V For Vendetta, A for Awesome, P for Possible?




While watching the recent Super Bowl, one of the movie trailers was for a movie titled V For Vendetta. The premise of the movie seemed to be that the Nazi's had won World War II, I later found out that it wasn't Nazis but fascists in general. I remarked to my friend that I needed to see this movie.

Well yesterday I did, and I was stunned by how the world in that movie could be getting ever closer and closer.

To begin with the movie is set in the not too distant future (2025 I'd guess) and England is in the grip of a Fascist dictatorship; fear is the method of rule, and media maipulation the order of the day. From all of this a mysterious man in a Guy Fawkes mask, a black trenchcoat, and wielding sai-like weapons begins a one-man revolt. The first shots of this are fired on November 5th, Guy Fawkes Day, and the events take place over the span of one year.

Through a series of flashbacks, we find that the mysterious 'V' was part of an experiment and may have been a female. To assist him in this quest he takes under his wing Evie, a young woman played by Natalie Portman. Through a series of tasks, she learns to overcome the fear that the government has put into the population. At the same time 'V' slowly gets the rest of the population to break through the fear and lies.

As the police attempt to unravel 'V', a web of conspiracy that would please any member of the "tinfoil hat" brigade begins to unravel.

I'm overlooking a lot of the plot as I think this is a movie that everyone must see. But I do see a lot of similarities between the world of this movie and the United States under Bush. The same sense of fear prevades so much of the population, especially the "BushFlock". Media manipulation is not as overt as in 'V', but is still ever-present.

Of course, one positive similarity is that just as 'V' managed to unravel the web of fear in his(?) world, people like myself have managed to slowly do likewise with the web Bush has created. And we won't need to blow anything up to make the changes that need to be made.