V for Vendetta, a Not So Distant Future

Any movie reviews from me will be rather late, because I almost never go to movies. I recently got the DVD by mail order rental service, though. Movies can be a great way to explore politics and philosophy, though. I found the Wachowski Brothers latest flick to be stimulating, but not quite like the "Matrix", which I could talk about all day, even the sequels.


"V" is sort of a 1984 meets Zorro bin Laden as played by the Phantom of the Opera. I liked it, but I think it was mostly that the dystopian aspect worked and struck a chord with modern times, depicting a not so distant future. When you think about it, people in America have disappeared and wound up in Guantanamo without hearings or trials or even any real process. Some of them are terrorists, but some of them... aren't. We don't know for sure which, because there is no process. So the stormtroopers and the bags thrown over people's heads are getting close to home these days. Not to mention, this is the not so distant past for many nations in Central America. Meanwhile the concept of the character of V, though he was well acted, came across as naive, a bit unbelievable, and anachronistic. But I like Zorro and the Scarlet Pimpernel, and feel the pain of the Phantom of the Opera (and of political prisoners). Casting such a character as a terrorist with bombs and a taste for downright vengeance, in contrast to his basic swashbuckling charm, does provide for an interesting thought experiment, and may help us to understand what some people might see in a bin Laden (I much prefer a Gandhi, and think he would do much more good). The ending was a big yawn, reminiscent of "Dead Poets Society", a mild catharsis that comes across as a simplistic quasi-resolution to a world gone mad, followed by a generic eulogy. But the movie is still worth a spin, and talking about over coffee afterwards.

In fact, reading my own review reminds me that, in contrast to what many people on many sides of the political spectrum would say, I think it is more naive to believe that you will solve problems with bombs than to believe that you will solve them with love.