I watched "V for Vendetta" again with my son after seeing it years ago upon my release. It was interesting to see if free of the hype and subsequent Occupy baggage attached to it. 1/x

While Hugo Weaving gives a mesmerizing performance as V, the protagonist is Evey, portrayed by Natalie Portman, with Evey and Chief Inspector Eric Finch (Stephen Rea), serving as the moral center of the film, 2 good people confronting the autocracy is which they live. 2/x

The separate journeys of Evey and Finch provide the narrative drive of "V for Vendetta", as they are the most relatable characters in the movie, the most humanistic. They give the movie an emotional depth, an intensity, that elevate it above the normal comic book genre film. 3/x

Both Evey and Finch find themselves sucked into the vortex of the violence unleashed by V in response to the brutality of England's evangelical, authoritarian government. Initially appalled, they ultimately accept that V's violence was necessary to transform society. 4/x

"V for Vendetta" was a pop culture provocation, a movie about blowing up Parliament 5 years after the downing of the Twin Towers. The Wachowski Brothers examined the extent to which violence is necessary to overthrow and transform the "fascism of every day life". 5/x

V understands this, but also understands that he must persuade others as well, hence he seeks to persuade Evey to launch the underground train that will blow up Parliament, and Finch must decide whether to allow Even to do it. 6/x

"V for Vendetta" is extraordinarily well made and paced as it discomforts the audience with the theme of political violence, and presents a "terrorist" as an empathetic figure. 7/x

"V for Vendetta" integrates the melodrama of 1930s, 1940s film with the cinema verite of the political thrillers of the 1960s and 1970s, along with very effective use of montage and fictional TV news footage. It is, in short, a unique and original film. 8/x

"V for Vendetta" also tells a story that is highly disquieting in light of the current COVID-19 epidemic, a story about a power hungry political figure that foreshadows Trump who lets loose a deadly virus upon his own people to attain unrestrained power. 9/x

"V for Vendetta" is a film with a hopeful message in regard to our capacity to confront power, cruelty and deception. But it is hard not to wonder whether the Wachowski Brothers have been too optimistic in light of what has happened since. 10/x

"V for Vendetta" is the reverse side of "The Joker" coin. In "The Joker", people are treated as ignorant, mean spirited and prone to irrational violence, incapable of positive political organization. They must choose between either the Joker and Batman vigilantes. 11/x

Conversely, in "V for Vendetta", people can act for the betterment of all, with a little violent nudging through V's propaganda by the deed. People can push history forward towards compassion, it was made upon the assumption that "the arc of time bends towards justice". 12/x