|
|
|
read between the lines
this movie made me think i think anyone can tell i'm in high spirits today, all because of one movie. haha. i've been wanting to talk about it for ages and ages, but i just haven't had the patience or right frame of mind to sit down and blog about it.i think i'll start with what i think about the movie, before i start going on about what the movie makes me think about. firstly, when i saw it, i thought it was the best thing to hit the screens in months. because besides the great acting (but isn't that expected of actors?), it was the first movie that actually got me thinking about its concepts and message after the thing ended. and it was the first in a long time that i've honestly, really wanted to watch a 2nd, 3rd, 4th time. and not only that, up to this day it is the only movie to have ever occupied my mind long enough to distract me from my tracas. back to what made me want to watch this movie, out of all the rest, again. going by my taste, i haven't seen what i'd call movies of substance come out in recent months. most of the shows i've managed to watch are just, laugh-out-loud, slapstick, or cheesy movies that temporarily entertain you while you're in the theatre, but that you'd forget about (as in not automatically recall unless prompted) once you get out, or at the most, in like a week. but this movie got me pondering about its political and philosophical concepts the minute i stepped out of the theatre. and i haven't watched a movie that's actually made me think in this way since the matrix. haha. rightly so, since this movie was under the wachowski brothers and crew (as was the matrix's). and they managed to pull it off again. i'm pretty sure i'm not the only one who's been stirred to think further. the geniuses who wrote the graphic novel that this movie was based on deserve the credit too. hats off to them for creating such a politically realistic environment and yet instilling in us the hope and promise that comes from the story. i went online and found out that the wachowskis did make revisions to the movie script that were slightly different from the graphic novel's, but the essence and structure of the original still remained. now that i've done the criticism bit, i'm eager to move on to the cerebral bit. -a few spoilers to follow, can't be helped- thoughts references to the real world nazi germany i had a good one hour to think about the movie and the first thought that came to mind was how strikingly similar the england in the movie was to pre-nazi germany. i felt that it couldn't be more obvious that the creators of v for vendetta were indirectly referring to germany of that time (but that's my own opinion, i could be wrong). the chancellor being the head of state was the most obvious sign for me. others were the experimenting and unexplained "disappearences" of invalids or, as mentioned in the movie, "undesirables", which included homosexuals among others, the dumping of naked corpses into open pits, the presence of secret police called "fingermen" (in the comic, "watchmen"), the fact that they had national curfews and speakers all over the streets, the sight of the chancellor passionately elocuting a speech after which soldiers clad in dark colours would march according to their respective infantries, etc. even the chancellor's name, which the wachowskis changed to sutler, is a combination of both the original name (susan) and hitler -- a fact which i found online here, amongst a whole ton of other stuff i didn't think of. marcos' philippines the cause for which V wanted to execute a vendetta reminded me of the "people power" revolution which took place in philippines during marcos' regime. of how there is strength in great numbers if there is a common agreement that unites them enough to be committed to whatever it is they're executing as a group. -cut- time flies. i kinda knew i wouldn't be able to finish this, because there is no way something that elicits so much verbal and cerebral response that it is enough to keep me thinking about it for days can be crammed into so few paragraphs tonight. i think i could honestly write a paper on this, haha. so i'll continue when i feel like it. i haven't even got to the meat of the story yet. |
|
|
.jpg){kind=link}