Bifrost
05-04-2006, 04:39 PM
THE DETAILS
Director: James McTeigue
Writer(s): Andy Wachowski & Larry Wachowski (with Alan Moore & David Lloyd's original comic series)
Starring: Natalie Portman; Hugo Weaving; Stephen Rea; Stephen Fry; John Hurt; Tim Pigott-Smith
Released: 2005
Distributed by: Warner Brothers (http://www.warnerbros.com/)
IMDB Link: V for Vendetta (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/)
As I sat through the opening sequences of this film, I rolled my eyes. I had just finished re-reading Alan Moore's V for Vendetta and I was saddened by the drastic character changes.
Instead of soliciting her first night as a prostitute, Evey Hammond (Portman) is out on some nameless errand (which is later explained in an almost forgivable manner); instead of working in a factory, she works for a very well-appointed TV station; instead of being rescued by V from a dismal world without light she is kidnapped by V from her semi-successful life and thrown into a spiral of persecution and violence; instead of having no classical education, she is relatively well-read and matches quotes with V from time to time.
My exact thought was: they have crucified yet another Alan Moore classic.
Minutes later, the screen was dominated by the tall banners of the ruling Norsefire Party either side of the Big Brother-esque head of the Party Chancellor (Hurt). John Hurt's casting in this role, like the casting of devout Jew Natalie Portman as the supposedly aryan Evey Hammond, is particularly ironic considering Hurt played Winston in the 1984 adaptation of Orwell's 1984 (thank you Canalien). The symbol of the ruling Norsefire Party is, in the film, essentially a Nazi-red crucifix with an extra line across it. My memory shot immediately back to the Watchowski brothers' recent foray into comic writing - Doc. Frankenstein.
Doc. Frankenstein follows the life of Frankenstein's monster who is (in the comic) essentially immortal and survived Mary Shelly's novel to take on his human creator's name and, by the time the comic is set, become quite well educated. Through out his life, he has also been the victim of religious persecution at the hands of an unnamed big-money religion (though the symbolism is decidedly Catholic). Doc. Frankenstein takes the corruption and ruthlessness of big-money religion to charicature proportions, using an excorset missile to make the point where most are satisfied with a mallet. The comic takes the Watchoskis' argument so far that I myself have been quite shocked at some what's being presented. And I do not mean "upset", I mean shocked that they can get away with it in the current religious climate in the US. Evidentally, they did not believe they could get away with the same level of religious criticism in a film, as they appear to have been forced to add the extra line to the crucifix of the Norsefire wings symbol. Still - the symbolism was far from lost on me.
As soon as I drew this comparison to the Watchowski's own crusade against big-money religion and religious persecution, I was able to shake off the tightly-bound shackles of Alan Moore's anti-Thatcherite vision and enjoy the Watchowski's V for Vendetta for what it is: an excellent piece of political cinema.
It makes sense that the Watchowskis chose V for Vendetta as a basis for their cinematic vision - so many of the themes which are core to Alan Moore's V for Vendetta are central to the Watchowski's own beliefs, underscored by their promotion of freedom in the Matrix films and their promotion of freedom from religious domination and persecution in Doc. Frankenstein.
Similar to Moore's world, the Watchowskis present us a world in which a corrupt, Fascist regime has taken power - tossing non-anglo-saxons, homosexuals and political opponents into concentration camps or simply killing them outright. Dissimilar to Moore's world, we are given bold parrallels to our own world where the media and governments are encouraging fear of Muslims and several times references to "America's war" and images of the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts are used to suggest that this marked the beginning of the end. The Watchowskis' V for Vendetta is a bold warning to the world in which we live and something of which I did not believe Hollywood capable.
The film presents a world which is entirely possible from this point in our political climate, it is a world in which people have had their freedom subtley taken from them by a Government who was elected by the people to be protect them from the world; a Government who persecutes those who are foreign, those to who are gay, those who follow a different God. It is a world only a few sweeping counter-terrorism bills from our own.
In something quite startling for Hollywood, the producers (mercifully credited as the Watchowskis themselves, among others) allow V (Weaving) - the primary hero of the movie - to remain as he is in Moore's comic: a political idealist who believes that blowing up symbolic buildings and killing people of supposed authority are essential if one is to change the way of the world. They present us a potent hero who is not only a killer, but a terrorist.
For all of its departures from Alan Moore's seminal work, V for Vendetta is an extremely important film and takes Moore's warnings to the screen in such a way that not only does it remain more faithful to Moore's work than any of the previous (abysmal) adaptations of his comics, but it actually furthers Moore's argument, bringing his ideas into the 21st century - laying it out for the illiterate masses in bold technicolour.
This film should be compulsory viewing for western audiences.
-- Bifrost
Director: James McTeigue
Writer(s): Andy Wachowski & Larry Wachowski (with Alan Moore & David Lloyd's original comic series)
Starring: Natalie Portman; Hugo Weaving; Stephen Rea; Stephen Fry; John Hurt; Tim Pigott-Smith
Released: 2005
Distributed by: Warner Brothers (http://www.warnerbros.com/)
IMDB Link: V for Vendetta (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/)
As I sat through the opening sequences of this film, I rolled my eyes. I had just finished re-reading Alan Moore's V for Vendetta and I was saddened by the drastic character changes.
Instead of soliciting her first night as a prostitute, Evey Hammond (Portman) is out on some nameless errand (which is later explained in an almost forgivable manner); instead of working in a factory, she works for a very well-appointed TV station; instead of being rescued by V from a dismal world without light she is kidnapped by V from her semi-successful life and thrown into a spiral of persecution and violence; instead of having no classical education, she is relatively well-read and matches quotes with V from time to time.
My exact thought was: they have crucified yet another Alan Moore classic.
Minutes later, the screen was dominated by the tall banners of the ruling Norsefire Party either side of the Big Brother-esque head of the Party Chancellor (Hurt). John Hurt's casting in this role, like the casting of devout Jew Natalie Portman as the supposedly aryan Evey Hammond, is particularly ironic considering Hurt played Winston in the 1984 adaptation of Orwell's 1984 (thank you Canalien). The symbol of the ruling Norsefire Party is, in the film, essentially a Nazi-red crucifix with an extra line across it. My memory shot immediately back to the Watchowski brothers' recent foray into comic writing - Doc. Frankenstein.
Doc. Frankenstein follows the life of Frankenstein's monster who is (in the comic) essentially immortal and survived Mary Shelly's novel to take on his human creator's name and, by the time the comic is set, become quite well educated. Through out his life, he has also been the victim of religious persecution at the hands of an unnamed big-money religion (though the symbolism is decidedly Catholic). Doc. Frankenstein takes the corruption and ruthlessness of big-money religion to charicature proportions, using an excorset missile to make the point where most are satisfied with a mallet. The comic takes the Watchoskis' argument so far that I myself have been quite shocked at some what's being presented. And I do not mean "upset", I mean shocked that they can get away with it in the current religious climate in the US. Evidentally, they did not believe they could get away with the same level of religious criticism in a film, as they appear to have been forced to add the extra line to the crucifix of the Norsefire wings symbol. Still - the symbolism was far from lost on me.
As soon as I drew this comparison to the Watchowski's own crusade against big-money religion and religious persecution, I was able to shake off the tightly-bound shackles of Alan Moore's anti-Thatcherite vision and enjoy the Watchowski's V for Vendetta for what it is: an excellent piece of political cinema.
It makes sense that the Watchowskis chose V for Vendetta as a basis for their cinematic vision - so many of the themes which are core to Alan Moore's V for Vendetta are central to the Watchowski's own beliefs, underscored by their promotion of freedom in the Matrix films and their promotion of freedom from religious domination and persecution in Doc. Frankenstein.
Similar to Moore's world, the Watchowskis present us a world in which a corrupt, Fascist regime has taken power - tossing non-anglo-saxons, homosexuals and political opponents into concentration camps or simply killing them outright. Dissimilar to Moore's world, we are given bold parrallels to our own world where the media and governments are encouraging fear of Muslims and several times references to "America's war" and images of the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts are used to suggest that this marked the beginning of the end. The Watchowskis' V for Vendetta is a bold warning to the world in which we live and something of which I did not believe Hollywood capable.
The film presents a world which is entirely possible from this point in our political climate, it is a world in which people have had their freedom subtley taken from them by a Government who was elected by the people to be protect them from the world; a Government who persecutes those who are foreign, those to who are gay, those who follow a different God. It is a world only a few sweeping counter-terrorism bills from our own.
In something quite startling for Hollywood, the producers (mercifully credited as the Watchowskis themselves, among others) allow V (Weaving) - the primary hero of the movie - to remain as he is in Moore's comic: a political idealist who believes that blowing up symbolic buildings and killing people of supposed authority are essential if one is to change the way of the world. They present us a potent hero who is not only a killer, but a terrorist.
For all of its departures from Alan Moore's seminal work, V for Vendetta is an extremely important film and takes Moore's warnings to the screen in such a way that not only does it remain more faithful to Moore's work than any of the previous (abysmal) adaptations of his comics, but it actually furthers Moore's argument, bringing his ideas into the 21st century - laying it out for the illiterate masses in bold technicolour.
This film should be compulsory viewing for western audiences.
-- Bifrost