Behind the Mask: "V for Vendetta"

The Wachowski Bros.’ futuristic, political thriller, “V for Vendetta,” begins and end with a bang. Big ones. Adapted from Allan Moore’s and David Lloyd’s 1988 graphic novel, the film is vastly complex. It requires rapt attention to figure out just why the man, who calls himself “V,” wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, Prince Valiant hairdo, Zorro hat, cape, and sword, wants to blow up important buildings in London.

The film (and graphic novel) is based on the folk-hero legend, Catholic dissident, Guy Fawkes, who, on November 5, 1605, failed in his attempt to blow up the House of Lords and kill King James I. He was captured beneath Parliament with his stash of gunpowder and eventually hanged. When Moore and Lloyd published their graphic novel, Margaret Thatcher had been elected to a third term. The many references to the mistreatment of homosexuals are based on the author’s belief, stated in the introduction, that the British government under Thatcher wanted to eradicate homosexuality and put people with AIDS in concentration camps. Moore was inspired by the liberal left’s strong anti-Thatcher policies, as well as London’s tabloids’ ubiquitous predictions of impending doom. The film, “V for Vendetta,” was to be released in November 2005 (presumably on Guy Fawkes Day). However, it was delayed, it is believed, due to the sensitivity to the terrorist bombings in the London underground and surface transit.

Director James McTeigue, cinematographer Adrian Biddle, and the Wachowskis, richly illustrate the film with gripping action; clever, thought-provoking, and sometimes humorous, dialogue (some caged from Shakespeare); and gorgeous visuals, with a hauntingly beautiful score by Dario Marianelli. We learn, not only from V, played by Hugo Weaving, but also from Detective Finch (Stephen Rea), recruited by government to catch V, that, in 2015, a vast conspiracy abounded and continued to abound for decades. It appears that the government, run by Chancellor Adam Sutler (John Hurt, more Hitler than Bush), a ruthless, ranting dictator; and a Dick Cheney-like right-hand man, Creedy (Tim Pigott-Smith), had supported pharmaceutical companies’ experiments, in a facility called Lark Hill, on “worthless” dregs of society who are of no use to anyone (read homosexuals). In a flashback narrated by V, two decades later, we see long lines of pale, thin, baldheaded people being injected in the arm by efficient, white-coated technicians. Scenes of the results of these experiments are tantamount to those of Nazi death camps. One of the experiments backfires, literally, and out of the conflagration, V emerges. He is now blessed with Herculean strength and Samurai sword skills, and skin so badly damaged, he hides behind the mask of his hero, Guy Fawkes. V’s revenge is more personal than altruistic. He wants to take down those responsible for his condition, yet knows he’ll be saving millions from a similar fate or possibly death.

V rescues Evey (finely portrayed by Natalie Portman) from arrest and possible rape by thuggish police, for being out after curfew. She is the mail-girl and gofer at a government-run TV station, where Prothero (Roger Allam), a Rush Limbaugh type, rants that the United States is not only a failed state desperate for medical supplies, it is also the “worlds worst leper colony;” and a “Godless Country,” to boot. At this point V has already blown up a building to the strains of Tschiakovsky’s “1812 Overture.” Chancellor Sutler’s men spin the incident as a planned demolition which TV reporters happily parrot. Television news anchors speak of the US’s ongoing wars in the Middle-East, medical foulups, pandemic bird flu, and biological horrors, putting fear in people’s hearts. Throughout the film, as in Orwell’s “1984,” Hurt’s scowling, mustachioed visage is seen on huge screens on buildings all over the city and on the telly in homes and bars. Sutler cries out for the populace to trust his brand of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He promises to protect the people against evil (though after a while, many citizens no longer believe his spin). Children, watching TV with their parents, shout “Bollocks!” to Sutler’s and Prothero’s rants. Government detectives try to track down the elusive V, who pops up unexpectedly to taunt them. Because of the support of the masses, V often eludes authorities by shipping hundreds of masks to the populace, and in a kind of flash-mob scenario, everyone shows up as V, in front of the parliament building.

By no small stretch of the imagination, one can see parallels between the points made by V, Evey, and others in the film, and what people in the US talk about today: the FDA, under pressure from the Bush administration, fudging medical trials and releasing harmful drugs, the infringement of civil liberties and freedom of speech under the guise of protecting us from so-called terrorists, glossing over the medical community’s activities regarding conducting drug trials on an unsuspecting public. Still, one must approach “V for Vendetta” with tongue-in-cheek. Besides being part ‘Phantom of the Opera,” “The Mask of Zorro,” and “Zatoichi, the Blind Samurai,” it also tracks with John Le Carre’s “The Constant Gardner,” which also dealt with subversive medical trials.

Some priceless scenes: V cooking Evey’s breakfast wearing a kitschy red and white print apron; V’s pad, which looks like Andy Warhol’s apartment, decorated with “censored art (to own popular culture is illegal),” and a genuine Wurlitzer, complete with Stan Getz and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Girl from Ipanema,” “Corcovado,” and Julie London’s “Cry Me a River;” an “SNL”-like skit on TV, depicting Sutler chasing around multiple Vs (a Mexican comedy show actually did a similar bit on Bin Laden.); and Evey and V watching “The Count of Monte Cristo,” like an old married couple.

To take the film seriously and think of it as a how-to guide in taking down the Bush presidency, is to miss the point. It’s a hoot. Still, who knows. By 2015, regardless of who’s in office, unless there’s a rapid, drastic change in our electoral system; better yet, a third party with strong anti-war, anti-imperialistic, socialistic, and humanistic goals . . . .