I just finished reading Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s “V for Vendetta,” a serial comic from the mid-to-late ’80s that, if you didn’t know, is being released in movie adaptation form on St. Patrick’s day. It’s a strange day for a big action movie to be released, and in fact it was supposed to be released last fall, around Nov. 5, I believe, but was delayed because of the London subway bombings, probably because the movie contains scenes of anarchic destruction of London icons. If it follows the book, it may even have a subway bomb sequence. So you can probably understand why it was delayed.
But anyway, I’m still reading “Age of Spiritual Machines,” but I decided to divert to read “V for Vendetta” so that I could know the material before I saw the movie, which I hope to see on the big screen. And I’m glad I did. However, the ten collected issues that make up the “V” story are about 5 more than needed. The art is not inspiring, and the pacing of the story caused me to put the book down (well, the PowerBook) several times while I was reading through it. The main story arch is breathtaking in its imagination and roots in history. But unfortunately it’s interspersed with so much boring crap that it’s amazing anyone had the patience to read it in the first place.
Everyone knows the Wachowski brothers have their hand in the movie adaptation, although I question how much of their influence will be seen. But it’s all going to depend on the script. It would take some serious balls to make a straight adaptation of the source material, because it deals with a tyrranical government and an anarchist hero who blows shit up to make a point. He’s called a terrorist in the book, and he is. He’s not altruistic. He wants to free the English people from fascist control, but he also has a personal ax to grind.
One thing I both liked and disliked about the book is that we never really find out who V is. On the one hand, you really want to know who the man behind the mask is, but on the other hand, as one character points out, his power would be diminished as an idea. Which is really what V’s whole existance was. I wonder if they’ll change that for the movie. Although we already know it’s Hugo Weaving behind the mask, so we know what his face looks like…
I guess the lesson for modern audiences is that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. And that’s pretty true.
[This article is only kind of part of the 26 Books project that I'm doing this year. I added it in.]
Ebert seemed to like it but had the strangest comment. He said “never has incoherence been so entertainging”. Odd….later in the review (on their TV show), he gave it much more praise. The review did mention they have made the political commentary more vague and harder to associate to particular issues.
“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” Oh brother!
I just heard one of the dimwitted stars of V for vendetta parrot that truly moronic statement in the special features of the “V for Vendetta dvd. I love when actors try to sound intellectual.
If you consider freedom fighting blowing up bus loads or subways full of inocent people than your freedom fighter is a terrorist. There is no moral equivalence here. You do not sound enlightened by parroting this statement. You just sound stupid. People have fought against oppression all through history without resorting terrorism. One does not automaticly lead to the other. Accepting these brutal acts as a reasnable means of expression gives a terrorist who is nothing more than a mass murderer more credit and more moral power than is deserved. V for Vendetta was a mildly entertaining movie with a flawed hero.
I wonder if the difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist might occur to you if your head was being sliced off by a real terrorist.