On one of our random conversations which featured funny project names, sniffing Professors, and V12 engines, 'V for Vendetta' sprung up and I found out that JM Eks loves to watch this movie every 4th of November. He's a proper fan boy, and as I've never watched it (mostly mean I have no memories of having watched it, although the former might be true), I decided to see it for myself.
He quickly assumed the role of interviewer but that position was soon usurped as you'll quickly find.
JM.Eks: I knew you'd like the movie. And I'm also glad you did.
How did it make you feel though?
Me: Lol I found the closeness between V and the girl endearing. I noticed the alliteration in his speech on the day he rescued her. It was a little strange to see this sweet man murdering people though. It felt like a cozy watch because of the old things there. Old TV, early twenties style.
JM.Eks: That speech took me years to be able to tag along.V had a thing about all things V, kinda like I have a thing for the letter X. His TV was a JVC. His knives in the last fight scene form the letter V five (Roman numeral V) times in the air. He repeated Evey's name as E-V because E is the fifth letter of the English alphabet from the front and V is the fifth from the back. Thank goodness he didn't believe in coincidence. There's so many subtle nods to the letter V and the number 5 in the movie.
Me: Lol why are you happy he didn't believe in coincidence?
JM.Eks: But what I like the most about the movie is something that made me proud during the EndSARS protests. That ideas are more than the flesh of the people who carry them. The people may bleed and die, but ideas are bulletproof.
Me: I didn't notice the V in his knives but it's just my first watch so of course. Oh yea I liked the place where that woman said you can't kiss ideas
Felt like a romantic touch for when you want to die for one.
JM.Eks: I mean, E-V is too much of a coincidence to not be stoked about.
Me: Right? So why do you think he didn't want to believe in coincidences?
JM.Eks: Well, I think V is the kind of guy who takes everything as a tool to a greater good. It wasn't coincidence that he met her. He could've walked away and not saved her, but his conscience brought him to her. He made a conscious decision to get come to her rescue. That's another message he passed in the movie. That governments become irresponsible when the people become passive and docile. It's never coincidence that governments do that. It's a historical pattern.
If he believed in random things intersecting in the name of coincidence, he wouldn't be where he was that day. In a way, he was more or less also saying he's a master of his own .
Me: I guess I agree. Did you think it was right for him to have killed that doctor? She was repentant unlike the rest.
JM.Eks: The movie is a creative deviation from the graphic novel in many places though.
That doctor part was hard for me too. Like he said, he was killing her for what she had done, not what she failed to do.
In his shoes, I totally understand the anger that made him do it, and yet, he also considered her repentance I think. Because he gave her the most dignifying death of all.
Me: What about the romance between v and the girl? For all I know, he could be a man in his fifties. Why do things like that always have to take a romantic turn? Why couldn't it have been a fatherly kind of turn?
JM.Eks: He was in his 40s or 50s. I like the romance. More so because she was in love with the idea of him much more than the person he was. She didn't even fully know who he was. Fun fact: he didn't also know who he was. He had amnesia due to the things the government did to him. All he remembered about his identity was the single red letter on his cell door. V.
I think if you keep two lonely people (strangers) in a place for a while, they'll definitely spark a romantic relationship with themselves.
Me: Well she also saw a bit of who he was because of his actions, so I think it was both. That's why she wanted to kiss his mask. Sentimental love.
JM.Eks: They were both lost. One was lost on a path to vendetta while the other was lost in a world where fear dominated her choices. Finding themselves made them make choices together on a journey to bringing their true selves out into the light. Most times that takes the form of romance between two people.
I'm too much of a fanboy, but I think that movie should be taught to secondary school children.
For a moment, I think he also doubted if he could go through with his plans, just because he'd also fallen in love.
If you've seen the film as much as I have, there are things that just burst your brain every time. The juxtaposition between the emancipation of V and the emancipation of Evey. One got the baptism of fire while the other got the baptism of water. One became free of his captors while one became free of the fear that bound her. It was eleMENTAL!
Me: Lol yes I saw that too. I also was secretly hoping she'd have magic powers. There was lighting that I kept hoping was from her Also this Clooney guy. Not Clooney. What's his name? The other friend
JM.Eks: Yeah, he gave her control, but not just as herself. He gave her control because he needed someone who was going to live in the world he was trying to shape to be the one to make the decision. All he wanted was revenge, but for every other person, it was a revolution, a clean slate.
Me: Fry.
JM.Eks: 😂 Magic powers? Come on!
Stephen Fry?
Me: It's sci-fi after all😆 I was just hoping
Yes, did he come out the year the film was acted? I haven't checked.
JM.Eks: V had some extra-human abilities though. Speed for one.
Me: 'A 'why won't you die power?'.
JM.Eks: I think he came out before the movie was made. I'm not too sure though.
Exactly! "Why won't you just die?"
I loved his response. Did you feel like as much as the Guy Fawkes mask was static, it always felt like you could see his different emotions whenever he felt them?
Me: Yea, it really felt like you could. He used his neck well.
Was Fry also not in the final scene when all the masks came out?
JM.Eks: Oh, that end part had all the people who'd died. From the woman Guy Fawkes looked at during his hanging, to Valerie (the letter woman), to the bespectacled girl, to Evey's parents... Everyone who had suffered and died in the pursuit of freedom. Poetically, he was in the final scene, because he was them. But practically, he wasn't.
Me: Ah I only noticed him and the bespectacled girl with her parents. Another reason why I thought the girl would have powers. I feel justified now.
JM.Eks: He really used his neck well, and his tone of voice.
Me: Yea when she said he was my father, I wanted to do that ' and I ooped' thing. But was relieved when she completed it with he was everyone lol.
JM.Eks: 😂
Me: 😀
So like him, you'd wait again till next year to watch it.
JM.Eks: In the graphic novels, he takes off his mask for the doctor. I like that they stayed on brand with the character in the adaptation. The friendly, familiar anonymity of it all was grand. He could be anybody and yet he acted with dignity and clarity of purpose, and that's true power in a way.
Yes. Always November 5.
😊
And that's a wrap on this interesting conversation with the fanboy. 😎