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...but it's the message of "V for Vendetta" that does it for me. It might be based on a comic book, but it's hardly a frivolous piece of film. It stands up as fine entertainment, too. So it fails as a treatise against totalitarianism - but sometimes simplification is what is needed to get certain points across. If everything touched on in 'V' were to be elaborated upon, you'd end up with a 10-hour movie. Besides, satire and reality coincide far too often today. It's much too easy to connect the dots between reel life and real life anymore.
I thought the film an intelligent and riveting work that's definitely flawed (paranoia tinges a few of the film's assertions), but hey, I'll take every fighting, truth-telling piece of art wherever I can find it. Do you think George Orwell's "1984" was a perfect masterpiece? I didn't think so, as his premise still seems so over-the-top - even if reality continues to prove him right again and again. 'Twas the message, ma'am, 'twas the timeless and timely message of the fable that he tells. In brief, "V for Vendetta" is "1984," just updated to the present.
