When I first saw the posters for V For Vendetta my first thought was that it might be a cool little flick. The same guys who did the Matrix series that I love were doing this one. It sure appears I was wrong. I have not seen the movie but have started to read some of the reviews from those I respect and holy cow, what a twisted little anti-Bush movie. I am not surprised since that is what seems to be made more often then not in Hollywood, but I’m disappointed.
The guy who wrote the comics the movie is based on is not too happy with it also:
MTV: So why sell the film rights in the first place?
Moore: […]When you’re talking about things like “V for Vendetta” or “Watchmen,” I don’t have a choice. Those were works which DC Comics kind of tricked me out of, so they own all that stuff and it’s up to them whether the film gets made or not. All I can do is say, “I want my name taken off of it and I don’t want any of the money.” I’d rather the money be distributed amongst the artists. But even though [the filmmakers] were aware that I’d asked that my name be taken off “V for Vendetta” and had already signed my money away to the artist, they issued a press release saying I was really excited about the film. Which was a lie. I asked for a retraction, but they weren’t prepared to do that. So I announced I wouldn’t be working with DC Comics anymore. I just couldn’t bear to have any contact with DC Comics, Warner Bros. or any of this shark pool ever again.
[…]”V for Vendetta” was specifically about things like fascism and anarchy.
Those words, “fascism” and “anarchy,” occur nowhere in the film. It’s been turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to set a political satire in their own country. In my original story there had been a limited nuclear war, which had isolated Britain, caused a lot of chaos and a collapse of government, and a fascist totalitarian dictatorship had sprung up. Now, in the film, you’ve got a sinister group of right-wing figures ? not fascists, but you know that they’re bad guys ? and what they have done is manufactured a bio-terror weapon in secret, so that they can fake a massive terrorist incident to get everybody on their side, so that they can pursue their right-wing agenda. It’s a thwarted and frustrated and perhaps largely impotent American liberal fantasy of someone with American liberal values [standing up] against a state run by neo-conservatives ? which is not what “V for Vendetta” was about. It was about fascism, it was about anarchy, it was about [England]. The intent of the film is nothing like the intent of the book as I wrote it. And if the Wachowski brothers had felt moved to protest the way things were going in America, then wouldn’t it have been more direct to do what I’d done and set a risky political narrative sometime in the near future that was obviously talking about the things going on today?
George Clooney’s being attacked for making [“Good Night, and Good Luck”], but he still had the nerve to make it. Presumably it’s not illegal ? not yet anyway ? to express dissenting opinions in the land of free? So perhaps it would have been better for everybody if the Wachowski brothers had done something set in America, and instead of a hero who dresses up as Guy Fawkes, they could have had him dressed as Paul Revere. It could have worked.
No, the author is not pissed because they are dumping on Bush, he is pissed because they changed everything in his story to fit their schizophrenic views of this Country.
Some will say “it’s only a movie” but my answer would be that ALL movies send a message. As a commenter noted on another blog, Passion of the Christ was attacked relentlessly for its “message”, so how is it that now it’s ok to have a movie like this send a message of Bush hatred? I tell you why, because the left can only see and understand one belief system. All other’s are wrong. They are some of the most closeminded people I have ever seen, and these kind of movies do nothing to change my opinion of them.
In the end the lefties will love this movie and go see it in droves. Take for example the Clinton News Network leadin to a story on the movie:
The CNN Headline News show “Showbiz Tonight” led Monday night with controversy over the movie “V for Vendetta,” and stomped hard on the idea that it was directed at the Bush administration. Host A. J. Hammer began with a promo: “On ?Showbiz Tonight,? the war in Iraq, the war on terror and the hottest movie in America. The shock and awe over ‘V for Vendetta.’ And the controversy. Is art imitating life? A political thriller where the hero is a terrorist. Is that really such a bad thing?“
They then go on to answer that question with a “not really” type of answer. Or about this typical review from a leftist dumbass:
[S]ome of the allusions skewer more toward the Nazi regime than the Republican Party (though many will persuasively argue that they’re one and the same), but how to deny the topicality evidenced in the scenes involving detainment centers where prisoners are hooded, humiliated and tortured, or the presence of a TV station that’s unabashedly pro-government, or an administration that instills a vague fear of foreigners to quiet the teeming masses, or a ruler who uses faith-based initiatives to crush opposing viewpoints?
And you will understand that these people really believe in this stuff. Maybe we should start a charity drive to get them on some medication.
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