V for Vendetta

"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people. "-V.


Natalie Portman plays Evey, an ordinary girl that works at a British television station. One night, she meets a masked man known simply as "V" and her life changes forever.

The movie takes place in the not too distant future in England. The country has become a totalitarian dystopia.

Late one night, Evey tries to get to someone's house after the 11:00 pm curfew, but she is surrounded by fingermen, the secret police. They try to gang rape her.

Fingerman: By sun-up if you're not the sorriest piece of ass in all'a London...then you'll certainly be the sorest!

Ouch! Rape sux.

V comes to save the day. V is a Shakespearean knife-wielding mutant freedom fighter who wears a Guy Fawkes' mask.

After exterminating the bad guys, he introduces himself to Evey:

"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 a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

ObViously V adores alliteration absolutely.

Evey: Are you like a crazy person?

V: I'm quite sure that they will say so.

Evey: Who are you?

V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what, and what I am is a man in a mask.

Evey: Well I can see that.

V: Of course you can. I'm not questioning your powers of observation, I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.

V says to remember, remember, the 5th of November when Guy Fawkes was arrested for conspiring to blow up the British parliament in 1605. V plans on taking up the cause four centuries later and tells everyone to join him in front of parliament.

V uses terrorist tactics to pursue his own personal vendetta and to bring about sociopolitical change in bringing down the totalitarian government.

V starts killing people starting with the talking head on the tele who used to be the commander at the detention camp V was in. V later goes after the church bishop who has a thing for young girls. Evey agrees to help him out. She dresses up as a little girl and the bishop starts putting the moves on her in bed. V takes him out, and Evey tries to run away. She gets captured and is put in a prison. They shave off her lovely locks and now she's a baldie. Her only hope in living on is reading the letters of Valerie who tells of her lesbian story and how the regime has conducted horrible experiments in their efforts to take control of the country. The interrogator tells Evey to reveal where V is, but she says she won't. Then, she is told she is free to leave, because she has no fear. It turns out she was in V's Shadow Gallery the whole time. She's pissed off at him at first, but later she begins to understand V's own motivations.

Evey agrees to meet him before the next 5th of November when V plans on blowing up parliament.


This was a great movie, despite its many flaws. I was hoping it would be spectacular, but it didn't rise to that level. Nevertheless, the Wachowski brothers display their genius once again in this film after making the magnificent Matrix movie trilogy.

This was a profound movie filled with many different levels of symbols and meanings.

"There is repeated reference to the letter "V", or 5 in Roman numerals, throughout the film. V is held in Larkhill cell number "V". V's favorite phrase is "By the power of truth, I, a living man, have conquered the universe", (which in Latin is "Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici.") V's Zorro-like signature is a "V", as are his fireworks displays. During the battle with Creedy and his men, V forms a "V" with his daggers just before he throws them. After the battle, when V is mortally wounded, V leaves a "V" signature in his own blood. V's introduction to Evey (above) begins and ends with "V", has five sentences, and contains 49 words that begin with "V". The Old Baily and Parliament are destroyed on the fifth of November. V's final song with Evey, is song number 5 on his jukebox. When V confronts Creedy, V plays Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, whose opening notes have a rhythmic pattern that resembles the letter "V" in Morse code (···–). The Symphony's opening was used as a call-sign in the European broadcasts of the BBC during World War II in reference to Winston Churchill's "V for Victory". The film's title itself, is also a reference to "V for Victory". Finally, an inverted red-on-black "A" symbol for anarchy is shown as V's "V" symbol."-Wikipedia.

V can be considered to be a movement against the conservatism that is going on today. There are competing ideas of anarchy, terrorism, and liberalism against conservatism, nazism, fascism, and totalitarianism. The government regime also censors everything that they do not disagree with. V keeps a collection of all the banned books and items in his Shadow Gallery. Before the current regime gained control, they used a secret conspiracy to conduct a viral holocaust to rid itself of the unwanted. V calls out to the people to stop the madness and fight back.

The tv talking head that V terminates is a religious right-wing conservative who talks about g-d and the evils of gays and Muslims. This movie also talks about hypocrisy and religious fervor.

V is not just a man, but an idea. And an idea can live on forever.

The Wachowski brothers make some of the most profound movies in modern times. This is another must see movie for its provocative ideas, but not for its story or action, however.

The Highs: Powerful and profound ideas and imagery on current sociopolitical values.

The Lows: Flawed film. You can easily see its comic book roots and self-important philosophies and viewpoints. Something about it's preachiness was somewhat offputting. The ideas were great, but the movie's execution is lacking.

The Verdict: Viva la V!

My rating: vB, 84.