Another politicised topic, from yours truly. There seems to be a trend right now in Hollywood and Bollywod, about fighting your own government and inciting revolution. Earlier this year we had Rang De Basanti, and last year we had V for Vendetta. They are both obviously very different films, but are alike in how they are united against oppression. I would say Rang De Bansanti was more daring than V, because Rakesh Mehra was bold enough to actually set the film in India and openly point fingers at the cabinet officials, even plot an assassination (such is the political freedom Indians enjoy)
Whereas the makers of V had to set it in London in the future, in a fictionalised comic-book gothic universe, with a mixture of satirical elements, but subtly pokes fun at the Bush administration and it’s policies. That makes sense, as this is a cinematic adaptation of a comic book hero. However, don’t be fooled, this film has very political and anti-government undercurrents.
V for Vendetta is set a post 9/11 world, a series of major terrorist attacks have occurred in Great Britain - bomb blasts, chemical and biological attacks, hundreds of thousands have been killed. A wave of severe xenophobia sweeps across the nation, anybody who is different is some threat! Civil unrest develops, and tensions mount between white people and ethnic and other minorities, erupting in civil riots, and the country being flooded with police forces to contain them. Mass-protests ensue around the country, crime ravages the country....Britain is in total chaos. A hard-liner chancellor, a zealous and religious speaker and motivator of people, claiming to be doing gods work, stands to offer the people security from the evils in the country ... all he wants in return is their quiet obedience and total compliance.
Fast forward to the future: Police state UK. A totalitarian regime, where civil rights are a luxury, daily curfews are the order of the day, police officials are criminals in uniform, citizens carry ID cards to access anything and minorities (homosexuals, ethnic) have been completely eradicated; the media(propoganda outlet) is owned by the state and fear keeps everybody in line. The country hails to, Chancellor Adam , an over zealous, authoritarian, hard-line dictator, a combination of George Bush, Adolph Hitler and Saddam Hussain, who commands absolute power over the people. Like Saddam Hussain, his portrait is seen all around the nation, in pubs and homes and he even has his own neo-nazi emblem.
Nobody dares to dissent or question the government, in fact nobody dares to be different in anyway ... and those who do, are arrested, tortured and used as guinea pegs in chemical and genetic experiments.. But, one man - who was wronged by the system - has had enough. One man is about to change everything - one man has imposed a vendetta on all the corrupt officials of the country: Meet V, an eccentric, a bit skewed in the head, masked superhero freedom fighter, inspired by the ideology of Guy Fawks, who wants to show the country the most spectacular fireworks display, by blowing up British parliament on the 5th of November and uniting the people against their draconian and oppressive government.
This is actually a very daring film and wake-up call not just for the West, but for the world. It’s a premonition of things to come, if we allow our governments to scare us into relinquishing our freedom on false promises of security. As age old wisdom tells us, those who give up their freedom for security, deserve neither and will lose both. V raises some very pertinent issue about the current political climate and gets us to seriously question our notion of freedom, and our illusion of democracy.
We believe, rather naively, that we are a free society and our governments are run by us. Some of us even believe we do not have to worry about politics and leave all that to the government, believing them to have our best interests at hand. After all, we have a hundred million other things to worry about, our bills and debts, our children, our food...baseball, cricket, football......movies..........sex.
Admit it, we are a people who are completely self-absorbed and oblivious to the world around us. The more of us that allow ourselves to be politically apathetic, the more control we cede to the government, the more power we unwittingly sign away to them. You know what happens, when a government gains more power than the people, corruption begin to set in, civil liberties begin to diminish, and if that is taken to it’s extreme conclusion; we enter into a dictatorship, very much like the one depicted in this film. A people that do not take the responsibility of the condition of their country, are a doomed people. That is how Germany, one of the most liberal societies in the world, became a tyrannical regime over night.
Why am I saying this? Well, if you look at the current post 9/11 political climate in the West, it bears a startling resemblance to the political climate in Pre-Nazi Germany before the Reistad was attacked by "terrorists"
The makers of V, have picked up on that, and projected into the future, building up a plausible scenario, mixed with satirical elements and comic book superhero elements to soften, what is essentially a highly politically charged film that paints a dark future that could indeed occur, if the events of today are allowed to continue unabated; if the people remain in slumber, and do not realise that they are being stripped of their liberities; being told blatant lies; being deceived by their government.
What is scary, some of what is shown in this film, has actually happened; protests brutally crushed by state police; dissenters arrested or visited by federal police; Muslims hassled, raided and racially profiled; unconstitutional policing powers introduced; ID cards soon to become a reality.
V takes a conspritatol view, and openly blames the US and UK government for the war and terrorism issues, and surprisingly takes a very sympathetic view to the terrorists and Muslims, showing them to be only scapegoats in an internal political conspiracy to scare the public into accepting a police state; where everything is orchestrated by the government, including staging terrorist attacks, pandemics, water shortages - anything to make the people think they are constantly under threat and need protection.
V cannot be applauded enough. It is an extraordinary film, very well directed, scripted and shot and proves that Hollywood can still produce meaningful cinema, and when it does, it is truly unparalleled. V is more than just a film, it is a message to the world, veiled as a film, showing us the future we are heading for. There is something awfuly wrong with this world today ... isn’t there?