V for Vendetta, the speech

[ProfessorPlum]

Run time: 03:10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To0_jqz_YGk   Posted on YouTube: September 20, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: September 03, 2009 By DU Member: ProfessorPlum Views on DU: 1375

 
Thought we could use a little bit of this, today.

[Dawgs]

1. One of my favorite movies of all time.

:hi:

[Liberal4ev3r]

11. Mine too.

[Myrina]

2. that entire movie has been so applicable over the last 8+ years.

... its hard to pick out just one scene or speech thats better than another.


:thumbsup:

[bvar22]

4. ..so applicable over the last 35 years.

What is this "V" stuff?
Never heard of it.




The Democrats OWN the White House.
The Democrat OWN The Senate.
The Democrats OWN The House.
The Democrats OWN overwhelming popular support for REAL reform.

There are no more excuses.
If the "Centrist" Democrats produce Health Insurance Industry Profit Protection Legislation (HR 3200) instead of REAL reform, then hopefully we will see some REAL "V" stuff.

There are NO. MORE. EXCUSES.
The Democrats either produce REAL Reform,
or admit that Nader was right.


"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone

[abq e streeter]

3. Magnificent, powerful and inspirational movie

I didn't see it when it first came out; thought it was just some violent action flick of the type I have no interest in. A friend recommended it and I finally rented it one night, and now have seen it 3 times. If you're not familiar with this movie, it's a powerful statement about fascism, and resistance to it, that just gets more and more relevant all the time.

[Apollo11]

7. I found the movie kind of boring. The message is kind of dangerous.

But then I had already read the original comic book, which was written in England during the years of the Thatcher Government (1980s). I can see how the comic book was maybe relevant in the context of the Thatcher Government (which had total power but only minority support because non-Conservative voters were divided among different parties).

I was never a huge fan of the comic book and my political reservations about the movie are even stronger.

Here is part of an interesting review of the movie, written by David Walsh in 2006 and published on the World Socialist Web Site:

The notion that an assassination campaign and the demolition of landmark buildings will provoke a social upheaval is false and, ultimately, deeply antidemocratic. V is single-handedly carrying out ‘his’ revolution, as Evey calls it.

Ordinary people are portrayed as zombies, glued to their television sets, who need to be galvanized by bombings. The filmmakers stack the decks by having the population respond as V would like. But what if they did not? Would his next targets be crowded underground stations or shopping centers, as part of a further effort to arouse the slumbering masses?

The choice of Guy Fawkes, a former mercenary and Catholic conspirator, as revolutionary inspiration is hardly promising. It points to the essentially apolitical and asocial (and nationalist) character of V’s supposed uprising, in which personal revenge plays as large a part as any other element.

Taken at face value, the film neatly, if inadvertently, captures the bankruptcy of anarcho-terrorist ideology: the mass of the population is reduced to the role of a passive spectator while the heroic individual (and super-egoist) carries out exemplary, supposedly ‘electrifying’ operations. The sudden appearance on the scene of large numbers of people in the final sequence, the destruction of Parliament, in support of V’s actions is both unconvincing and problematic. Since the population has taken no part in the ‘revolution,’ has not advanced its own social awareness in any noticeable manner, how is a new, liberated society supposed to emerge from all this?

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/vend-m27.shtml

Like I said in my post below, the closest thing we have to V right now is Glenn BecKKK and his 9/12 "movement". But seeing as how they want to overthrow a democratically elected government that has majority public support, the parallel quickly collapses.

[abq e streeter]

8. To each his or her own. I didn't take the message literally; but more as a general

call to bravely stand up to fascism. If you found it boring, and I didn't, so be it.

[Apollo11]

5. This reminds me of the Glenn BecKKK show on FOX News

Calling on people to take to the streets and overthrow the government.

Maybe it does make sense in the context of a fascist regime (in this case - a fictional one).

But I cannot see how this is relevant to life under the Obama Administration (which was elected by a majority of voters).

November 5th refers to the foiling of a plot to blow-up the Houses of Parliament in London in 1605.

This day is celebrated in Great Britain because the authorities were successful in preventing the attempt to kill King James, and all the members of his parliament.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot

It would not surprise me if some redneck FOX viewers decided that Guy Fawkes was a hero for attempting to detonate explosives underneath the government of the day.

[ProfessorPlum]

6. well, if the current administration succeeds in doing any of the things

that the people want - getting out of Iraq (no), getting out of Afghanistan (no), closing Gitmo (no), providing healthcare (no), re-regulating the banks (no), ending unauthorized surveillance (maybe?), etc. - then we can assume that we are no longer under the control of fascists.

Until that day . . .

[Liberal4ev3r]

12. That is a lot to ask, actually.

[ProfessorPlum]

14. I wrote "any", not all

[Divine Discontent]

9. amen!

We SUPPOSEDLY run everything and yet --- somehow - they won't pass health care reform that is real and substantive???

[Liberal4ev3r]

10. Love this speech and whoever think this doesn't apply to us

just check the surveillance society that has been imposed on the people of UK. They are even talking about putting CCTV's inside people homes.

[Divine Discontent]

13. shut UP! cereal? in homes? let me guess, starting with the convicts then onto every1 from there.

a revolution would have to occur if they ever tried to do that - or the world is doomed.... well, in some ways we are doomed to have to have rebirth (imho) through Jesus' return. But to think that the UK is marching right along with all their cameras every where you turn is very disturbing.

thanks for any additional info you can provide that you base that "inside people's homes" comment from.

[Apollo11]

15. Extreme-right terrorist types are inspired by V for Vendetta

This video was uploaded on YouTube by the same bunch of idiots who brought an AR-15 rifle to a protest outside a Presidential event in Phoenix, Arizona last month. You can see them wearing "V for Vendetta" masks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI3GNYYm-3Q