I watched V For Vendetta<\/i> last night at IMax. I have never felt so crushingly disappointed in recent times. I didn’t go with too much high expectations, let me hasten to say. It was just the constant litany of “They got it right this time!” by people who are Moore fans that made me have the feeling that I was going to enjoy the film. I tried very hard, I swear. Didn’t work.<\/p>\n
There has been a great deal of controversy involving Alan Moore while the movie was being made. In a nutshell, Moore, the writer and Lloyd, the artist sold the character to DC Comics in the 1980’s, when Moore was a superstar in the comicbook industry – under the condition that the rights would revert back to them whenever the book went out of print. In a time when the concept of a “trade paperback” was just beginning to gain acceptance in comicbook circles, it seemed implausible that a non-superhero book like V would stay in print for too long, but the unthinkable did happen. And to this day, DC owns the rights to both V For Vendetta and Watchmen. But trade contracts are trade contracts, so the books stayed with DC. Then there was a big fuss about DC censoring writers of their comics, and putting “Suggested for mature readers” warning labels on top of Swamp Thing comics, which Moore was dead against. He refused to work for DC under such circumstances, and stayed at the fringes of the Big Two Companies, working for indie comics like Eclipse ( Miracleman and some issues of Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg<\/i>, Steven Bissette’s company Taboo ( for whom he wrote From Hell), and later on, even Image comics ( 1963, Supreme, Spawn and Violator ). Then he went on to form the company America’s Best Comics, an imprint of Jim Lee’s Wildstorm Entertainment, which began to publish titles like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen<\/i>, Tom Strong<\/i>, Promethea<\/i>, all written by Moore. Everything was hunky-dory for a while, until Lee sold his company to DC, making Moore become an employee of the same company he refused to work for earlier. No matter, Moore continued working for ABC because of his contractual obligations. DC’s publisher Paul Levitz ordered a print run of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol 1 #5 to be pulped because there was a mention of Marvel comics which, according to him, might have invited litigation – this further soured Moore’s relationship with the company. Things reached breaking point when, following the LXG movie, two screenwriters sued the makers of the film, arguing that the scenarios presented in the movie ( and the graphic novel which it was based on) was derived from their screenplay, and Moore’s storytelling had effectively been a smokescreen for the movie company. Moore was made to give his testimony, which dragged on for five-odd hours – at the end of it all, Universal pictures, instead of fighting these allegations, settled with the screenwriters out of court. <\/p>\n
Furious with the outcome, Moore decried that his names be withdrawn from whatever movie adaptations of any of his works were made in the future, also ceding his rights to any such adapted characters to the artists involved with him in the project. The 2005 turkey<\/strike> movie Constantine<\/i> was thus released without the byline “based on the characters created by Alan Moore”, and instead had Garth Ennis and Jamie Delano’s names. Then there began the preproduction of V For Vendetta<\/i>, and producer Joel Silver publicly announced that “Mr Moore is quite excited about the script” – standard publicity spiel. Moore took major offence, and demanded a retraction and an apology. He got neither. The end result – he’s COMPLETELY dissociated himself from all his past DC work, and has now shifted his upcoming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen project to Top Shelf Productions. <\/p>\n
All this is pretty much common knowledge, if you have been keeping up with what’s been going on at newsarama or any of the other comic sites.<\/p>\n
It’s not like the movie is not well-made, not at all. It’s a summer blockbuster, but a summer blockbuster with a supposed intellectual agenda. Joel Silver, the self-confessed maker of popcorn flicks was so enthralled by the cerebral resonance the first Matrix movie had among the geek crowd that he chose to produce “relevant” action movies – the Wachowski Brothers sat and wrote this adaptation, and they did quite a good job of it as far as Hollywood movie scripts go. There are monologues galore, and the storyline is indeed set in England, and there are scenes that echo the graphic novel quite faithfully, although with lesser verbosity and more CGI, if I may so add. In all likelihood, if you go and watch the movie as a casual weekend multiplex-visitor, you would more than get your money’s worth of entertainment. In all likelihood, you will be a bit concerned when, in the middle of the movie, somebody makes a reference to the year 2015, because you will then realise that the movie is set in the future. Perhaps, towards the end of the movie, you will hear the guy sitting behind you say “Why don’t they show his face yaar?” and maybe, when you walk out of the theater, some girl will be talking to her beau, saying things like “What a meaningless movie, why did that guy kill the fat chap?” and somebody else would excitedly half-shout – “The knife fights were too cool, man!” Don’t worry, you will smile smugly to yourself and wonder at these nameless fools who did not “get” the movie, who did not “get” the fact that it was a political allegory, a twisted look at the political climate of our times and the paths history might take if things nobody pays attention to the weather.<\/p>\n
It would have made for a good movie, had it not been based on V For Vendetta. Have you read 1984<\/i>? I am pretty sure that if the Wachowski Brothers would have really wanted to make a political film, they could have chosen to film George Orwell’s book, and driven the same argument about freedom and democracy and being misled by political leaders. But no, oh no no no, there wouldn’t be too many knife-fights in 1984, would there? The central character in 1984 does not wear a mask as a symbol, and the publicity designers would have missed out on creating some of the most iconic posters in recent cinematic history.There could not have been a Natalie Portman ready to display her acting abilities by shaving her head off, if 1984 were adapted. (By the way, as far as pre-movie gimmicks go, Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das have already done that, Natalie.) So, the Brothers Wachowski took a well-crafted story, reduced timelines and events to bare-bone checkpoints ( “Ok, so this guy needs to die, this guy needs to die, we need a fight scene here, the capture, another guy dead, a meeting. OK, that’s a wrap!”), and then, hre’s the clincher, took the central theme of the story and made it something that suits whatever point THEY wanted to make. <\/p>\n
Among the things that came out non-brain-dead. The central character, and I am thankful that instead of selecting a Big Name, the makers of the film decided to make Hugo Weaving play the role of V. It takes guts to play a character whose face isn’t seen at all and the voice and extraneous gestures have to convey the range of emotions. Mr. Weaving does an excellent job of it, not taking the character to ludicrousness ( except for that V-word laced introduction, I bet someone smoked a lot of dope one night to cook that up.) The voicework is excellently done, the shakespearean soliloquies trickling out in his nuanced tones. Excellently done. And then there is the only moment that stays completely faithful to the book – Valerie’s letter during Evey’s capture. I really can’t think of anything else in the movie that sticks in my mind, frankly speaking.<\/p>\n
The things that went completely haywire. The complete lack of any memorable characters other than V and Evey. The Chancellor was a bumbling maniac from the worst B-movies. The two policemen in charge of the case looked like folks who had no idea of what they were doing in the film. Natalie Portman, whose grating English accent. Is there a lack of female British actresses who can play such a part? Plus the fact that Evey, instead of being made out to be a down-and-out girl, was actually your typical headstrong, “who-are-you-and-why-am-I-here” girl, out to provide viewer context. The moronic “I love you and I have to leave you and all this is a gift for you.”-speech at the end. I hate it when a character’s motivations are dragged down to something as dumb as Love. Twenty years of preparation, and then he sees a woman and bam, he loses his edge. Ha fucking ha. Yes, the graphic novel does have the words “I love you, Evey” – but there the words are used as a farewell to a protege and a friend. What utterly, completely got my goat is the complete lack of any form of goosepimply moments in the movie. So fine, Evey being tortured by her captors and reading Valerie’s letter is supposed to be a heart-tugging moment and all – notice how well-fed Ms Portman looks in all those scenes? How designer and oh-so-chic she still manages to be even without her hair? It’s so made-up I could weep. The Big March of the V-cladded populace reeked so much of cheap CGI that it could give the Burly Brawl a complex. The fight scenes, groan. Apparently, James McTeigue wanted to pay tribute to The Matrix, so there is an extremely cheesy shot of V walking out of an elevator. We see his shoes, slowly pacing towards the camera. The security guard blanches at his sight, and then lifts his gun. Sounds familiar? Knives arc in rapid motion leaving shiny arcs in their path, that’s supposed to be a comic-book homage, don’t worry, you won’t “get” it. The character of V himself is more of a freedom fighter than an anarchist, and his tone to the people of the country is that of a comrade-in-arms, as he asks them to rise up against their oppressors. So many questions, left deliberately open-ended in the book was flat-lined in the movie – just so that instead of making you think, and discuss the aspects of the story, it makes you a passive observer who has had his fill of popcorn. Blahity blah! <\/p>\n
Another thing that irks me profoundly is when film-makers try to provide nudge-nudge-wink-wink moments to comicbook fans – like the TV sequence showing Storm Saxon, which is a direct lift from the book, you will make sense out of it only if you’ve read V For Vendetta, of course. One chapter is entirely composed of voiceovers from Storm Saxon juxtaposed with images of V taking over the TV station, one of Moore’s favourite writing techniques, and another of the reasons why his works are so unfilmable. Storm Saxon’s voiceovers are meant to be propaganda aired by State-owned television – he is a misogynistic character who kills black people, who are cannibals and<\/i> rapists, of course. In actuality, it just becomes a distraction if you’ve read the book, and pretty much of no consequence if you haven’t.<\/p>\n
The unkindest cut of all – replacing Beethoven’s Fifth symphony with Brandenburg’s Concerto. The Fifth Symphony IS V, you morons. The first notes are the same as Morse code for the letter ‘V’.<\/p>\n
You know, I could really go on ranting this way for quite some more time.<\/p>\n
You have heard of the Brothers Grimm, haven’t you? But I bet none of us have really read the stories the Brothers Grimm transcribed. They were too dark, it was said, and slowly, down the ages, they were changed to something which they were not – clean, wholesome tales with special appeal to children. If I talk about Sleeping Beauty, it would be the Disney story we know and remember. Which is what I am worried about, with movies like V For Vendetta, where, ten years down the line, if I talk about V, somebody might recite the long introduction line ( Just in case you’re curious, I pasted it from IMDB, here you go: “This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-\u00e0-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.”<\/i> But they won’t remember him as a man who quotes everyone from Shakespeare to The Rolling Stones. They will remember the knives and the flashy moves, but not the man who was inspired, in Mr Moore’s own words, by Orwell, Huxley, Judge Dredd, “Repent Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman”, “Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World”, David Bowie, The Shadowm Vincent Price’s Dr Phibes and Theatre of Blood, the writings of the New Worlds school of Sci-fi, Max Ernst’s painting “Europe After the Rains”, Thomas Pynchon, British Second World War Films, The Prisoner, Dick Turpin. I suspect that future generations will remember V For Vendetta as an entity who was a reaction to American and English politics of the early 2000s, rather than as a character who makes a statement about human society, a protagonist who stands for anarchy in a fascist society – a man who could have easily passed for a monster if you choose to look at him in a slightly different context. <\/p>\n
What context, you ask, what statement?<\/p>\n
Read the book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}