’’Remember, remember, the fifth of November, the gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot. ’’ Thus begins this memorable movie, brought to us by the Wachowski brothers, after the brilliance of ’The Matrix’.
V for Vendetta is a strong opposition towards the establishment and speaks of a way of doing something to overcome oppression. It strongly opposes the exploitation of the government and has a firm stance of taking matters into the public’s own hands. As the protagonist says- ’’The people need hope, not a building’’. It shows how one man decides to eliminate the wrongs which society had begun as a change. It thus questions the ability of humans to be able to decide what is best for them and also whether they can rectify the inadequacies in their plans.
The hero of this flick is the masked and caped ’’V’’, played by Hugo Weaving, a man scarred by his horrific past experiences suffered at the hands of the fascist administration, and bent on revenge. He takes it upon himself to eliminate those who meted out injustice to him and others at a so-called ’clinic’. He happens to rescue a regular average girl Evey Hammond(Natalie Portman) from a life or death situation and she becomes his unlikely ally in his crusade. She becomes enlightened about his philosophy of life and ultimately concludes what he had begun. A cynical cop(Stephen Rea) is entrusted with the duty of stopping V and finally realises the futility of ignoring V’s message to mankind.
The movie takes quite a dramatic and unexpected twist in the middle, which involves Evey beind mercilessly tortured and imprisoned about her connection to V, which could have been portrayed in a better way. Apart from this, the script flows smoothly and is accentuated by the slick dialogues delivered flawlessly by the performers.
The government, which is an extreme satire of the present one in the U.S, is represented as a cruel, faceless entity in this movie and the implied message is one of standing up for one’s rights. Or as V remarks- ’’People should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people’’.
My rating- 8/10