I finally saw V for Vendetta on April 1, 2006 (a fool I was for waiting so long to see it). Of course, I liked it. The movie was loaded with many a good quote (often Shakespeare, from plays I have not read, sadly), and brought up many artistic, philosophical, and political issues. An in depth review of it would be extremely long, and I neither have the capacity nor the patience to bring up all the things I would like, especially considering how out of practice I am in writing critiques.
The one thing that I would like to bring up is the line that Evey (Natalie Portman) said about half-way through the film, "artists tell lies to expose the truth, while politicians tell them to cover it up." (That is how I remember the line, it may or may not be totally accurate.) This quote is exemplified in the use of masks throughout the film. Both V (Hugo Weaving) and the (fictional) British government make use of masks in the film: V of course has his Guy Fawkes mask, which, unlike Spiderman or Batman, he never removes; and the government has those "black bag" masks which they put on people they want to "erase." Naturally, both masks are meant to hide the faces of the respective people behind them. V wants to cover the horrible disfigurement he underwent at Lark Hill, in effect lying to others about his true appearance (there is one scene when a police officer tries to punch V in the face, but the officer hurts his hand on the metal mask), but at the same time the Guy Fawkes mask is meant to expose the horrible truth (ironically, the same truth he conceals) behind the St. Mary’s and Three Waters epidemics. The black bags, however, are meant to cover up, in that they are put on anyone who dissents from the government in any form. So as far as the masks are concerned, this would make the government a composition of politicians, but would that also make V an artist?
It is clear from the movie that V loves art. In his "cave," he is surrounded by books, sculpture, music, and paintings (mostly pilfered from the government censor trucks). He plays Tchaikovsky as he blows up buildings, quotes literature as he kills government officials, and even has Evey act the part of a call girl before murdering a Bishop. And given that, by his lie, he exposes the horrible truth to the investigating officer (Mr. Finch, played by Stephen Rea) and to Evey, it seems that V could very well be an artist. However, his vendetta is personal, and, on a larger scale, political. The methods V sometimes uses are also similar to the chancellor’s strategies at keeping the "peace" (I do not want to give away too much of the movie by explaining how), and V is clearly starting a political revolution.
Maybe Evey’s quote is simply a wink by the Wachowski brothers (possibly David Lloyd?) to the audience about the movie itself, for I do not believe that V can be considered an artist, just a different kind of politician (maybe the right kind).
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