Sometimes you just gotta blow something up. That’s the message that I got out of V for Vendetta, a highly controversial political drama that is sure to thrill, challenge your political views, and give you a headache while trying to work out the logic of the film.

WARNING: This review is full of spoilers, so if you plan on watching the film, you may want to stop reading this now…Also this is less a review of the movie, and more a commentary on the movies subject matter…You have been warned.

Set in the near future, V for Vendetta takes us to England, where “America’s War” has spread across the free world and forced England into a position of self-preservation through a Fascist style of big brother government where freedom is sacrificed for security.

Freedoms only hope comes in the form of a masked hero known only as “V” played expertly by Hugo Weaving who is somehow able to give that smiling face of the mask a great deal of emotional range. V is a terrorist to some, and a freedom fighter to most everyone else. He plans to start a revolution which will give power back to the people of England, and topple the government that controls them.

Helping him in his quest is Evey (Natalie Portman) who has witnessed far more than her fair share of terrorism in her short lifetime. Their relationship starts out sweet enough, I see shadows of the Phantom of the Opera in many of the moments that they share, but as their relationship become more complicated, (V locks Evey up and tortures her for several weeks…more on that later.) The relationship between the two goes from sweet yet slightly strained, to incredibly disturbing and only slightly more strained.

In the end, the revolution is successful. The government is toppled, V has beaten totalitarianism and England is free once again. And to prove it, a brain washed Evey blows Parliament to smithereens. Woo Hoo for terror!

Alan Moore, the original creator of the comic that the film is based on took his name off of the credits. He has this to say about the film:

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?

I found this revelation to be quite interesting because the filmmakers have always said that the film isn’t a direct attack on Bush’s America, The comic was written 20 years ago and so the commentary on government found in the film cannot be directly linked to what’s going on now. Instead your expected to draw comparisons to many governments that have existed throughout history.

To completely change the story, and then pretend that you didn’t change it so as to hide your true agenda is completely unforgivable. And it is these changes to the story which lead to all of the problems I have with the film.

V for Vendetta is a liberal’s wet dream. And it is sure to entertain all of the Bush-haters out there. The film takes every rumor, conjecture, lie, myth, stereotype, and mashes it all together to form a version of conservatives that liberals only wished existed. If only to be able to say to the world: “Look at the face of evil! Look at what has become of us!”

I watched an MTV special about V for Vendetta. It was this round-table discussion with Natalie Portman and a bunch of teens. At one point they show a montage which includes footage of George Bush addressing the nation, followed by footage of the Government leader and antagonist in Vendetta, then followed by footage of Mussolini, Hirohito, and other prominent fascist leaders. After which, they begin discussing the similarities between the Evey torture scene in Vendetta with Abu Ghraib and Guantanimo Bay. ( In case you didn’t know, Evey is an innocient person wrongfully imprisoned while those held at Abu Ghraib were real life terrorists who have killed american soldiers, and planned and executed massive attacks which have killed hundreds of innocent people. I don’t condone what happened to them…but there is no comparing Evey with real enemy combatants. )

To make these comparisons is not only ridiculous, it’s also irresponsible. If you wish to fight a perceived political menace, you do so with truth. Trying to twist reality so that it fits with your political ambitions only serves to confuse your supporters and “out” yourself to those who bother to do their homework when it comes to politics and historical context.

But heck, young adults (the primary audience for this film) aren’t all that savvy when it comes to politics and world events so you can bend the truth anyway you please and lead them in any direction you choose. They will follow like sheep. Michael Moore did this very thing quite expertly in Fahrenheit 911.

So the MTV moderator says to the round-table group. “Many would call this film Propaganda. What would you say?” Natalie Portman immediately pipes up. (I am paraphrasing) “Well I would certainly hope that people wouldn’t get that impression. Propaganda films have one answer and everyone is supposed to leave the theater saying “Oh yes, they said that and so that must be true.” This film asks questions and it is supposed to challenge you to think and discuss”. All of the kids of course agreed with Natalie. “Yeah I didn’t walk out of there automatically thinking that terrorism was the answer or anything so this isn’t propaganda at all.”

Of course by the time the show was over it was clear that everyone was in agreement on two key points. A terrorist to one person is a freedom fighter to another, and George Bush is evil and he must be stopped…oh yeah, and this movie is in no way a piece of propaganda either…so that’s three key points.

In short, V for Vendetta is a very entertaining, very well made drama with a moral that only makes sense to people who are looking for reinforcement for their own extreme political views. If you are looking for a good time, this movie delivers, but be sure to check your brain at the door.

I give this movie 3 out of 5 stars.

-Matt