Do your remember the 5th of November?

It’s Guy Fawkes Day in England.

For those of us who have no clue what it is about, it was the day Guy Fawkes planned to blow up England’s parliament.


Now, the guys who brought us the Matrix trilogy have a new movie out called “V for Vendetta” that revolves around keeping this day close at hand. Last night I caught the film with minimal expectations. It seems most of the movies these days are just bad. Hollywood executives wondering about slumping ticket sales. Maybe if they put out a decent film they’d still get a few patrons.

“V” was actually good. It was well written, well acted and had a point. You can not say that about too many movies these days. What really got me hooked was the title character V. The actor Hugo Weaving performed the entire film with a ceramic mask. Yet he still came off as a believable “every man.” That says a lot about his performance skills, because without facial expressions, he still managed to create a believable and sometimes moving character.

If you haven’t heard buzz about this already, the film has a simple point, yet one we often get comfortable and forget. The film focuses on the near future and a British government that has used fear to manipulate absolute power from its people. Anyone who questions the government gets a bag throw over the head and disappears mysteriously. Sadly, that doesn’t seem too far fetched these days. So V reminds us that the government should fear its people and not the other way around. Seeing that message on the big screen during these times is invaluable.