Remember, remember the 5th of November
The gunpowder treason and plot
I know of no reason the gunpower treason
Should ever be forgot
Yeah, yeah, I know--I'm a little late for Guy Fawkes Day. That's okay; Warner Brothers was way too early in releasing the V for Vendetta DVD. I know November 5th fell on a Sunday this year and the August 1st release date gave them three more months of revenue, but come on. It would have been perfect.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Guy Fawkes Day is "celebrated" in England on November 5th to commemorate the day that Guy Fawkes was captured after plotting to blow up Westminster Palace when James I was going to be addressing the House of Lords and the House of Commons, thereby killing the king and both houses of Parliament in one fell swoop. Anyway, now every November fifth fireworks are set off and Fawkes is burned in effigy.
In the 1980's, Alan Moore and David Lloyd (no relation) collaborated on a comic book series titled V for Vendetta in which the main character, known only as "V" wears a Guy Fawkes mask and seventeenth century clothing. V operates in a totalitarian England in the imagined late 1990's. He is a former concentration camp inmate, collector of media, and subversive anarchist with a penchant for obscure quotes. V brings down the fascist government using its own tools (e.g. media manipulation, hidden surveilance, and violence) against it.
Having read and been depressed and impressed by Moore's classic comic series Watchmen, I viewed the V for Vendetta DVD shortly after its release. It wasn't bad, but I kept thinking that the original comic had to be better. I thought that the government portrayed was too obviously another anything-but-subtle Hollywood jab at the current US administration and that Natalie Portman's portrayal of Evie made her remarkably uninteresting.
Well, I just finished reading the comic a few days ago and the movie's actually closer than most film adaptations. The film was a little heavy handed with government colors and symbology and the Leader's most interesting quirk was left out. Other than that, the main differences were the removal of a few subplots involving minor characters and the addition of Stephen Fry with an incongruous Benny Hill tribute. Turns out Evie was not terribly dynamic in the book either. V himself, however, is very charismatic in both versions and the ever present Guy Fawkes smile is at once reassuring and unnerving.
Even more unnerving to me though, were V's sermons to Evie about anarchy which he qualifies as not the absence of order but the absence of leadership. Some days we all want to agree with that, but most of the time I would contend that any order in society will inevitably generate positions of leadership, therefore it's an all or nothing proposition and for my sake and my children's I would much rather have to deal with leadership than have to survive without order.
Still, the story itself is exceptionally well written and deftly illustrated although in my humble opinion the inking and coloration could have been handled better. Lloyd arranges each scene very carefully to convey a great deal of information in a few small panels without distracting from the dialouge or plot. Moore is a highly literate author with a knack for making connections and tying up loose ends...except one. Refusing to reveal V's identity was the right (albeit frustrating) decision and I was pleased to see that the movie stayed true in that respect.
Anyway, enough blather from me. If this commentary interested or confused you, check out the film and/or graphic novel and see for yourself what it's about. If it made you wonder why anyone would ever want to watch or read such a thing, check it out anyway and know exactly why you hate it.
The gunpowder treason and plot
I know of no reason the gunpower treason
Should ever be forgot
Yeah, yeah, I know--I'm a little late for Guy Fawkes Day. That's okay; Warner Brothers was way too early in releasing the V for Vendetta DVD. I know November 5th fell on a Sunday this year and the August 1st release date gave them three more months of revenue, but come on. It would have been perfect.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Guy Fawkes Day is "celebrated" in England on November 5th to commemorate the day that Guy Fawkes was captured after plotting to blow up Westminster Palace when James I was going to be addressing the House of Lords and the House of Commons, thereby killing the king and both houses of Parliament in one fell swoop. Anyway, now every November fifth fireworks are set off and Fawkes is burned in effigy.
In the 1980's, Alan Moore and David Lloyd (no relation) collaborated on a comic book series titled V for Vendetta in which the main character, known only as "V" wears a Guy Fawkes mask and seventeenth century clothing. V operates in a totalitarian England in the imagined late 1990's. He is a former concentration camp inmate, collector of media, and subversive anarchist with a penchant for obscure quotes. V brings down the fascist government using its own tools (e.g. media manipulation, hidden surveilance, and violence) against it.
Having read and been depressed and impressed by Moore's classic comic series Watchmen, I viewed the V for Vendetta DVD shortly after its release. It wasn't bad, but I kept thinking that the original comic had to be better. I thought that the government portrayed was too obviously another anything-but-subtle Hollywood jab at the current US administration and that Natalie Portman's portrayal of Evie made her remarkably uninteresting.
Well, I just finished reading the comic a few days ago and the movie's actually closer than most film adaptations. The film was a little heavy handed with government colors and symbology and the Leader's most interesting quirk was left out. Other than that, the main differences were the removal of a few subplots involving minor characters and the addition of Stephen Fry with an incongruous Benny Hill tribute. Turns out Evie was not terribly dynamic in the book either. V himself, however, is very charismatic in both versions and the ever present Guy Fawkes smile is at once reassuring and unnerving.
Even more unnerving to me though, were V's sermons to Evie about anarchy which he qualifies as not the absence of order but the absence of leadership. Some days we all want to agree with that, but most of the time I would contend that any order in society will inevitably generate positions of leadership, therefore it's an all or nothing proposition and for my sake and my children's I would much rather have to deal with leadership than have to survive without order.
Still, the story itself is exceptionally well written and deftly illustrated although in my humble opinion the inking and coloration could have been handled better. Lloyd arranges each scene very carefully to convey a great deal of information in a few small panels without distracting from the dialouge or plot. Moore is a highly literate author with a knack for making connections and tying up loose ends...except one. Refusing to reveal V's identity was the right (albeit frustrating) decision and I was pleased to see that the movie stayed true in that respect.
Anyway, enough blather from me. If this commentary interested or confused you, check out the film and/or graphic novel and see for yourself what it's about. If it made you wonder why anyone would ever want to watch or read such a thing, check it out anyway and know exactly why you hate it.
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