V for Vendetta

This is a powerful film. Sadly, too few people will see it. And of the ones who do, not enough of them will see the deeper message contained within it. That message manages to surface once or twice in between the glitz and the action, mostly embodied in the dialogue of the main character V. His line that “people shouldn’t fear their governments; governments should fear the people,” while paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson (“When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”), is arguably the central message of the movie.

I think most people upon hearing this message would probably agree with it, as long as they don’t spend too much time thinking about it, but when they realize the full implications they would view it as being too impolite. Too revolutionary.

But as V also says, near the end of the movie, ideas are bulletproof. Our country was founded on the idea that we are endowed with certain unalienable rights, that the rights of the individual are supreme. That idea is certainly bulletproof. It sparked the last revolution, and it will no doubt spark the next.

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