V for Vendetta
Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman
There are certain meetings that I would have been a fly on the wall for. I would have loved to have been in the Coca-Cola boardroom when they called the genius who convinced the company to go with New Coke after the first week of sales fell as flat as Paris Hilton and their caffeine-addicted clientele went nuts. I would have paid money just to be in the Universal Studio executive’s office who one day in 1959 called two young actors that the studio had under contract named Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds and fired them both because they were never going to amount to anything, especially Eastwood whose Adam’s apple stuck out too far, talked too slow, and refused to fix a chipped tooth. Every time a new Harry Potter book is released wouldn’t you jump for joy to have a desk next to one of the 26 editors that turned down a chance to publish the first volume of the series because children would never be interested in reading anything that big. Anyone who has ever had something they have written rejected would enjoy to have been in the offices of the San Francisco Examiner when the editor wrote the following note to future Nobel Prize for Literature winner Rudyard Kipling, "I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language. This isn't a kindergarten for amateur writers." Who wouldn’t love to have been in the Decca offices in 1962 when they decided not to sign an unknown group named the Beatles to a long term contract because, "We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out.” Oh, to have been in the admissions office at Munich Technical Institute in 1898 when they turned down for admission a young man named Albert Einstein because he “showed no promise.” Imagine being in NBC supervisor of broadcast operation control (BOC) Dick Cline’s office in 1968 when he decided to cut away from the New York Jets/Oakland Raiders football game with 1:05 left to play to air the scheduled children's classic, Heidi. In that remaining minute and five seconds, Oakland scored twice to clinch a 43-32 victory and the telephone network at NBC studios in New York crashed due to the avalanche of phone calls. Oh, to have a stool in the room in 1977 when the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) decided to open their cafeteria in Washington called The Alfredd Packer Memorial Dining Facility because this 19th-century Colorado pioneer "exemplifies the spirit and fare that this agriculture department cafeteria will provide." One little problem, the USDA didn’t bother to research the cafeteria’s namesake. It seems that Mr. Packer was hung in 1874 for murdering and eating 5 prospectors along the Mormon Trail.
I can just image the boardroom of Warner Brothers on July 8th, the day after 52 innocent people were killed in the London bombings. I imagine the CEO of the company looking down at the table, searching for the right words, trying to control his anger, and after several minutes of painful silence, in a measured and controlled tone, “I just want to get this straight. We have a movie coming out in November called V for Vendetta. The hero of the film is a terrorist who bombs London? We have spent millions of dollars and cast maybe the hottest actress in Hollywood, Natalie Portman, then proceeded to shave her head, in a movie about a terrorist that blows London up. Have any of you ever heard of a little thing called the war on terror? We allowed the Wachowski brothers free reign to make this thing. I know they created the Matrix, but you know they are nuts, don’t you. Supposedly Larry, who is on his way to becoming a chick, left his wife for a professional dominatrix to become her slave. We gave a blank check to a guy who is now a gal in a dress to make a movie based on a comic book that no one has heard of. The man who wrote the comic book, Alan Moore, is also about 3 fries short of a happy meal. Have you seen him? He looks like he should be teaching Harry Potter at Hogwarts and dabbles in the occult. So, all in all, we are risking our jobs on a bald chick, a chick with a… never mind, and a freak on a film that is going to have every right-winger in America foaming at the mouth worse that a litter of puppies playing in a box full of soap.”
Is it any wonder that Warner Brothers got cold feet and delayed this movie’s release until March of 2006? But you know what? Greenlighting V for Vendetta is one of the two best decisions the company has made in the last couple of years. (The other is talking Bryan Singer into directing the relaunch of the Superman franchise.) While the studio is as antsy as a nun whose convent overlooks a nude beach, trusting the talent of the people involved is going to pay off for Warner Brothers like hitting three cherries on a Las Vegas slot machine. This is a great film and should inspire a fan base, maybe not the size of the Matrix, but close.
Alan Moore is a genius. Along with Neil Gaiman and Frank Miller, he took a children’s medium, comics, and transformed it into a true art form, dealing with ideas bigger that just capes and cowls. His stories are deep and disturbing, and so cutting edge that Hollywood has butchered each previous attempt to turn one of his masterpieces into a movie (From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Constantine). Written in the early 1980s, in the midst of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan’s rule, and set in the year 1997, it is the story of a fascist state controlled by a handful of individuals in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. The society has been whitewashed with anyone not Caucasian, having a different political belief, or a sexual orientation that does not conform to traditional norms, taken to concentration camps. For those who remain, cameras monitor everything they do and they are constantly reminded what a wonderful place they live in. Yet, one man knows the truth. He is simply called “V” and wears a mask. The reader comes to understand that he has been tortured. On Guy Fawkes Day, he sets off to destroy his oppressors by blowing up the Parliament building. This is only the start of his drive to free his fellow citizens, along with a female his protégé named Evey (Natalie Portman). There are a number of twists in the story that the average moviegoer will not be prepared for. (I would encourage everyone to read the original graphic novel before going to the film.)
While there are action sequences, this is not an action film. Rather, this is a film that will have people talking to each other after the closing credits run. Like Brokeback Mountain in 2005, this will be the most controversial film of 2006 if the studio plays its cards right. Much like Sin City, this is not a comic book film that you drag your kid to. It is a movie for adults. This film asks the questions, what is the difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist? Is violence ever justified? Is torture? I am pretty sure the Warner Brothers brass did not know what they were doing when they agreed to allow the Wachowskis free reign over this project, but it is a good thing they did because they have a classic on their hands. Marketed correctly, Warners has been given the goose that laid the golden egg, but the studio needs to be brave and realize that controversy is a good thing. If I were them, I would call up the White House, Rush and the hate radio band, and Fox News, and allow them special screenings and then sit back and count the cash as they rage about liberal Hollywood. It is also one of the best comic book movies ever made and will be on my top ten movies list at the end of the year.
Verdict: One of the Best Films of the Year