It's been quite a few years since I first saw V for Vendetta. I didn't see it at release, because I was far under the age demographic at that time, but I managed to catch up to the film at around 2011-2012. Not sure the exact year, but I was a teenager at the time, and I loved the Matrix (still do), and heard that V for Vendetta was written by the Wachowskis, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
It blew me away in many ways, and I credit the film as being part of the reason I became less homophobic and bigoted in many ways. It was the first time I saw homosexuality in a direct and positive light in the media, and it helped me immensely in establishing my more left-leaning views in the Christian world I was raised in.
It's for this reason I have a very deep and personal relationship with this film, but I love the film at a more enjoyable level as well. This film oozes with style. Everything from the cinematography and sound design, to the ways characters speak and act. The rather sparse use of fight scenes (in comparison to other action films of its ilk), opting rather to use political thriller tropes and character development, surprised me the first time I watched it, but even though the film wasn't as action packed as films like The Matrix or Equilibrium (both of which have massive third act spectacles) the action I feel is much more effective and emotional than either of those films (ironic, since Equilibrium is about emotion). While short, the final fight scene between V and Creedy's men is an incredible burst of ecstatic visceral action that makes the entire film worth it.
You can say there are three main characters in this film. There's V, the titular anarchist vigilante, Evey, the young woman who is kidnapped, and slowly falls for V in a more violent twist of Beauty and the Beast, and there's Detective Finch, a government employee tasked to finding and unmasking V, and during this task discovering that his beloved government isn't as noble as it may seem. Each of these characters is given a fair and due amount of screen time, and they each have a full and satisfactory character arc. I find how well written and edited this film is to be incredibly impressive, and writing this I want to watch the film all over again just to appreciate it more.
There is something to be said, however, about the differences between the film and the original graphic novel written by Alan Moore. I haven't read the original comic, but judging by Alan Moore's distaste of films inspired by his work, and the fact that he refused to watch the film after reading the script, maybe this film isn't for fans of the original work. There's a great comparison video by CineFix on Youtube comparing the film to the novel, and they are very very different from each other. One notable difference is that the portrayal of V vs the dictator Sutler is much more nuanced and less Black and white in the novel than in the film, and that is a very well deserved critique of the film.
I do not claim that V for Vendetta is the best film ever made. I haven't even scraped the surface of world cinema and cinema history to ever make that claim. However I can definitely say that V for Vendetta is, at least for the time being, the most personally meaningful movie, and the most enjoyable movie, I have ever seen. Mad Max Fury Road did get close though.
It blew me away in many ways, and I credit the film as being part of the reason I became less homophobic and bigoted in many ways. It was the first time I saw homosexuality in a direct and positive light in the media, and it helped me immensely in establishing my more left-leaning views in the Christian world I was raised in.
It's for this reason I have a very deep and personal relationship with this film, but I love the film at a more enjoyable level as well. This film oozes with style. Everything from the cinematography and sound design, to the ways characters speak and act. The rather sparse use of fight scenes (in comparison to other action films of its ilk), opting rather to use political thriller tropes and character development, surprised me the first time I watched it, but even though the film wasn't as action packed as films like The Matrix or Equilibrium (both of which have massive third act spectacles) the action I feel is much more effective and emotional than either of those films (ironic, since Equilibrium is about emotion). While short, the final fight scene between V and Creedy's men is an incredible burst of ecstatic visceral action that makes the entire film worth it.
You can say there are three main characters in this film. There's V, the titular anarchist vigilante, Evey, the young woman who is kidnapped, and slowly falls for V in a more violent twist of Beauty and the Beast, and there's Detective Finch, a government employee tasked to finding and unmasking V, and during this task discovering that his beloved government isn't as noble as it may seem. Each of these characters is given a fair and due amount of screen time, and they each have a full and satisfactory character arc. I find how well written and edited this film is to be incredibly impressive, and writing this I want to watch the film all over again just to appreciate it more.
There is something to be said, however, about the differences between the film and the original graphic novel written by Alan Moore. I haven't read the original comic, but judging by Alan Moore's distaste of films inspired by his work, and the fact that he refused to watch the film after reading the script, maybe this film isn't for fans of the original work. There's a great comparison video by CineFix on Youtube comparing the film to the novel, and they are very very different from each other. One notable difference is that the portrayal of V vs the dictator Sutler is much more nuanced and less Black and white in the novel than in the film, and that is a very well deserved critique of the film.
I do not claim that V for Vendetta is the best film ever made. I haven't even scraped the surface of world cinema and cinema history to ever make that claim. However I can definitely say that V for Vendetta is, at least for the time being, the most personally meaningful movie, and the most enjoyable movie, I have ever seen. Mad Max Fury Road did get close though.