Breaking down "V" - MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!

[burythehatchet]

One of the most thought-provoking aspects of the V plot-line was the torture that was inflicted on Evie Hammond. I was caught completely by surprise when we find that V set up the torture. Though I was curious that Evie never had any marks on her following her interrogations.

I'm interested in your thoughts regarding the allegory of the torture. Evie represents the common person who is in denial regarding the fascist state in which she lives. I believe the whole point of the torture was to bring Evie to the point where she realizes that the basic foundation of freedom is freedom from all that is material (represented by the hair). Freedom also lies in the beauty of love (Valerie's love as professed in her letters). When she realizes these truths she is free from fear and bondage, regardless of her external circumstances. Only then is she able to carry out the final act.

To me this was the most profound aspect of the story. Would love to hear your thoughts.

[tlsmith1963]

1. I Didn't Really Like What V Did...

...but you are right about what it did for Evey. I loved the scene with her in the rain. It was so powerful. It made me cry because I want to be totally free of fear like that.

Tammy

[burythehatchet]

3. AS the old song goes

"Freedom is just another word for nothin left to lose"

Unfortunately our existance is so tied to a material standard we are never really able to reach that feeling for which most of us yearn. In that respect, what V did for (to) Evie was truly a gift.

[radio4progressives]

13. Materialism is a key component to our self induced ignorance/enslavement

I would not have been convinced that Evie needed to go down the path of the "victim of torture" in order to have come to this place of enlightenment since she already had childhood roots in dissent (vis a vis her parents) were it not for the fact that her fear drove her to seek refuge from the Gestapo in the wrong places, in the wrong direction..

It's what we do in placing our hopes and responsibilities in the hands of elected officials and parties that supposed represent our hopes and safeguard our country from fascism and totalitarian despots.

I haven't read the book, and wondered how much of that depiction was true to the book?

[Teaser]

9. Because "V" is also for villain.

Your not supposed to like V. V is an awful, awful person. The graphic novel makes it more real.
He is a monster, but his enemies are even more so.

GRAPHIC NOVEL SPOILER BELOW:



It's why he allows himself to die. In the graphic novel, V's goal is not democracy. It is anarchy. He is an anarchist terrorist. It's why he blows up parliament, in part. Because democracy is just a milder form of the slave sickness that totalitarianism embodies. V believes the experience of totalitarianism as born of democracy will lead to an anarchist system after the government is finally thrown off. But he also knows that he is a creature that belongs in the old world of government. He is as bad as the Fingermen, in his way, and has to die in order to safeguard his new world from himself, a shadow of the old world.

[mdmc]

2. sounds like the crucification

Christ needed to suffer in order for man to be free. Without the experience, the transformation is incomplete.

[burythehatchet]

4. I see it more as the death of the animal

and the rebirth of the soul as the spiritual. Probably the same thing in some respects.

[C_U_L8R]

5. E-V is V

and V is E-V

[radio4progressives]

14. I saw it that way too!

Hah! :hi:

[MuseRider]

6. I did not see Evie

in denial at all. I saw her as a young woman trying to go on with her life after she lost so much so young. I saw her as someone who had enough fear to be able to comply with the constraints of her society but the brains and experience to know it was all false. That is where I saw her beginning when she met V.

This is very personal but here goes anyway. This movie and these issues had a very profound effect on me because I grew up in a very disturbed and violent family. Rigid, rigid rules with the fear of extreme discomfort if you did not follow without question. I learned the lessons that Evie learned before I was 10. They can't take away your dignity and strength of purpose no matter what they do. To be able to live and change the things you need to change you have to not fear your death. You must define yourself and judge for yourself what you can and cannot do. V saw in Evie someone who was almost ready to do what he (and the country) needed. The torture was her test, to see if she could finally care more about what is ultimately right than her very own life.

This is a very simple explanation of the things I have been thinking. I won't be back for a while so I will be very interested to see the discussion later. I am certain there is much more to it than that but given the nature of my life it became very personal very quickly.

[Teaser]

7. Freedom is that "last inch"

That part of yourself that torture cannot touch. It's beyond love even. It's only accessible to you. No one else knows how you really feel. And they can kill you, but they'll never be able to know how you actually felt. That is freedom. That part of you can't be touched.

[BootinUp]

8. it was all about breaking free from her fear. (Edited)

I was really disturbed by some of the movie reviews that framed V as a hero character and said that the movie glorified terrorism. That is so wrong. V is a monster created by the facist state. At the end he actually becomes human again.

On edit:

Also, I see Evie as another casualty of teh failure of the people and the government. She actually carries on the evil work of V. So the movie is really a criticism on the country itself for allowing itself to be taken in by fear. Thats my take.

[cureautismnow]

10. Who were V's accomplices?

Up until Evie's release, it seemed that V was a loner revolutionary on a one-man crusade. Obviously, the torture experience utilized outside help. Who were these comrades and why didn't V use them in his other ambitious exploits? Or maybe he did, but the director wanted you to think he worked alone? Curious. :think:

[burythehatchet]

11. Good question

maybe the novel answers that, though I surmised that it was only V.

[Teaser]

12. Perhaps the accomplices were V

I don't think Moore even believes V really exists. He is, as is noted many times, an idea, not a man.

[burythehatchet]

15. INteresting, something like FIght Club, perhaps.

[radio4progressives]

16. According to the Protaganist, V was the sole torturer..

:shrug: