V For Vendetta

I finally saw V For Vendetta last night. It was one of the best works of anti-state expressions Hollywood has produced in quite some time.

The hero V was not only a bad ass knife thrower and combat expert, but he was also quite the intellectual. One of my favorite lines from the movie came when V, played by Hugo Weaving, was explaining to Evey, played by Natalie Portman, the reasons for his mission to take the current government down. He spoke to her in terms of Newton's Third Law - for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This was in reference to the physical and emotional scars the state had left on him and many others. He was merely the eventuality of such a tyrannical state that would rise up to lead a revolution.

I also enjoyed the references to “America’s war”, and the destruction that it had caused so many other people of the world. Of-course this movie being set some twenty years in the future, America had erupted into some kind of civil war. There was some mention of the war in Iraq, and the subsequent wars in several other Mid-Eastern countries that happened later on.

The opening scene takes place on the streets of Britain, and depicts Evey, being harassed by state thugs for being out after curfew. It is at this point that the audience is introduced to the hero V, who saves day. I know this movie was based on a graphic novel written in the 1980’s, but the opening scene really reminded me of the opening scene in Vin Suprynowicz’s novel, The Black Arrow. Now I know where Vin got his inspiration for his great tale of resistance.

I highly recommend readers check out The Black Arrow, as it is a similar tale of a revolution in the USA.