Sunday night went along to see V for Vendetta at Sid's behest (though I'd been keen to watch it in any case - struck me as a good candidate for the 'entertaining and thoughtful' double) and I thought that it was good, if a bit obvious. The grainy, unremittingly grey visual style struck me as quite a bold choice, grounding the films' settings in a recognisably present-day-derived milieu (and it's Britain, too, not the US, which is also relevant in that respect) and thus simultaneously invoking numerous very recognisable archetypal narrative-structures (most notably, perhaps, that of the decent cop in a world gone bad finding more than he or his corrupt superiors had bargained for) and giving it more of a contemporary resonance, but also thereby depriving it of the kind of techno-dazzle and neo-gothic-and/or-noir trimmings that might have brought in the Matrix/Underworld crowd...this also comes through in its - quite deliberate, I think - recalling of the film version of 1984 (has there been more than one? In that case, the one I saw in year 9 Lit).
In some respects, it's quite an interestingly composed little piece - the ultra-conservative police state which Britain has become, the mysterious revolutionary V, the development of Evey, and the investigations of Finch are all given more or less equal emphasis, and it's done in such a way that one doesn't mind when the film temporarily abandons one or another of them in order to focus on others. I also feel that it's a surprisingly restrained bit of film-making, both in terms of its underlying premises and as far as the execution of certain of its specific elements goes, although it pulls no punches in getting its message across (indeed, it's that very restraint which makes it effective, allowing us to more clearly trace a line between trends in society and politics today to the scenario depicted in the film). I don't know if I'd call it a left-wing film as such - maybe more small 'l' liberal in the classic sense, although the 'terrorist' things makes that a bit problematic! - and in any case we all know that these left/right/etc distinctions are problematic in the extreme (it was Orwell who once wrote of the effectively meaningless nature of most political words due to their strategic and never disinterested deployment by all and sundry), but in broad terms its heart is certainly in the right place, even if I'm not convinced on all particulars.
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Also, of course I enjoyed the appearance of Cat Power's "I Found A Reason"...
