mason love. like gainsborough melodramas were abstruse works of high modernism or something.

My beefs are few:

1. Fry's being beaten and detained for making fun of the chancellor is not that great as an illustration of living in a crazy fascist state, to me. I think the audience could have dealt with a little more complex illustration of that than the cartoon they provided. OTOH, Benny Hill tribute = haw haws. But seriously why would you even expect to get away with that, if everything is so crap? It raised a few too many questions re: how crap everything really is, in the time frame where most of the action takes place.

2. I would have preferred people marching on parliament to not be so well costumed. uniforms against uniforms isn't really making much of a point. Perhaps just the masks, for the purpose of the unmasking at the end (which was a nice effect) - but everybody dressed up exactly the same doesn't sit well with me as a people's revolution.

3. The timeline of V's origin and the biological warfare and the death camps and the rise of fascism is really pretty fucked up, all because of that dim, unresolved monologue he delivers to Finch while disguised. If that conspiracy theory is supposed to make any sense, then it seems to put V & Valery's incarceration BEFORE the chancellor takes over. Eh. It's a movie.

Apparently you need to reread my posts.

Unless they feature cowboys fucking each other, apparently.

Though frankly I would watch Aeon Flux again before I watched this.

Until you brought up Aeon Flux I basically agreed with you, Tom. It strikes me that Dan and I, having not read the graphic novel, are in a better place to watch the film judging by the amount I also agreed with him on the thread, but I think that is actually true with all films based off of books.

Except DaVinci Code, that was shit no matter which way you look at it.

Natalie Portman was not terrible in this, and I thought the movie was very well done for the most part. Could've done without the fucking bullet time in the amazing ninja murder in the tube sequence.

wtf are you on about?

blanket dismissal of athletes = snobbish

WHY ARE YOU SO FUCKING STUPID

allright I'm leaving this thread before this devolves into another ally/tombot internet bully gangbang - have fun

criticism can be snobbish... or not!

i think my point re gainsborough stands, though this might not be the thread for it. 'hokum' is exactly the word critics used for it; and that word is pretty much always snobbish, ie a judgement on people-who-like-the-film: it rests on unstated prejudices about what we should be enjoying.

wtf

WMBB television reporter Nadeen Yanes told her station that the man came up to the podium at the Bay District School Board meeting and said he had a motion. He then pulled out a can of red spray paint and painted a V with a circle around it.

Yanes told the station he pulled out a handgun and started talking. She said school board member Ginger Littleton hit the gunman with her purse and he pushed her to the ground and started firing randomly.

^^ a great example of why concealed weapons should NOT be legal