movie of the day--V for Vendetta (2006)

one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

that's something i fundamentally believe in. when 9/11 happened, you didn't see many people talking about what got us there. how the Reagan administration spent US tax dollars on training the group that eventually became Al Qaeda. how the first Bush administration pissed off that same group by putting US air bases on what they considered to be holy land. how they already had something against the United States because of the US policies toward Israel and the Middle East in general. and because no one talked about what got us to 9/11, no one blinked an eye when legislation like the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act was passed.

which brings us to V for Vendetta, the adaptation of the Alan Moore comic by the Wachowski Brothers. it embodies my belief that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, and that terrorism is not just the purview of the shadowy anti-establishment group, but of the government as well. throughout the film, a series of terrorist acts are perpetrated and exposed, and everyone has blood on their hands. through V's actions, one of the upper echelon of "the Party" (the fascist government in charge of Britain in this distopian future) begins to question the event that lead to "the Party" taking power. V has a personal stake in his actions as well, which makes you question his overall motives.

In Roger Ebert's review of V for Vendetta he complained that the movie was too complex--"a audacious confusion of ideas" but isn't that the point really? one man's terrorist is always another man's freedom fighter. those that allowed "the Party" to take power will find V's actions abhorrent. those who feel persecuted by the party will side with V, who explains that sometimes violence is a necessary means to an end. the problem is that both sides want you to believe the issues are black and white, that there is only a yes or no answer. only when it is too late does V realize that there are always shades of gray. but by the time he has made the realization, he is in too far, too deep.

I think that V's justification for his actions is that "the Party" through actions both direct and indirect created him, and the blood he spills is ultimately on his hands. i think that is the lesson we haven't learned from 9/11, and now with excursions into Iraq and posturing with Iran and Korea, we are creating tomorrow's terrorists/freedom fighters, and the blood will be on our hands as well. Five Stars (out of Five)