Movie Screening: V for Vendetta PDF Print E-mail
Thursday, 04 November 2010 19:30

"If you wear a mask for long enough, you may forget who you are underneath."

In V for Vendetta's totalitarian England of 2020, homosexuals, dissidents and other "abnormal" citizens must hide their true selves or expect a house call in the dead of night. But the mysterious V chooses a mask not of conformity, but rebellion. Disguised as Guy Fawkes, he plans to complete the failed mission of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot: to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

In the aftermath of 9/11, who would have thought that within five years mainstream cinema could suggest that terrorism against the State is morally justified? That our rulers conspire to keep us in a perpetual state of fear, fabricating crises and even killing us themselves to justify tightening their grip on power?

 

It is a measure of how badly the "war on terror" has gone for the Bush administration that a film from Warner Brothers suggests all these things - and calls for a popular uprising to overthrow the status quo.

Some critics have derided the film for glorifying violence. There is an element of truth in this, traceable to the film's political outlook, which is classic anarchism. The hero V awakes the cowed masses by the spectacle of terrorist attacks on symbols of State power; his decapitation of the regime - killing the Chancellor and the secret police chief - then creates a power vacuum in which the armed forces cannot restore order. This conception of revolution is, unfortunately, better suited to a fantasy movie than the real world.

The depiction of the slide towards a one-party State is also problematic. Here we have the traditional "will to power" thesis in which a solitary evil leader exploits the ignorance of ordinary people to cement his dictatorship. This misunderstanding of fascism lets the capitalist class as a whole off the hook, and fuels the quackery of conspiracy theorists rather than the activism of political radicals.

Nevertheless, V for Vendetta delivers an entertaining and thought-provoking night at the cinema.

The contrasting manner in which the mighty and the lowly face their deaths is particularly moving. Away from their armed thugs, the shock jock, the Bishop and the Chancellor wail, bribe and blubber hopelessly before V's glinting knives. They have nothing to live for but their power.

Natalie Portman's Evie, on the other hand, realises she is ready to die before informing on V. Like others doomed to rot in Abu Ghraib-like hellholes, she discovers something that no amount of torture can take away: her freedom to resist.

Seb Prowse (Socialiast Alternative)

 

 

Join the discussion - all welcome.

7.30pm Thursday November 4th, Otago Room, Clubs and Societies Building, Albany St, Dunedin