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.
Style. Something the Wachoski brothers have mastered in the process of the making of The Matrix trilogy. Attitude. Something Hugo Weaving has fine-tuned and carried over from the deadly Agent Smith to the deadlier V. Revolution. A never-say-die theme that has been resurrected after decimation into a million Che T-shirts by other albeit less compelling media and events. Together, it is poetry.
Let us remember the 5th of November.
Guy Fawkes had attempted to blow up the British Parliament on the 5th of November, 1605. He failed. More than 430 years later, Britain, the new global Superpower has been turned into a totalitarian regime under the insane High Chancellor Sutler. Natalie Portman of the Star Wars fame, plays Evey Hammond, an assistant in the government controlled BTN Television Network. She is rescued by V, a stranger in a Guy Fawkes mask, in an incident at night when she is accosted by unfriendly ‘fingermen’. He provides her with the introduction given above and shows her the perfectly orchestrated destruction of the Old Bailey building.
He goes on with his saga of destruction letting people know who he is and what he wants to do. Slowly the story behind V and his dark painful past uncovers as he settles old scores in poetic elan leaving behind a Scarlet Rose as a symbol of his presence.
In a recorded tape which he broadcasts to the entire London, he urges them to join him in his revolution and lets everyone know that in the coming year, on the 5th of November, the British Parliament would be blown up. The rest of the movie is how he goes about executing a perfectly laid out plan, in between which, a struggle between ideologies, within everyone, is explored beautifully. There is a breathtaking scene with dominos falling in the shape of V when Inspector Finch realises that ‘somehow, it was all connected’.
A revolution without a dancing is a revolution not worth having.
The dialogue is exceptional. Shakespeare and Voltaire are heard in numerous places in the movie. V is not just an extraordinarily strong man blinded with hate, he is a master cook and loves listening to classical music and definitely knows how to dance. He sure is well read with all the classics and other tomes found in his ‘Shadow gallery’.
Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.
I haven’t seen Rang De Basanti. But I believe there are more differences between the two than anything remotely similar like the idea of revolution. V is darker. Way darker. It is about oppression, revenge, tyranny and against all these, the element of hope. Sure, there are unbelievable parts here. But wait! This is based on a comic! And I believe that such issues should not be considered worth an argument just like radioactive spiders were not questioned in Spiderman.
There are several ideas in V that are highly relavent like the influence of media on the common man and its manipulation by people in power. The principle of peace, which is lost in the trials and tribulations of the oppressed. A feeling called vengeance, which is the by-product of never ending hate. The fact that no matter how scarred one gets, there is still something human. The idea of revolution, and placing this idea above everything else.
V for Vendetta is beautiful. Brilliant. Classy. Watch it.
