V FOR VENDETTA (WIDESCREEN TWO-DISC SPECIAL EDITION) (2006)

V for Vendetta (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) (2006)

Actors: Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, John Hurt
Directors: James McTeigue

Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Number of discs: 2
Run Time: 133 minutes

DVD Features:

Available Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
"Freedom! Forever!: Making V for Vendetta" – The cast and crew of V for Vendetta reveal the intense filmmaking process
Theatrical Trailer
The Two-Disc Special Edition features these exclusive supplements:
"Designing the Near Future" - A look at the artistic process of creating the frightening future world of V
"Remember, Remember: Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot" - The history behind the story of Guy Fawkes
"England Prevails: V for Vendetta and the New Wave in Comics" - The origins of the original V story is illuminated
Cat Power Montage – Cat Power song played under images of the film
Easter egg: Saturday Night Live digital short

Movie: * * * ½
Disc: * * *

This thinly veiled political parable about a masked vigilante bringing a future British fascist government to a violent fall is more of a cautionary tale about where the eradication of civil liberties in a post-9/11 milieu will bring us than it is your standard action movie.

It may have a masked knife-wielding superhero, but those in search of a pure brainless Jean Claude van Damme type movie would probably be disappointed as it requires them to think about issues such as fascism, when can one employ violence against one’s government, can terrorist tactics be justified and so forth. The film’s hero is also morally ambiguous — not only because he partakes in the wanton destruction of property, but because he is more motivated by personal vengeance at times than political idealism. Also, a deception he pulls on the story’s heroine (Natalie Portman) is quite cruel when one thinks about it.

THE DISCS: How the makers of the Matrix managed to get a huge corporation to sign the cheque for a blockbuster movie about an anarchist terrorist is definitely a story that needs to be told. Unfortunately it isn’t told on this DVD set as the film’s major participants aren’t included amongst the host of talking heads interviewed. We’re of course referring to the ultra-secretive Wachowski brothers and author Alan Moore upon whose graphic novel the film is based. Ever since the Matrix movies, the Wachowski brothers have shunned the public eye (maybe they’re in hiding from people who paid good money to see Matrix Revolutions) and Alan Moore doesn't want anything to do with film adaptations of his books — even when they're good (like this one) — ever since they screwed up his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

The various features included on the two discs are interesting and worth checking out, but one somehow feel that somehow more stuff could have been crammed onto the second disc.

WORTH IT? Yes. Much more than your usual masked action hero movie, V for Vendetta will probably become required viewing whenever dissatisfaction is expressed with the ways of government — which means it’ll live forever.

RECOMMENDATION: Do your bit for the anti-capitalist revolution today and buy it.