And now for something completely different…..with spoilers. I bought V for Vendetta at the DVD store in the mall yesterday. Besides the fact that I would spend money to watch Natalie Portman wash dishes, I've wanted to see this movie since I read all the horrible moonbat reviews. No one seemed to actually review the movie, just the political overtones it exposed. Generally I figure the explosions in a movie are their own reward…I don't need to be spoon fed political cant at the same time. I liked it a lot. I rarely watch a DVD twice in a row, but we did with this one. As for the politics of it, only in a moonbat's most fevered imagination could you equate this movie with the political climate in the US today. The movie is loosely based on a comic book written in the mid-eighties, but seems to take place about 2035 with flashbacks to 20 years before. The author of the comic didn't much like the political overtones in the movie either…. After reading the script, Moore remarked that his comic had been "turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to set a political satire in their own country.... [This film] is a thwarted and frustrated and largely impotent American liberal fantasy of someone with American liberal values standing up against a state run by neoconservatives - which is not what [the comic] 'V for Vendetta' was about. It was about fascism, it was about anarchy, it was about [England]." The moonbat complaint is that the endless War on Terror is kept alive by a fear of the other that is the next thing to make-believe. In this movie, big media is controlled by the government and is their willing tool in a draconian control of the population. The movie's government is not above creating incidents to dramatize the dangers in the world…pretty horrific incidents as it happens. The population is watched constantly by a secret police called 'fingermen' (?), and even sarcasm can get you a death sentence; as well as being gay or not an Anglican. We don't need to go into the human experiments, virus testing on school children, and all the other standard Hollywood trappings of a fascist government. In the real world, there really are people who want to kill us, and the government doesn't need to create incidents…they seem to occur anytime two 19 year old guys named Mohammad get together. This is simply a revenge movie. The main character "V" has been damaged by government hormone experiments to the point that he no longer remembers who he was. He has spent twenty years preparing for a vengeance that is both personal and a political statement. Personal because he has been able to track down and kill those responsible for his torment, and political because he plans to bring down the government that allowed these people to flourish. The name "V" has several layers of meaning as you find out in the movie. The character is also violently insane…although his violence is extremely focused. You wouldn't worry about meeting him in a dark alley, as Evey does, unless you were a "fingerman". __________ There were some interesting and even comic theatrical bits…. The population knows they are being lied to. They joke about how this or that is an obvious government lie because of the well know facial tics of the presenter. "Bollocks" is a term used many times in the movie by various characters reacting to some new government statement. In one scene, sympathetic cops watch a crowd confront a massed Army unit under the control of the government…..resulting in my favorite exchange in the movie. Junior Cop: "What is going to happen? Senior Cop: "What usually happens when people without guns stand up to people *with* guns. " The United States is only mentioned as being in a 'civil war'. Obviously we resisted our new presumptive masters better than the English. One can only surmise from the liberal bent of the producers that the evil neo-cons are being resisted by heroic liberals. Of course in reality liberals have no guns or guts. I like to think that Barbara Boxer made good her threat to force "Mr. and Mrs American, turn them in." and got a different reaction than she expected. Note that there is no mention of America in the comic...that is purely a fiction created by the movie's producers. Is V blind? One character's statement seems to infer that he has no eyes. He doesn't act like it, and another statement seems to say that the hormonal experiments that killed thousands had a different effect on his body. He seems strong, but not super-human and in one scene, V masquerades as a blind beggar. His mask appears to have no eyeholes in it. While he kills all those who personally experimented on his body….not all are violent deaths. One character who has repented gets killed gently, almost reverently. Roses play promenantly in the movie, and more so in the comic. Specifically the Scarlet Carson Rose. Certain members of the government, mainly civil police types, are having second thoughts about what is going on. In the comic, one of these characters joins V's crusade, and another helps Evey out of a tight spot. V sends out 750,000 V costumes to the population of London. Makes for an interesting crowd scene. ___________ Portman as Evey Hammond is wonderful. She grows from a scared mouse of a girl rescued by V into a willing participant in V's vendetta. In truth, she is the key to success. The road is rocky for her, but at the end of the movie she has a Zen-like calmness that she earned thru pain. Hugo Weaving is never seen. But having watched him in Matrix, I could visualize him every time he had a spoken line. Many reviews have called his dialog boring, he communicated sometimes in rhyme, but I knew nearly every one of the lines of poetry and story that he spoke. He was able to convey emotion by the cant of his body or the dip of the Guy Fawkes mask he wore…a fascinating process to watch. The movie was a perfect blend of action and message. The action was great, and the message seems to be interpreted in different ways by different sides of the spectrum. Yeah, I'm glad I bought it. I think I'll watch it again right now. As for the familiar.... Range day tomorrow. The SKS, Ruger 10/22, Walther P22, AR, and Marlin 1894. The Ruger and Walther are for the lovely young friend my son is bringing down. The AR needs function check since I cleaned out the gas tube...and got the new green tip ammo. The SKS is to familiarize the good doctor with combloc 7x39 weapons (sorry purists: no AK) before she scoots off on her next 'doctor's without borders' type gig...she's already handled the Makarov last time out. The Marlin is a specific request from Jess...and I dug into my loose-rounds can and came up with about 3 boxes of 10 types of mixed .38 and .357. Should be a good test. Update: The AR worked flawlessly with the Lake City Ammo. Jesse could consistantly get one hole groups with 3 or 4 shots, and then get a flyer. I expect it's the ammo as I read that it is 3rd tier stuff and each round needs to be inspected. I had two failures to fire with a dented primer cap out of 100 rounds. I also tried the 5.56 chinese stuff my other son gave me, but threw away the box after 3 failures to fire in 4 rounds. Other than that, it the AR worked Sweet. The Marlin handled mixed ammo really well. I would load mixed .357, .38s, 38+P with different bullet types and it all worked fine. The small 6X scope I put on it makes it really fun to shoot. Jesse was tearing up the little .22 reactive targets I had brought...and I mean tearing them up. Our young guest had a great time and fired all the weapons. She almost thought the 1022 was silenced compared to the blasty goodness of the other weapons. Great time this morning...and the movie is still good.