Remember, Remember...

the fifth of November, which prior to watching V for Vendetta had not a whole lot of meaning for me. Now, though, I know that some gentleman named Guy Fawkes tried to blow up something called the Par-lee-a-ment House in 1605, but got caught, tortured, and executed. While I'm still not sure if that was a bad or good thing, it spawned a damn good movie. Hey, and Natalie Portman can act. Lucas, I'm blaming you.

The moral, of course, is that Hollywood can be surprisingly educational. I know The Patriot helped me on history tests.

Edit:

Ok, I liked it, a lot. Consider it as a less-high-tech Batman running around 1984 world, if Batman were the Phantom of the Opera. Ahem. Yes, I do love the masked and questionably moral man. The plot is a little fragmented, before coming together a bit roughly, but it suits the movie, which itself portrays a fractured, hopeless world. The part with the human testing facility and what it did with the hospital remains fuzzy in my mind, but the reasons behind the intentional poisoning seems kinda dodgy as well.

And I confess, I like bullet time and flashy throwing knives. That V slices cops up while quoting Shakespeare and holding roses makes it all the sweeter. However, it was disconcerting to never see his lips move, as the mask never comes off. You know it's Weaving, but no face (no eyebrows!). And one part, right after the "interrogation, came across as a bit of fast forgiving. (This from a person who didn't blink at the speed of Anakin's fall)

Some parts, though, were quite touching and/or powerful: when V is in the bedroom, and the conversaation with the coroner, and when the inspector realizes the magnitude of V's plotting, overlaid with the dominoes. Good stuff. More later, I think.