The Billiken's Bluff

The poster for this film, which was all over the subways, was great.



It made me want to see the movie. It called to mind...







The movie however, was not good.

It was about as heavy-handed as this...





and about as under-stated as this guy...



It covered all the major talking points from the past 5 years. In this not too distant future a 1984-ish English police state (read as American police state) has outlawed homosexuality, Islam, free press, anything they deem undesirable. There is imagery reminiscent of the Auschwitz/Birkenau camps. There is the ruling party in England that couldn't possibly look anymore Nazi, from the party colors (red and black), to the facial hair (significant), etc. There is a contra-band flag that reads The Coalition of the Willing. It has portions of the US and British Flags, intertwined with a Swastika. I don't know what that means, but I'm sure it is a political statement! There is a pedophile priest that wants to make sure that the prostitute he has just ordered is young enough. That is for your holiness to decide. Surprising no one, political prisoners in Vendetta are dressed in the style of today, black hoods and orange jumpsuits.



I'm unfamiliar with the comic book that was used as source material, but I'm pre-supposing that it did not make reference to the Avian Bird Flu, or That War that America Started.

Another issue I have with this movie... There is a scene where V is born again, baptized by fire, the seminal scene for any superhero. Where they step off the page and announce their arrival. V rises from the burning rubble of the medical testing center/concentration camp and lets out a primal roar and puts everyone in London on notice. This is fine and certainly in line with standard comic book narrative.



Later in the film, Evey, Natalie Portman, experiences a similar rebirth. She has been tortured (by V) and has arrived at a place where she is no longer afraid. Beyond fear. She goes on the roof, where it is raining and let's out a similar scream, arms raised in a V for Victory.






This is also fine. I'm ok with symbolism and parallel story-lines. I'm ok with coincidences and all that. But the scene kept cutting back and forth between Evey's rebirth and V's rebirth. Multiple times. Split screen. Just in case you didn't get it the first, or second or third times. Because these scenes are similar. They call to mind each other and vise versa. Fire and Water. Get it?


I want to work a little while watching a movie. I want to make connections on my own, and decide for myself. I don't want to be hit over the head with political statements and symbolism.



If it wasn't for all of this, the movie could have been interesting and actually accomplished what it set out to do in the first place.... make a political statement. If there wasn't all of this anti-US, anti-neo-con rhetoric, I might be able to sympathize with V, whose vision involves overthrowing a repressive government by razing Parliament in order to create a spectacle so shocking and awing that it results in a popular uprising. If a movie can get you to root for a guy who terrorizes a city by using forms of public transportation to blow up landmark buildings, then that would be a political statement.