Yesterday evening I had the distinct privelige of being part of an audience to one of the best movies I have ever seen. A movie that makes the industry's motto of "Art for Art's sake" a bigone. A movie that is not only thoughtful and intelligent but provokes one to the point of decision. And to top it all off, is well acted and well-written. Never in all my years of movie-going, and being a genereation X-er I'm a movie-going pro, have I ever been so impressed by a movie.
V For Vandetta is truly a wake-up call to the American Society and the western societal apathy in general. The best question ever asked was in a scene between the police inspector and his assistant. "If you knew it was your own government doing this, would you want to know?" And that cuts to the heart of today's life. With all the questions surrounding the Bush administration, Iraq, and 9/11 do the American people truly want to know? And if we knew, would we have the moral integrity to act against a government that is so wildly out of control in so many aspects.
V, the main character, is a victim of the government that goes on his own vandetta against those who victimized him. And while his actions do the country good as a whole, it is not until he meets his love interest that he realizes how he too is part of the problem. One man is not enough to make a difference, it is the idea, the principle for which the man stands that is important. The willingness to die for one's beliefs, to go the distance when so many are being sheep. To know that you are in the right, when those too afraid to act are spouting pontifications on how you are wrong.
In point, the movie is about character and a true understanding of what freedom is really all about. To know when fear is guiding your well-thought out decisions and when fear needs to be put aside in an effort to save one's liberties. To realize when your government is using fear to rule the people instead of fearing the people themselves.
Another good point was made during the showdown between the government backed by it's military, and the enraged people of the nation who had finally awakened. The police inspector was asked what he thought was going to happen. His reply is very telling: "What happens when anyone with a gun faces someone without..."
The 2nd amendment is not to satisfy a nation's need for a standing military force, for what will the people use against the military if the government takes their only means of weaponry away from them?
To all those who not only like a good movie but want an intellectual treat...I recommend V for Vandetta. My only sorrow was the response of my fellow movie-goers. The teens were completely apathetic and the adults were only upset that the lovers never really kissed....
If this is the understanding of today's american...than maybe we deserve to end as the leper colony the movie depicts us to be.
Remember, remember, the fifth of November, The gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.
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politics
