Just a Feeling

I've never considered myself very good at describing movies in a way that sounds intriguing, which is quite a misfortune for someone who loves movies more than any other form of electronic entertainment. Usually I just babble out a botched up summary making the film in question sound confusing or absurd, and provide the opposite effect than I was hoping to inspire. However, I'm going to give a shot here, in the hope that, given the time to organize my thought will make it better. At least, better than the fragmented description I gave to my roommate when trying to tell her why V for Vendetta is really quite an excellent film, and why we should choose for our little movie night. Unfortunately, another friend needed her this evening, but I was set on watching it myself. And over the course of the viewing I realized that it was more than just a "good movie" that I like because of the plot or the actors. Perhaps it's a product of having just watched it after completing my reading assignment for film class, but I don't mind.

It began when I saw a particularly interesting shot of the title character V, played by Hugo Weaving (Mr. Smith, The Matrix), jumping over the slanted roof of the apartment he was about to break into, and I suddenly got the idea to take a screenshot of it, now that I had that feature on my revamped pc. I observed the still frame in a way that I had never really considered before; no doubt I had been concerned with keeping up with the story. But I find that seeing a movie, much like reading a book, again and again is always a fruitful experience because each time you allow yourself to notice more and more, because you already know so well everything on the surface. It was quite a "visually stimulating" image, and as I looked for more of them, I found them. It was somewhat surprising because I had always liked V for Vendetta but had never really considered a piece of cinematic art; more just an enjoyable blockbuster. Though one is required to sit through some scenes of mildly gruesome bloody scenes, a la Wachowski brothers, it is full of little details that really make you think about how hard they must have worked to make this a spectacular movie. It's filled with pithy axioms, some that sound as though they were designed for teenage boys to scratch into desks and write in library books like "ideas are bulletproof," but also gentler ones like "An inch, it is small and it is fragile and it is the only thing in the world worth having." I like this one for many reasons, one somewhat silly: as the speaker was born and raised in england, why would she be thinking in inches and not centimeters. But I digress, and also don't mean to detract from it's poignancy. I understand it as the one little part of yourself that you never give up to anyone, even in the face of death.

There are numerous instances of ideas about rebirth sprinkled throughout the movie, and is indeed what the movie itself culminates in. The main characters, Evey (Natalie Portman) and V share many parallels, particularly their "rebirth scenes." V suffered a tragic fate in a biological weapon testing facility, which he escapes from in a fire on the November 5th, the day of the Gunpowder plot. He recreates the experience, dehumanization and all, for Evey who in turn loses all of her fear and faces what she believes to be her death with inner calm. It is completed with V taking her up out of his underground lair to a high balcony and she experiences her rebirth in the rain instead of fire, with the same gestures as V. Raising her arm to storm-filled sky a lightning bolt slashes down before her, and it looks as though she has mastered not just her inner self but the outer world as well. Another beautiful image, coupled with my other favorite; a shot from her with the rain falling and making circles on the wet ground below her. There are numerous other perfectly set up shots, some that last for only an instant, like a rare and beautiful but ephemeral flower. In short, it's full of beautiful photography.

Ironically, Evey and V, what with all of their religious allusions, are rebelling against an extremist religious government, whose very slogan is "Strength through unity; unity through faith" and whose symbol is cross with two crosspieces across the main beam. It's as if the British Government under High Chancellor Sutler are placing their authority only one level below the divine, a less than subtle idea that glares at you from the insidious black and red colors of the symbol itself. Even more ironic still, is that extremist religious groups, with the belief that they are moving ever more towards the will of God, in truth are moving farther and farther away from what their holy texts say. But that is a battle I won't wage here.

Finally, at the end of the movie, V reveals he intends to blow up Parliament with vast quantities of "British Fertiliser" and other household chemicals. Though I dislike the destruction of historical monuments as a matter of principal, the idea that a corrupt government must answer for its crimes, reap what it sows, at the hands of fertiliser...that's what movies are made of.

Blog on Paper #1

Sometimes I wish I grew up in a time before Television, movies, video games and all those things so that I could have been one of those kids always surrounded by Matilda-size stacks of books who did nothing but climb trees and read. Even as I reconcile myself with the growing place of technology in the world, good old paper books will always hold a unique place in my heart and head. What immediately comes to mind is a book vs DVD scenario. Don't get me wrong, I love movies and have a prodigious DVD collection myself, but consider this situation. If someone gives you a book, you can start reading it the moment it crosses your palm. Not very polite, but possible. If someone gives you a DVD, that gives you the opportunity to be a little more sociable because reading the back of the case isn't going to take long, and your not likely to open it and stare at the disc. To do what DVDs are meant to do, you need to go somewhere, find a DVD player and Television set, and electricity. Obviously, to have all of these things you must first have purchased them, and to do that you needed to have a substantial amount of money before you were even given the gift in question. Now while someone may give you a book, which you can enjoy even if you are homeless, the average-joe friend is not likely to buy you a home, an television, a DVD player, and pay your electricity bill in addition to a single DVD. At least books will have a future in economical gift options. Sad as it is, if books are to become novelties suitable only for present presenting in order to survive, I would take it, anything, over their total extinction.

On the Contrary Watson

Oftentimes I experiences what i think are particulary verbose trains of thought and wish to write them down so I can read them over and think about them later. These spells have resulted in many scraps of paper with such thoughts scrawled hastily on them, similar scrawls in a mini notebook i keep in my purse for whenever i need to write directions, grocery lists, and whatever else merits scrawling, and also a Microsoft Word folder labeled simply "Thoughts." But aside from thinking about them, I never had any other real purpose for them. So I guess that's what this blog is about now. It sounds pretty simplistic, of course; all blogs are about the writer's thoughts. I guess what I'm trying to say is that my posts aren't going to be plain everyday thoughts; thusly I will not post everyday, because I do not have the type of Thoughts I'm referring to now every day. If that makes no sense, just don't worry about.

An interesting thing I've discovered about this blog is that it has actually increased my writing in my diary. It's ironic because I started it as an alternate method of writing, like my diary but on th computer, because I've often found I type faster than I write by hand. Yet, i do not control when I have the abovementioned Thoughts, and twice now I've been in bed, eyes closed, lights off, and suddenly feel the need to write down what I'm thinking, but don't feel like getting out of bed to find my computer, wait for it to turn on, get on the internet, etc etc. So I just get out my diary, always above my headboard next to a tin of pens reserved for that purpose, and begin to write. I've decided to log these entries in here after the fact.

Distracted by dog trials now (damn you television!), so I'm ending this post before it becomes even more confusing.