V for Vendetta

The Movie

Okay, I want to talk about three things here without making this post too long. First of all, V for Vendetta the movie. We saw it yesterday, and I liked it. I'm not going to put it up there with the all-time great comic-book adaptations, but it was really good.

The acting was excellent, to be expected from artists of that caliber. Natalie Portman managed to bring sensibility and reason into the character of Evey, making her accessible, though some reinterpretation of the character on the part of the writers helped there, too (see below). Hugo Weaving did an admirable job of showing the humanity behind the permanent mask. Stephen Rea, one of my perennial favorites, really shown out as Inspector Finch, a man who would not be satisfied with the information fed to him and who was willing to see more than one side to an issue.

The movie was put together with some skill, but I found myself wishing it had a director with more experience. Oh, I'm sure the Wachowski's had a hand in it, being the writers and producers, and helped it along. The whirling knife fight scene at the end had their signature all over it. But there were times when the production felt clumsy. Like when V was giving important speeches and the soundtrack swelled over his voice. Or when Finch begins to recall the events of the crimes so far, in the classic Usual Suspects fashion (hey, it says "Kobayashi" on the bottom of the coffee mug!), and when asked what conclusions he came to, he says, "Oh, nothing." (Nothing? All of that cinematic recapping for nothing?) Little things like that make me think a more experienced story teller would have fixed them in the final editing.

But the rest of it made for a fun movie. The effects were especially brilliant. The story was compelling. The characters, believable (or, at least, almost). I'd recommend it for anybody who likes a grim tale of a dystopian future where, as the tag line indicates, people are afraid of their government, and especially for people who think the reverse should be true.



The Comic

I re-read it Friday night to prepare myself for the movie, and I wanted to talk just for a minute about how the movie parted from the original story-line.

Warning, there may be some spoilers in this section, so stop reading here if you don't want to know anything about the movie.

Was it completely faithful? No. In fairness, some things had to change because the political climate has shifted dramatically from the 80's when it was written. But in all fairness to the Wachowski Brothers, they did make a few good changes.

First of all, the character of Evey was almost completely re-written. She goes from a 16-year-old amateur prostitute who pretty much accepts everything V tells her, to a slightly older, more independent woman who thinks for herself and has to come around to seeing things from V's point-of-view. I didn't like the Evey character as much in the comic because she seemed to be behaving in a way that I couldn't agree with. I felt that her actions were forced to make the story progress. But in the movie, she is a fully realized character who grows and changes. I thought her betrayal of V in Lilliman's room was touching, especially they way she was conflicted about it. I liked the fact that she left V on her own to go live with Gordon (instead of being kicked out) and then left again after the torture scenes. There, she seemed to realize what he was doing for her, but she needed to be on her own to understand it, to grow into it.

Second, there were a few other additions that I liked.

• The hundred thousand masks. Nice touch. Good way to show that the people were no longer afraid of their government.
• The fight scenes.
• The music. The 1812 Overture. William Tell. I liked the way it was used.
• And Gordon. I liked the character the way he was written in the comic, but I also liked what they did with him in the movie, making him gay and furthering the theme of government repression. Hey, it's a comic book movie. We expect a little action. The action in the comic was only hinted at. Fair enough, that's what they were writing, a sci-fi drama not an action piece, but if they'd only hinted at the action in the movie, we would have all been very disappointed.

Now, what was left out? Lots of stuff. There were many sub-plots that didn't make their way into the movie. The supercomputer Fate that the Leader has access to (and what V does with it). Derek and Rosemary Almond, and especially how Rosemary is left. The whole system of government, hands, fingers, nose, ear, eye. I loved the way it was described in the comic, and while this was alluded to in the movie, I think they put it in the background as to not confuse the audience (who would surely be thinking, what is this "nose" I keep hearing about).

So what am I trying to say? If you liked the movie, read the book. There's so much more in there, lots of little things to explore. It's a gem. And though I liked the movie and I think it was good, the comic is better.

The Writer

Alan Moore supposedly had his name removed from the movie (was it? I forgot to look) and wants to have his name removed from the comic book as well. You can read all about it in this interview. He's unhappy with the way DC Comics has treated him. They own the material and can do whatever they want with it (like sell it to Hollywood where some other writer will re-interpret it).

To his credit, he simply wants to remove his name from things he does not own or control anymore, to stop receiving any money from those things, and to give his share to the other artists involved. Commendable. He feels that his name being attached gives those stories a little more credibility and market-value. True. And if he cannot control their fate, he doesn't want anything to do with them.

But my opinion is that he's been a little childish about this - smells of a tantrum to me - and perhaps a little naïve about the way the world works. True, somebody really bungled the movie adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. Personally, I thought From Hell was quite good, but I've never read the comic and can't compare the two. Writers relinquish control of their stories all the time to Hollywood. They do it for money. They do it, also, to bring their stories to a larger audience. And if those stories change from the written page to the screen, well so be it. It happens.

Yes, I realize there is more to it than simple screenwriter's interpretation that is bugging him. I don't quite understand the politics behind what DC Comics did, but it seems they lied, told him he'd re-gain control once the reprints stopped but then never stopped reprinting. He didn't think about that when signing the contract, and now he regrets it. Sucks, but that's life. Learn from your mistakes and move on. It doesn't mean you have to disown your work because of it.

I think a writer's creations are his children, so to speak, set loose in the world. You create them, you raise them, you mold them, and you try to make them the best you possibly can. And you can keep them that way forever by never letting the medium change, somewhat akin to never letting them leave your home. But I think, at some point, you have to let them loose in the world to see what they can become on their own.

Sometimes, they meet with the right crowd and grow well beyond your expectations. (Would Gone with the Wind have been as enduring if it weren't for the movie? Or, to take a more recent example, would as many people have been introduced to Sin City if Robert Rodriguez hadn't gotten a hold of it?) But sometimes, they meet with the wrong crowd who want to bastardize them, and you, as the author, have to distance yourself from that project. (For instance, some idiot tried to remake A Prayer for Owen Meany and screwed it up big time, which John Irving noticed, and pulled his support, and they renamed the entire project Simon Birch.)

V for Vendetta was not one of those projects. I believe the people involved wanted to make a hit movie, yes, but they also wanted to stay as true to the story as possible. I think Alan Moore should be proud of it. I wish he was.