escapism, V for Vendetta
Apr. 9th, 2006 02:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verushka70The past several days I've been in desperate need of escapism. And my movie addiction has a new fix: V for Vendetta.
While school has toned down a bit -- 'til next weeks' exam -- my friend, who just lost his mother November 29, told me his 56 year old aunt had an aneurysm. She lingered in the ICU for days until they shut off all the machines on Thursday night. Over those days he was a basket case. His aunt was like a second mother (and more capable than his druggie mom) and she has always gone to every holiday or birthday celebration he has had for his entire life. It brought up all sorts of things for me having to do with losing my dad and my cat and my mother's STILL unknown status (cancer or no? Inconclusive! Another biopsy scheduled!). It's just been awful.
And so I went to the movies. Actually, I went AGAIN. I had already seen V for Vendetta last weekend with a friend. But I went again, by myself, on Thursday, a late afternoon matinee that started at 4:30 but still had the matinee price.
And after I found out that my friend's aunt had died Friday morning, just hours after all the machines were turned off, I spent the night at his house Friday night 'til about noon Saturday so he wouldn't be alone.
Then I ran away again Saturday afternoon.
Ran back to V for Vendetta.
And I don't want to think about the memorial service Monday and the funeral Tuesday and I don't want to think about my father and my mother and my cat.
So I prefer to think about V for Vendetta -- and my apparent addiction to movies.
I can't explain it. It happened with Brokeback Mountain, too. I saw it, fell in love with it, and then had to see it about 8 times.
With V for Vendetta, I don't even know where to begin.
I can say a few reasons why I think V for Vendetta has been getting trashed.
First of all, it's quite controversial.
Second of all, it's TOTALLY British. Veddy veddy British. Which SOME OF US happen to like...
Third of all, it's longer than the usual 90 minute spoon feeding. It's not that much longer -- no more so than, say, Heat (Michel Mann's excellent Pacino/DeNiro cop/criminal flick of '94) or any Scorcese film.
Lastly, the thing that probably Americans dislike most of all is the portrayal of the post-apocalyptic USA -- the Ulcered Sphincter of Ass-erica, as the fictional "Voice Of London" calls it in the opening minutes of the film.
I think V for Vendetta is a great film. I think that it will wind up a cult classic in the near future, and a CLASSIC in decades to come.
And I think I'll go see it again this afternoon or tonight. Because I am addicted; because I can't get that feeling any other way than sitting, again, in a dark theater, watching V for Vendetta. I'm like a junkie with some films, I guess. It seems they give me a feeling but the feeling only lasts as long as the movie, so I have to see it again and again...
And it's not like it was when I was a kid, when I went to the first showing of Raiders Of The Lost Ark and then stayed for all the rest of them, seeing it 3 or 4 times in one day.
Now they kick you out of the theaters after each show, when they're supposedly cleaning them.
And movies are a lot more expensive now. When I was doing it with Star Wars and Empire Strikes back and Raiders, it cost $1.75 for a matinee at a big theater chain. Now it's usually no less than $5.50 for a matinee, and I can't even stay for multiple shows like I did when I was young.
V for Vendetta resonates with me in much the same way Batman Begins did. There's darkness, there's heroic struggle against overwhelming evil, there's a plucky girl in distress, and there's a hero whose actions make him -- and others -- wonder if he now treads the same territory as his enemies. (In V for Vendetta, this is much darker even than Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne; V does much worse things, literally and figuratively, than Bruce/Batman). There's condemnation and redemption, and a love theme. And there is hope. Visually, it's sumptuous. The action punctuates the plot very well, and when it kicks in, especially in the climactic fights and explosions towards the end of the film, it's got all the explosions and fire and the elegantly orgiastic slomo blood spilling you could want in an action film -- all done in a very debonair, disciplined way.
Ideologically, of course, V for Vendetta is far more incendiary than Batman Begins. But that's what I like about it. And, like any good junkie, I'm prepared to cough up more money for another fix. Maybe another matinee late this afternoon...
My only question, after having seen V for Vendetta three times now... is...
When do women get a V, a phantomess of the Opera, a female hunchback of Notre Dame? Why aren't there any female superheroes or protagonists who are masked, have double identities, hide visages that are scarred or deformed, or are otherwise dual-identitied, with personalities that portray both the best and worst qualities of humanity? Is it just because no one, the world over, can bear to visually portray an ugly woman as a heroine (in comic books, graphic novels, movies)? Why no female version of Angel/Angelus? Why no woman who is, at least some of the time, a monster, ugly (or in the Buffyverse, lumpy-and-bumpy-faced with big fangs), but who is also champion of the underdog and labors to save people from evil or from themselves?
Is it just a western world thing? I think that within other religions (the Hindu pantheon comes to mind) there must be females who are strong, super-powered, and are both very beautiful and yet also very ugly visually and behaviorally.
I can't think a single ugly or masked superheroine who does good. There's no shortage of ugly (as well as beautiful) evil female characters -- from the witch who gets Hansel and Gretel, to the brides of Dracula, to Mystique (whose painted on costume reveals her "perfect" body). It seems like beauty is associated with evil almost as often as ugliness is. And there are female characters who have been cursed with ugliness, from as far back as the Grimm brothers to Princess Fiona in Shrek. But... the curse is always removed. The beauty is revealed beneath the beastly exterior. They inevitably are revealed to be as beautiful physically as they are inside.
But no one female and good (in the good vs. evil world of superheroes and fairy tales) ever stays a beast, or completely masked. The fact that a male character can be both beastly and good, but there aren't any similar female characters who are both ugly/beastly and good... there is something about this that bugs me. I mean, I'm willing to learn, here. If I'm wrong, if you know of such female characters, please let me know. Obviously, we've had very attractive superheroine type female characters who access their dark sides (Buffy, especially in the last 2 seasons). But it's either that, or good women who labor under a "curse" of ugliness that is lifted in the end, revealing their true beauty. It's quite puzzling. A few days after my third viewing of V for Vendetta, I was pondering how we never have female characters like V or the hunchback or the phantom... and wondering why. Initially, I thought, why am I even thinking this?
And then later I thought, Why did it take me so long to think of this? Why did it take so long to notice?
While school has toned down a bit -- 'til next weeks' exam -- my friend, who just lost his mother November 29, told me his 56 year old aunt had an aneurysm. She lingered in the ICU for days until they shut off all the machines on Thursday night. Over those days he was a basket case. His aunt was like a second mother (and more capable than his druggie mom) and she has always gone to every holiday or birthday celebration he has had for his entire life. It brought up all sorts of things for me having to do with losing my dad and my cat and my mother's STILL unknown status (cancer or no? Inconclusive! Another biopsy scheduled!). It's just been awful.
And so I went to the movies. Actually, I went AGAIN. I had already seen V for Vendetta last weekend with a friend. But I went again, by myself, on Thursday, a late afternoon matinee that started at 4:30 but still had the matinee price.
And after I found out that my friend's aunt had died Friday morning, just hours after all the machines were turned off, I spent the night at his house Friday night 'til about noon Saturday so he wouldn't be alone.
Then I ran away again Saturday afternoon.
Ran back to V for Vendetta.
And I don't want to think about the memorial service Monday and the funeral Tuesday and I don't want to think about my father and my mother and my cat.
So I prefer to think about V for Vendetta -- and my apparent addiction to movies.
I can't explain it. It happened with Brokeback Mountain, too. I saw it, fell in love with it, and then had to see it about 8 times.
With V for Vendetta, I don't even know where to begin.
I can say a few reasons why I think V for Vendetta has been getting trashed.
First of all, it's quite controversial.
Second of all, it's TOTALLY British. Veddy veddy British. Which SOME OF US happen to like...
Third of all, it's longer than the usual 90 minute spoon feeding. It's not that much longer -- no more so than, say, Heat (Michel Mann's excellent Pacino/DeNiro cop/criminal flick of '94) or any Scorcese film.
Lastly, the thing that probably Americans dislike most of all is the portrayal of the post-apocalyptic USA -- the Ulcered Sphincter of Ass-erica, as the fictional "Voice Of London" calls it in the opening minutes of the film.
I think V for Vendetta is a great film. I think that it will wind up a cult classic in the near future, and a CLASSIC in decades to come.
And I think I'll go see it again this afternoon or tonight. Because I am addicted; because I can't get that feeling any other way than sitting, again, in a dark theater, watching V for Vendetta. I'm like a junkie with some films, I guess. It seems they give me a feeling but the feeling only lasts as long as the movie, so I have to see it again and again...
And it's not like it was when I was a kid, when I went to the first showing of Raiders Of The Lost Ark and then stayed for all the rest of them, seeing it 3 or 4 times in one day.
Now they kick you out of the theaters after each show, when they're supposedly cleaning them.
And movies are a lot more expensive now. When I was doing it with Star Wars and Empire Strikes back and Raiders, it cost $1.75 for a matinee at a big theater chain. Now it's usually no less than $5.50 for a matinee, and I can't even stay for multiple shows like I did when I was young.
V for Vendetta resonates with me in much the same way Batman Begins did. There's darkness, there's heroic struggle against overwhelming evil, there's a plucky girl in distress, and there's a hero whose actions make him -- and others -- wonder if he now treads the same territory as his enemies. (In V for Vendetta, this is much darker even than Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne; V does much worse things, literally and figuratively, than Bruce/Batman). There's condemnation and redemption, and a love theme. And there is hope. Visually, it's sumptuous. The action punctuates the plot very well, and when it kicks in, especially in the climactic fights and explosions towards the end of the film, it's got all the explosions and fire and the elegantly orgiastic slomo blood spilling you could want in an action film -- all done in a very debonair, disciplined way.
Ideologically, of course, V for Vendetta is far more incendiary than Batman Begins. But that's what I like about it. And, like any good junkie, I'm prepared to cough up more money for another fix. Maybe another matinee late this afternoon...
My only question, after having seen V for Vendetta three times now... is...
When do women get a V, a phantomess of the Opera, a female hunchback of Notre Dame? Why aren't there any female superheroes or protagonists who are masked, have double identities, hide visages that are scarred or deformed, or are otherwise dual-identitied, with personalities that portray both the best and worst qualities of humanity? Is it just because no one, the world over, can bear to visually portray an ugly woman as a heroine (in comic books, graphic novels, movies)? Why no female version of Angel/Angelus? Why no woman who is, at least some of the time, a monster, ugly (or in the Buffyverse, lumpy-and-bumpy-faced with big fangs), but who is also champion of the underdog and labors to save people from evil or from themselves?
Is it just a western world thing? I think that within other religions (the Hindu pantheon comes to mind) there must be females who are strong, super-powered, and are both very beautiful and yet also very ugly visually and behaviorally.
I can't think a single ugly or masked superheroine who does good. There's no shortage of ugly (as well as beautiful) evil female characters -- from the witch who gets Hansel and Gretel, to the brides of Dracula, to Mystique (whose painted on costume reveals her "perfect" body). It seems like beauty is associated with evil almost as often as ugliness is. And there are female characters who have been cursed with ugliness, from as far back as the Grimm brothers to Princess Fiona in Shrek. But... the curse is always removed. The beauty is revealed beneath the beastly exterior. They inevitably are revealed to be as beautiful physically as they are inside.
But no one female and good (in the good vs. evil world of superheroes and fairy tales) ever stays a beast, or completely masked. The fact that a male character can be both beastly and good, but there aren't any similar female characters who are both ugly/beastly and good... there is something about this that bugs me. I mean, I'm willing to learn, here. If I'm wrong, if you know of such female characters, please let me know. Obviously, we've had very attractive superheroine type female characters who access their dark sides (Buffy, especially in the last 2 seasons). But it's either that, or good women who labor under a "curse" of ugliness that is lifted in the end, revealing their true beauty. It's quite puzzling. A few days after my third viewing of V for Vendetta, I was pondering how we never have female characters like V or the hunchback or the phantom... and wondering why. Initially, I thought, why am I even thinking this?
And then later I thought, Why did it take me so long to think of this? Why did it take so long to notice?