V for Vendetta

[Agent23]

Same here. I just saw it last week, and really enjoyed it. Much better then the last 2 Matrix sequels.

 

[Mookeylama]

hot damn this was a great movie!! saw it last night and i REALLY wish i'd made it to the theaters for this one. read the comics some years ago along w/ Watchmen and Moore's Marvelman work and liked them, but i didn't expect the movie to be this fabulous.

anyone know why Moore asked to have his name removed from the credits?

 

[figuremaster_les]

hot damn this was a great movie!! saw it last night and i REALLY wish i'd made it to the theaters for this one. read the comics some years ago along w/ Watchmen and Moore's Marvelman work and liked them, but i didn't expect the movie to be this fabulous.

anyone know why Moore asked to have his name removed from the credits?

I liked it too. I think Moore is very particular about any take on his work in movie form. Maybe there was some internal creative squabble or something. I think it had to do with the fact that the comic is based in the 1980's and was all against the Thatcher time period...and the filmakers made it more universal by making it in the future, in a future totalitarian age....I think....
I agree with the filmaker's choice. This makes the movie good for any time, not just a slam on a particular era, which would date it severely.

But, whatever the rate, I liked it a lot myself.

 

[Fritz]

I originally intended to pick up Silent Hill tonight but fortunately it was out so I rented V for Vendetta. What a thoroughly enjoyable movie. Looks like it's a keeper. I'm going to have to buy a copy and add it to my collection.

 

[KitFisto]

I bought it on DVD when it came out, but have not watched it yet.

 

[tomandshell]

I watched it on DVD and thought it was good. Haven't read the original V for Vendetta, but I just read Moore's Watchmen last weekend and really enjoyed it. I don't read too many comic books--oops, I mean "graphic novels" or the even more pretentious "sequential storytelling"--but I found Watchmen to be just as good as it had been hyped up to be, if not better. Not sure how well it would translate to film, though...

 

[Darth Loki]

I bought it on DVD when it came out, but have not watched it yet.

Watch it. You won't be disapointed. I love this movie. I've watched it four times since I bought the DVD. A hour of Natalie Portman on screen doesn't hurt either.

 

[Batty]

I watched it on DVD and thought it was good. Haven't read the original V for Vendetta, but I just read Moore's Watchmen last weekend and really enjoyed it. I don't read too many comic books--oops, I mean "graphic novels" or the even more pretentious "sequential storytelling"--but I found Watchmen to be just as good as it had been hyped up to be, if not better. Not sure how well it would translate to film, though...

You should read V for Vendetta... I think you'll enjoy it. I also highly recommend the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Although the movie was one of the worst things I've ever seen.

 

[Jesseawilson]

I bought an Asian import version about a month b4 it came out and watched it 4 times in the first week. I really want these stupid movies to start coming out on HD/BR so I can start buying movies again. I have been holding off for about a year now but had to get this one.



Jesse

 

[Darth Loki]

I bought an Asian import version about a month b4 it came out and watched it 4 times in the first week. I really want these stupid movies to start coming out on HD/BR so I can start buying movies again. I have been holding off for about a year now but had to get this one.



Jesse

With Netflix and HDDVD's coming out, I'm really holding back on buying any movies. This was one that I was more than willing to pay the extra $15 to have NOW. X3 will probably be the last regular DVD I ever buy.

 

[LordAzrael]

I liked it too. I think Moore is very particular about any take on his work in movie form. Maybe there was some internal creative squabble or something. I think it had to do with the fact that the comic is based in the 1980's and was all against the Thatcher time period...and the filmakers made it more universal by making it in the future, in a future totalitarian age....I think....
I agree with the filmaker's choice. This makes the movie good for any time, not just a slam on a particular era, which would date it severely.

But, whatever the rate, I liked it a lot myself.

I believe that it might have to do with the change in the world scene i.e. the rise of terrorism and the fact that the movie is a now a very thinly veiled anti-George Bush/Tony Blair movie - and could in fact be scene as pro-terrorism. Despite the fact its set in the "future" no attempt is made to make it look futuristic - its definitely modern day London. The film definitely appears to make the argument that the real "War on Terror" is a conspiracy to keep the current govts of the US & Britain in power by inventing an external enemy.

Message delivered
There's no mistaking the political statement in V for Vendetta, in which the hero is also a terrorist.
By Steve Persall
Published March 16, 2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

V for Vendetta is the boldest political statement against the Bush administration since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Even Michael Moore wouldn't prescribe bombing government facilities as a cure for dubious leadership. A futuristic setting in England doesn't disguise the film's rabid intent.

James McTeigue's movie will be branded as irresponsible, even dangerous, by some viewers, although if the past in any indication, the ones who don't see it will yowl loudest. All those knee-jerk critics need to know is that the film's hero is a terrorist.

V for Vendetta audaciously proposes that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, and the difference between good and evil is mostly semantic.

The film is based on a graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd; the book was released in 1989 to protest the political atmosphere of the Margaret Thatcher years.

The plot has been reworked to post-9/11 sensibilities by Andy and Larry Wachowski, who wrote their first draft before The Matrix made them famous. Alan Moore has distanced himself from the production; an adapted dud such as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen can make an author skittish.

Or perhaps he guessed a firestorm lay ahead and didn't want to answer for other authors' ideas. The Wachowski brothers are notoriously reclusive, making this a cut-and-run protest of sorts. V for Vendetta will reignite those claims of disconnect between the film industry and the real world that George Clooney eloquently doused at the recent Academy Awards.

For a more right wing ideological show - I much prefer Serenity. Big government is bad

 

[Fritz]

There's no mistaking the political statement in V for Vendetta, in which the hero is also a terrorist.
By Steve Persall

This may or may not be true but the thought had never crossed my mind. Call me silly but typically I don't try and draw parallels or look for messages in movies. I just like watching them for 2-3 hours to give my mind a break from everything else.

 

[Darth Loki]

But if someone were to blow up a building, it would be the movie's fault. It would then go on the "Black List" never to be seen again. Sound familiar?

 

[Jesseawilson]

Seriously, it has the meaning "you" (as in anyone) associates with it. That was the furthest thing from my mind when I was watching Vendetta. I like to escape and enjoy a movie and feel bad for people that are too focused on thier personal agendas or social rhetoric to seperate real life from fiction.


I can only immagine what they think of some other movies I have seen, please inform me of thier hidden agendas...............


Can you sense the sarcasim?


Jesse

 

[occulum]

just watched this last night. though it was very cool.
need to watch it again soon.


I think Moore takes his name off of pretty much everything cause he can. Doesnt want to be associated with anything mainstream. He's just wierd like that

 

[Darth Loki]

I don't see this movie as anti-religion or anti-government. I see it as anti-government strictly ruled by religous fanatics. I'm not religous at all and don't believe in GOD. I respect those that do but hate it when they push their beliefs which is what I see when I watch this movie. That is one of the reasons this movie strikes such a cord with me. I don't think it is necessarily anti-Bush, but it can easily be taken as such. What do you expect when you have a man with such power pushing his personal beliefs into everyone elses way of life?

 

[CAhobbit]

I think Moore takes his name off of pretty much everything cause he can. Doesnt want to be associated with anything mainstream. He's just wierd like that

I've heard there are a few reason's Moore disassociates himself from film adaptations of his work...

He doesn't like it being changed.
He was screwed over at one time by Hollywood.
He is just weird like that.

 

[tomandshell]

The film version turned the story from a fascism vs. anarchy struggle into something else. The movie is not about anarchy, but rather about reformation and responsible government and people standing up and demanding change. In the movie, V is a freedom fighter of sorts and not a total anarchist as originally written. Here are some comments about why Moore was not happy with the film:

After reading the script, Moore remarked that his comic had been "turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to set a political satire in their own country.... [This film] is a thwarted and frustrated and largely impotent American liberal fantasy of someone with American liberal values standing up against a state run by neoconservatives — which is not what [the comic] 'V for Vendetta' was about. It was about fascism, it was about anarchy, it was about [England]." He later adds that if the Wachowskis had wanted to protest what was going on in America, then they should have used a political narrative that spoke directly at America's issues, similar to what Moore had done before with Britain.[10] The film changes the original message by arguably having changed "V" into a freedom fighter instead of an anarchist. An interview with producer Joel Silver[11] suggests that the change may not have been conscious; he identifies the V of the graphic novel as a clear-cut "superhero...a masked avenger who pretty much saves the world," a simplification that goes against Moore's own statements about V's role in the story.

So the basic story was changed into something else by people who wanted to use the characters and events to make their own point. In this case, it was the religious government rounding up the homosexuals and free thinkers. You could set it in China and have the government arresting the undercover Christians. You could set it in Salem in 1692 and have the religious zealots rounding up the witches. You could set this in the Crusades and have the Christians fighting the Muslims. You could set it in the Reformation and have the Protestants fighting the Catholics. But none of those things would be capturing the intention of the authors. Moore was irritated because somebody took his story and characters and made it say something different than what he intended.



Side note: I'm certainly not going to try and defend Bush, but the fact that a story and movie like this can be released and freely discussed in America shows that we are not living in a country like the one portrayed in the film. There are places in the world where this kind of stuff would be suppressed by the state, so our freely watching and talking about it shows that we really are still living in a free country. When the Dixie Chicks slammed Bush, did he send the secret police to arrest them with bags over their heads, and they were never seen again? Nope. They have the freedom to dislike and publicly criticize him, just like all the rest of us. As long as we are free to voice our disagreements (particularly through a free press/media) and vote accordingly, things aren't as bad here as in the world depicted in V for Vendetta.

 

[Darth Loki]

Just a question, but do you think this movie would've had a different response in the US had it been based here instead of the UK?


Also, V is in some apsects a terrorist. But he's blowing up empty buildings that are used as symbols. The author's of the previous pieces were depicting his character in the same line as suicide bombers and those that are responsible for 9-11. V gets his point across by only harming those directly responsible.

 

[tomandshell]

If they had set the story in the US I do believe that there would have been a different response. Maybe more people would have seen it. It would certainly have upset more conservatives and would have been more controversial, and that might have translated into more ticket sales from curious people. I think that changing the setting would have been more appropriate than Americans telling an Americanized version of the story set in England. Of course, I did like the movie. But I can understand why Alan Moore did not.