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V for Vendetta
Based on the Graphic Novel by Alan MoorePlotBlaine: November the Fifth in the year 2020, London, England. A society that is ruled by the government that is authoritarian, oppressive, against gay rights and religious freedom. A shadowy freedom fighter who calls himself 'V', a Guy Fawkes masked man comes across a young woman named Evey who is in danger from three members of the "Figermen" secret police while she is past curfew. V takes them down and saves Evey, who he later falls in love with. Evey is a little frightened by her savior, even though he's being nice to her. V is on his way to a rooftop to listen to music and he asks Evey if she would like to join him. 1812 Overture is playing in the streets and then the Old Bailey blows up while fireworks go off in the sky, all according to V's plan. Inspector Finch, Scotland Yard's chief of police, has been given the task to investigate V and Evey as well after getting herself involved with V and getting herself caught on the surveillance cameras. They track Evey down at the TV station where she works. V shows up at the station with an armed bomb around his chest and orders the people in the studio to broadcast a disc with a message from him to the people of London, reminding them there is something wrong with their country and V is there to change all that. If the people of London are with him, they will gather together next November the 5th outside the gates of Parliament. V escapes the police in the studio by using the smoke machines to fog up the room and puts masks and uniforms on the hostages to make them look like him. As V is heading for the elevator a detective stops him and tells him to put his hands on his head. Evey sneaks up behind the detective, maces him and then he knocks her out. And then V knocks the detective out. As V looks at Evey, unconscious on the floor after helping him, he has to make a decision if he should take her with him or not. To some like the Government and the television producers, V is thought of as a terrorist. Others think of him as a leader and a icon. V brings Evey to his home and tells her she has to remain there one year until November the 5th. Evey can't believe what she has done and she is not happy for what she's gotten herself into. Evey is calm after that. V goes after and kills the people responsible for making him what he is. Evey offers to help V. V has her dress up as child prostitute for a perverted priest from V's past that he plans to kill but Evey's real plan is to escape. Evey goes to the home of her boss Gordon Deitrich, a talk show comedian. He allows Evey to stay. V's last kill is Dr. Diana Stanton who changed her name to Delia Surridge. V makes her death painless and she accepts her death because she cannot forgive herself for what she did. She leaves behind a journal. V doesn't take it because he wants Inspector Finch to read and find out the truth about him. He was in a detention facility until a fire struck the building around midnight on November the 5th. V survived the fire, but was badly burnt and became something else. Gordon performs a satire against the Government on his show which gets his house invaded by Creedy, the head of Britain's secret police with his men and Evey gets captured. She is sent a facility and the only way she can get out of it is to give them information on V, but she doesn't talk so instead she gets imprisoned and tortured. Evey finds a peace of toilet paper that was used as autobiography by an actress named Valerie Page before she died. She wrote a few things about her life from her teenage years to her grown up years as an actress and when she met the love of her life. The reason Valerie was sent to the facility was because she was a lesbian and before she died, she wanted who ever got her letter to know who she was, to stay strong, that the Government shouldn't take away who we are and that she loves the person who is reading it and understands. Evey is touched by Valerie's words and kisses the letter because she feels the love. Evey has one last chance to tell them where V is, but she doesn't talk. So she is sent to be executed and Evey accepts death and that is what gets her released. Evey is confused and takes a peak outside her room and discovers the guard outside is made of plastic. She opens the door to the next room and it's the shadow gallery. V shows himself and then it becomes very clear to Evey that it was all a stage and the men were just V in disguise. Evey told V she wished she could live without fear and V knew the only way to do that was to torture her, even though it pained him to do it. Evey can't feel anything anymore, even though she is crying. She needs air so V takes her up to the roof and as she feels the rain pouring down on her skin, she feels free from fear. Evey has to leave, but she promises V she will meet with him on November the 5th. Finch meets up with a man named William Rookwood, who tells him the cause of the St. Mary's Virus was not done by terrorists, but by Chancellor Adam Sutler. V pays a visit to Mr. Creedy and tells him he wants Chancellor Adam Sutler in exchange for himself. Finch later finds out that Rookwood has been dead for twenty years and the man he met up with was really V in disguise. V prepares himself as November the 5th is near by sending out thousands of Guy Fawkes masks around London that causes chaos. V hears music playing in the other room and there is Evey standing next to his juke box. V is surprised because he didn't think she would come. V asks Evey if she'll dance with him. As they dance together, Evey wants to know who V really is behind the mask, but he feels the face behind the mask isn't him and she understands. V then takes Evey to an abandoned, underground train station thats tracks lead to Parliament. There is a train with explosives on it and V gives Evey the choice whether or not to use it to blow up Parliament. V must leave, for he has an appointment with Mr. Creedy. Creedy has made his promise to bring Chancellor Sulter to V. After Mr. Creedy executes Sulter by putting a bullet in his head, he and his men shoot at V. But V still stands, attacks and kills Creedy's men with his knives as they are trying to refill their guns with bullets. Then V puts his hands around Creedy's neck and breaks it. V removes the armor he had used as a bullet proof vest, hidden under his outfit. He is alive, but not for long, for he is badly wounded. V returns to Evey and he is bleeding to death and he uses his last breathes to let her know how much he loves her. Then V goes silent. Evey places V's body in the train and surounds him with roses. She has made her decision to activate the train. Finch shows up and sees Evey next to V's dead body. She explains to Finch why she is doing it and that V was right about the UK needing hope. Finch is understanding and allows Evey to proceed. Meanwhile V's army walks the streets of London and because they have no response to attack, the Government army stands down as the citizens pass them. Evey starts the train and it runs at full speed towards the Parliament and blows it up. Everyone watches the Parliament blow up and the fireworks go up into the air. Evey says she'll never forget the man she knew and what he meant to her. 
Blaine: Andy and Lana Wachowski, the creators of “The Matrix” trilogy, didn't direct "V for Vendetta", but they did produce and write the screenplay. The Wachowskis love graphic novels and they wrote the screenplay for "V for Vendetta" in the Mid-Nineties before "The Matrix" and after they were finished with their trilogy, they pulled their script for "V for Vendetta" out of the drawer and felt it was the next project to be made into a movie. James McTeigue, who was the first assistant director for "The Matrix" Trilogy was given the directing job. He said that the graphic novel was a birthday present from The Wachowskis as was the idea of him directing it and them producing it. Staring Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, John Hurt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Roger Allam and Sinead Cusack. When I first watched "V for Vendetta", I was really getting into the story. I still do every time I watch it. I also think the movie is perfect. The idea of "V for Vendetta" came from a real life historical figure from the 1600s named Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up British Parliament. He was caught underneath the Parliament with explosives on November the 5th of 1605 because someone ratted him out by writing a warning letter to Lord Monteagle and he took the letter to the court. He was hung two months and twenty six days later. The British celebrate the 5th of November by burning Guy Fawkes in effigy on a huge bonfire and shooting fireworks. One of the things that makes "V for Vendetta" very different from "The Matrix" is that it feels like a British film because of the fact that it takes place in England and almost every actor who is in it is British. Producer Joel Silver said "The Wachowskis viewed this story from a little different angle. They focused more on the V-Evey relationship." The backstory in the graphic novel was set in the ‘80s, when it was written. The current story was set in the '90s. For the film they thought it would be good idea to make the '90s the backstory and the current story into the future. The Wachowskis also had other people who were apart of their "Matrix" Trilogy like Hugo Weaving who played Agent Smith, play the lead character 'V' and Production Designer Owen Paterson to design the futuristic sets of Britain. James McTeigue thought Evey should be a little older and intelligent than she is in the graphic novel. The character had to be someone who could respond to 'V'. James had met actress Natalie Portman when he was the first assistant for "Star Wars-Episode II: Attack of the Clones" and he thought she would be fantastic to play the person. "V for Vendetta" required a sacrifice and that was Natalie Portman's hair. They shaved her head bald during the shooting of a scene where her character 'Evey' gets tortured. She was very brave to do that and I find it scary, to have all that hair shaved off after growing it out for so long and then feeling nothing, but the skin underneath it. But Natalie wasn't the only the only person who had to give up her hair in the film. English actress Natasha Wightman who plays Valerie had to do that as well when she's in the detention facility. 
The production team couldn't shoot in London for the sets they were going to build because they didn't have enough time and the space wasn't big enough. They shot at Babelsberg studios, in Potsdam outside of Berlin, where a lot of great films like "Metropolis", "The Blue Angel", "The Pianist", Bourne Supremacy & Ultimatum, "Inglorious Basterds", "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and "Cloud Atlas" have been shot. There was a sign that said "Victoria", for a London Underground station (they call it the tube) which is the subway. So when you see the sign "Victoria", you immediately think you're in London. They wanted the sets to feel like London and they also wanted grittiness, meaning a little bit dirty. The most complex set was the shadow gallery a.k.a. V's home. V's home is supposed to be on the bottom of some famous place in London. Exterior sets included locations like Whitehall, Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square. The shot for three nights filming the scene where the government soldiers are pointing guns at V's army. In today’s world it's more difficult to photograph and shoot in London near the government buildings like Whitehall. They built big miniature models of Big Ben, The Old Bailey courthouse and Parliament and then blow them up with explosives that react quickly while they're shooting at a high frame rate. My guess on what V is feeling is that he is amazed with Eve after helping him by macing the detective, even though he could have taken care of the detective himself and I think that's when he started to get feelings for her. When V was in the facility, his cell number was five which in Roman numerals is V. Another thing about V is that he is someone who always has it planned out, he can be a master of disguise as long as he is in the shadows and the only thing he fears is Evey getting captured or killed. My rating on "V for Vendetta" is five out of five. Music by Dario Maianelli Main Page |