V For Vendetta

V for Vendetta

Remember, remember the fifth of November
The gunpowder treason and plot
I know of no reason the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot

The Comic

Alan Moore's 'V for Vendetta' is best described as Batman meets "1984."

V is a terrorist, wearing the mask of famous British terrorist, Guy Fawkes.
It's easy to gloss over the terror at first. After all, the pseduo-Nazi regime ARE oppressing and torturing people they consider unfit or undesirable. In the opening chapters of the book, there is an enjoyable irony felt when the government calls V a terrorist. After all, V is the good guy.

But V is a terrorist. He blows up populated buildings, killing hundreds of civilians. He refuses to accept anyone else's point of view and he fanatically believes his view is the only way to see things. He murders cold-bloodily and deliberately tortures people to insanity and death. He manipulates people to be his unwitting accomplices, regardless of their feelings. He tortures and brainwashes Evey until she sees his point of view.

Don't forget, V is the good guy.

While Moore's "Watchmen" dealt with post cold war fear, "V" takes advantage of our desire for justice and the irony that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

The ideas of the book are greater than the sum of it's parts. A swashbuckling ubermench getting revenge on his makers, the slow drawn out mystery of who our hero is, the slow realization the hero is not always heroic. Very similar to both "Watchman" and "From Hell" Moore tends to get distracted about 3/5ths of the way through his story. He starts telling stories within the story, which can feel like he was getting paid by the page and needed to stretch it out. I could have done without them.

Still, it's a good piece of comic lit from one the the very best at it.

Movie

When I heard 'those Matrix guys' were trying to tackle this as their first post-Matrix film, I had my doubts. "V", while being a little flashy, was a lot of exposition and deep thinking and I saw how well they handled that with "Matrix 3-What Were We Thinking." And further more, how were they going to do it in post 9/11 America?

What ended up on screen was an effectively watered down version. Gone were the overt drug and religious overtones. The villainous government heads were no longer shown as idealistic as V himself, but seaming evil for evils sake. The bullet time action seemed to be there in order to have slow motion daggers spinning in movie previews.

Hugo Weaving pulled off V's wordplay and gave a gentleness I had not read into him previously.

Natalie Portman was fun, enchanting and bald.

Stephen Rea seemed asleep, but I think he was going for dejected.

My ongoing love for John Hurt lives on as he worked his scene stealing Big Brother-y face on a screen.

Battle Royale - Book or Movie

Book : It's Alan Moore doing underground social commentary with well spoken terrorists.