Matt Feeney on V for Vendetta
Uh-oh, a pile-on's starting. At least I've seen this one.Nothing better illustrates the simplism of V for Vendetta, or better highlights the unflattering contrast with Brazil, than V's motto: "There are no coincidences." The comic beauty of Brazil's portrait of totalitarianism is that everything rests on random coincidence, which nudges the bureaucracy into its own blind and murderous momentum: A dead fly falls into a computer printer and—voilà—poor law-abiding Buttle is mistaken for dangerous subversive Tuttle.
In V for Vendetta, there are no coincidences because, of course, it's all a big, seamlessly executed conspiracy. The fascist supreme leader's (John Hurt) total control dates back to a terrorism crisis that the government itself concocted [...] The regime's very evil propagandist Prothero (Roger Allam) is also the former commander of the concentration camp where V was experimented on. So, V kills him. And the camp's indifferent chaplain is now not only a high-ranking Anglican bishop, but also a vicious pedophile. So, V kills him, too. (In other words, there are coincidences. Very convenient ones.)
The author, Matt Feeney, is a terrific critic who inspired me to watch Cruel Intentions and Wild Things with this piece and wrote a very nice tribute to Noah Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming here. As one of two former owners of Los Angeles' only "I'd Rather Be Bowhunting" bumper stickers, I tip my hat to him. I hope Slate gives him a steady gig.
(via Hit and Run.)
posted by Josh K-sky at
1:23 PM
2 comment(s):
Three. I still have one, and I used to live in LA. Although I don't have a bumper.
By
Antid Oto, at
1:16 PM
By the way, your last link is to the wrong thing.
By
Antid Oto, at
11:56 AM
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