Movie review: V for Vengeance

Saw the latest comic-action flick on the weekend, where our hero is the mask-wearing freedom fighter "V", and the setting is London in 50 years time, under a Nth Korean style dictatorship.

Politically, the film is neither left nor right. The protagonist is portrayed as an extemely literate and well educated freedom-fighter, perhaps an ultra-anarchist who believes in overthrowing government. Seeing as the film portrays such a hideously evil dictatorship with oppression against minorities, unrestrained police power, no political opposition allowed and no freedom of speech, with rampant government censorship.. well the main character who fights relentlessly against it is always seen as the good guy.

Viewers who aren't aware of classical liberal principles, i.e libertarianism, might view the film as being left wing. Lefties might cheer for this film, thinking that revolution refers to the communist variety where a relatively capitalist system (i.e the russian Czardom) is overthrown in place of a Marxist government committed to fighting inequality and supporting the workers.

Lefties might also draw nonexistent parallels between the fact that the dictatorship in the film labels "V" a terrorist, and that it controls the media and think that the situation is akin to George W Bush and the American media system. How stupid is that ? America has a totally free media, those that are called terrorists are actually terrorists who target civilians whilst in the movie, V was a freedom fighter who never targetted civilians, only government or military people. Lefties probably identify the moustached dictator as a right-wing nationalist dictator of sorts, with Nazi-like imagery to boot. Then again, lefties have their own version of history, and are quick to forget that Hitler's Germany was an ultra-socialist government. Yes, Hitler was a conservative Christian, but his totalitarian warfare based government was a product of left-wing ideology, so much so that Hitler actually admired Stalin for his extremism and fanatacism.

The irony is that whilst lefties might see the film as championing their cause, the film is a direct refutation of left-wing ideology. On a side note, I'm appalled to have read that the main actress, Natalie Portman, compared the film's dictator to George Bush, but hey Hollywood personalities aren't known for their intelligence.