::: Jim Rovira
The Wachowski Brothers’ fear and loathing of the Bush Administration, or, Neo regresses. ::: Click here to read the full text.
I was expecting an analysis of the film, not a comparison with what it should have been to keep up with the Matrix Trilogy and what it was "according to Jim Rovira".
Apart from that the article was well structured, even though I could not agree on many parts.
Take this for example:
"V for Vendetta gives the adolescent boy the ending he wants and consequently takes a big step backwards into silly political melodrama."
First of all the story is yes predictable and yes it is banal in a kind of way, but you did not consider the original context in which the story was written. It's not merely about the Bush administration, 9/11, war in Iraq, it goes far beyond.
Alan Moore wrote it between 1982 and 1988, the film is loosely based in the sense that it takes only certain parts and obfuscates the rest, but the point is still vividly presented as the original comic. It's 1984 more than anything else, I realised it when I re-read the Orwell classic. I had the left eye on the V comic and the right one on 1984 for about a week, and the similarities were more than evident.
Of course Joel Silver's simplicistic comments did not help the film, which made Moore to distance himself from the film sight unseen, but it's wrong to compare it directly with the Matrix, in my huble opinion, here's the reason:
"The Wachowski brothers were fans of V for Vendetta and in the mid-1990's, before working on The Matrix, wrote a draft screenplay that closely followed the graphic novel. During the postproduction of the second and third Matrix films, the Wachowski brothers revisited the screenplay and offered the director's role to James McTeigue and Pedro Esteves. All three were intrigued by the themes of the original story and found them to be relevant to the current political landscape. Upon revisiting the screenplay, the Brothers set about making revisions to condense and modernize the story, while at the same time attempting to preserve its integrity and themes"
http://vforvendetta.warnerbros.com/cmp/prod_notes_ch_02.html
PS if you like this article, scroll down a bit -- I also wrote the Wallace and Gromit article.
Ooh...that's really cool. Now I wish I'd thought of that myself...
I think this article correct in stating that the fascist elements of the movie are statements about Bush' reaction to 9/11. But I think that movie takes bigger leaps than these. It implies Bush' preaction in 9/11 where the falling of the towers doesnt compare to V's parliment demolition, but rather to the disseminating of the virus(read as fear and uncertainty after the fall of the towers) and selling the antidote(selling the middle eastern wars) and gaining fascist control(Patriot Act and Homeland Security)
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Thanks much for the response, Frederico. Admittedly, I haven't read the original comics, so can't comment on the film's faithfulness to its source material. Vendetta is, however, very clearly a WB product, and as such can be understood within the context of other WB products. Since the film does attempt to make a socio-political critique, it is well within bounds to compare this film's critique to a similar critique in other WB films--which in this case is only the Matrix Trilogy (Bound is thematically on the outside compared to other WB films)--and that is all my article attempted to do. I never claimed to be attempting a full analysis of the film, so I'm not sure why you read it with that expectation.
Your quotation and observation of the fact that the WBs changed an original screenplay that closely followed source material to make it more "relevant to the current political landscape" actually supports my thesis rather than undermines it. That's precisely what I said they were trying to do (even in approximately the timeframe I said they were doing it), and in doing so they took a step backward from comparatively more sophisticated critique.
So, thanks for the further documentation. It actually makes my case for me far better than the documentation I provided myself.
And yes, that is the story according to me, but why would I present anything else?
However, even without reading the original source material, I can certainly see the sense in a comparison to 1984, and should I ever attempt a full analysis of the film I would indeed be remiss to ignore either Orwell's novel or the original comic.
Thanks again for the response--though you disagreed, it was instructive for me.