by Jeff Davis

Andy and Larry Wachowski, makers of “The Matrix,” have now released their new flick “V for Vendetta.” It’s already causing controversy as “the first underground terrorist-as-hero movie” (Time magazine) and it will probably generate even more debate as it hits the theaters. Reviewer Peter Canavese commented: “…A divided domestic electorate will take V for Vendetta either as a kick-ass, future-punk primal scream of political frustration or as an irresponsible, literally and figuratively incendiary attack on our democracy when our approval-deficient leaders can least afford it. The rest of the world is considerably less likely to be ambivalent about a revenge fantasy of an individual rousing the rabble against the institutional elite.” Hey, that’s the best kind of fantasy!

The movie portrays a lone freedom fighter, never identified except as V, plotting to overthrow a tyrannical government set in a futuristic England by blowing up buildings. The hero is never seen, but wears a Guy Fawkes mask, thus hearkening back to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 when the original Guy Fawkes sought to engage in his own form of participatory democracy by blowing up King James the First and the entire Parliament with gunpowder hidden in the cellars below.

“V for Vendetta” is based on an obscure British comic book series, it is equally applicable to the American scene as the lone hero battles against something called “The Red State”. The tyranny in the movie tortures dissidents and spies on everyone. Given the repeated attempts by the Bush administration to legalize (or redefine) torture, the recently renewed Patriot Act and the scandal about warrantless spying on American citizens, we are seeing the seeds of tyranny being planted by Bush and company as this movie debuts. Some neocons may object to the movie subconsciously realizing that their version of America is rapidly turning into the police state portrayed in the movie.

Nonetheless, the message comes through loud and clear: individual resistance to the soulless tyranny of an oppressive police state is morally justified and people who so resist can be heroic. It’s coming through loudly enough to be disturbing to some of those in authority. The explanation of the emergence of the Orwellian tyranny in England is that “America’s war grew worse and worse, and eventually came to London.” The terminology used by the fictional dictatorship is very similar to what we hear today on Fox News, and all that is allegedly being done in the name of “fighting terrorism”. When push comes to shove, V, the hero, is a terrorist who plots to plant a big bomb and blow up the bad guys, the government. That’s a pretty radical message, no matter how it’s covered with fig-leaves of political correctness.