There is no gray in James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta, only characters
who are truly reprehensible and those who are persecuted. The result is a
simplistic, overwrought tale of revenge rather than a thoughtful
examination of the mind of a revolutionary. A more mature attempt would
have given us a hero a bit more conflicted and not as single-minded as V
(Hugo Weaving), a mysterious poetry-spouting rogue who models his efforts
to topple a modern-day totalitarian government on those of 17th-century
English revolutionary Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up Parliament in 1605.
V plans on doing the same thing and even broadcasts a one-year notice of
his intent in an effort to rally public support and unnerve the regime.
Authorities take V seriously, especially after he escapes their clutches at
the state-controlled television station, BTN. Fear is a great motivator, but, as Chief Inspector
Deitrich (Stephen Fry) uncovers long-held secrets involving ethnic
cleansing, concentration camps, and medical experimentation on human
beings, he begins to understand how deep the level of corruption is in the
government and just what V’s motivation might be. What he can’t
figure out is why such a sweet girl as Evey (Natalie Portman), an employee
at BTN who seems to be V’s apprentice, would be involved with this
madman. George Orwell’s world from 1984 seems tame compared with
this dystopian vision, a nightmarish society in which homosexuals are
rounded up and sent to internment camps, any behavior that is seen as
slightly out of the norm is crushed, and the government perpetuates fear to
stay in power. In this context, V’s actions come off as completely
justifiable. Never mind that he’s a terrorist in the truest sense of
the word. Actions that we deplore today take on a heroic light
here, and the audience is manipulated into overlooking the innocents who
are surely harmed in V’s attacks — just because he’s
right and his enemy wrong. This sort of storytelling is not only
simplistic, it’s irresponsible as well.
This article appears in Mar 16-22, 2006.
