John and I watched V for Vendetta last night.
Understand that I know almost nothing of English politics after about the Black Death. English literature, yes. Politics… sadly, not enough. So, being arrogant Americans, we looked first to “was this made/comic written before or after 9/11″ for our context.
Sad, really.
Anyway, many remarked that they were interested in my thoughts/reaction to the movie. I thought V was too difficult a character to love, and that hurt him, in terms of the final payoff. Evie…. well, she was just the perfect little ingenue, wasn’t she? I found the inspector to be the most interesting character in the bunch, but then, an honest man in a corrupt system is always more interesting than the anti-hero bent on destroying that system.
Oh, and also: were I Evie, I would never forgive V for what he did. And I kept wondering why she didn’t recognize his voice. (*sigh*)
As political commentary, it would have benefitted from us not watching it within hours of the South Park 9/11 episode. As romance story, it would have benefitted from more humanity in V and less betrayal.
The movie does make me want to learn more about Guy Fawkes, which is a good thing. No amount of history learnin’ goes a’wasted, in my mind.
Which reminds me…. *eyes the WWII books recommended….*