March 23, 2006

Film Critic Quote of the Week

"Seriously, if you can accept the rock-dumb politics, the movie has a certain flair, and it zips by faster than, say, a thumbsucking snooze like Good Night and Good Luck... If you ignore the fact that the dystopia it warns against with breathless hysteria and utter historical ignorance bears absolutely no relationship to contemporary trends, it's reasonably entertaining. The difficulty is that as with The Handmaid's Tale, there are not-unintelligent people out there who actually take this kind of thing seriously, and think that taking a bold stand against gay-murdering, Islam-banning Christian-conservative totalitarianism counts as trenchant political commentary."
-Ross Douthat, on "V For Vendetta." I had about the same take: very exciting, and very well-made, except that I had a bit of trouble both a) rooting for a terrorist, and b) accepting that the depiction of a 100% fascist England is "timely," in relation to modern-day politics.

If "Crash" was, as Scott Foundas said, "the best movie of the year for people who like to say 'a lot of my best friends are black,'" then "V" is the best movie of the year for people who like to say "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."

Posted by Stephen Silver at March 23, 2006 01:52 AM
Comments

I really enjoyed watching V for Vendetta, and I am frankly surprised that people are trying to call this timely in relation to modern day politics. Why can't a movie simply be entertainment?

As for your trouble with rooting for a terrorist, I would hardly classify V as the same type of terrorist as we're dealing with in today's world. He was very careful to only attack members of the government who wronged him personally (and anyone who tried to capture him as well, but that's to be expected). He warned a year in advance of his major objective giving clear details and a timeline which allowed for no casualties in the actual attack. AND, when was the last time an Al Qaeda terrorist saved a poor girl about to be attacked in the street by a bunch of (government) thugs?

Posted by: Dan at March 23, 2006 04:48 PM
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