V for Vendetta

Natalie Portman Director: James McTeigue James McTeigue

Overview

Based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore, V for Vendetta takes place in an alternate vision of Britain in which a corrupt and abusive totalitarian government has risen to complete power. During a threatening run in with the secret police, an unassuming young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman) is rescued by a vigilante named V (Hugo Weaving) -- a caped figure both articulate and skilled in combat. V embodies the principles of rebellion from an authoritarian state, donning a mask of vilified would-be terrorist of British history Guy Fawkes and leading a revolution sparked by assassination and destruction. Evey becomes his unlikely ally, newly aware of the cruelty of her own society and her role in it.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/20/2008
UPC:	0085391117018
Original Release:	2006
Rating:	R
Source:	Warner Home Video
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound]
Time:	2:12:00
Sales rank:	13,705

Special Features

Director's notebook: Reimagining a cult classic for the 21st century; Designing the near future; Remember, remember: Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder plot; England prevails: V for Vendetta and the new wave in comics; Freedom! Forever!: making V for Vendetta; Saturday Night Live digital short; Cat power montage; Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Natalie Portman	Evey
Hugo Weaving	V,William Rookwood
Stephen Rea	Finch
Stephen Fry	Deitrich
John Hurt	Adam Sutler
Tim Pigott-Smith	Creedy
Rupert Graves	Dominic
Roger Allam	Lewis Prothero
Ben Miles	Dascomb
Sinéad Cusack	Delia Surridge
Natasha Wightman	Valerie
Eddie Marsan	Etheridge
Billie Cook	Little Glasses Girl
John Standing	Lilliman
Clive Ashborn	Guy Fawkes
Emma Field Rayner	Guy Fawkes Lover
Ian Burfield	Tweed Coat Fingerman
Mark Phoenix	Willy Fingerman
Alister Mazzotti	Baldy Fingerman
Guy Henry	Heyer
Cosima Shaw	Patricia
Megan Gay	BTN News Poppet
Roderick Culver	BTN News Poppet
Tara Hacking	Vicky
Andy Rashleigh	Fred
Chad Stahelski	Storm Saxon
Antje Rau	Laser Lass
Amelda Brown	Wardrobe Mistress
Richard Campbell	Security Guard
Patricia Gannon	Little Glasses Girl Mum
Mark Longhurst	Little Glasses Girl Dad
Simon Holmes	Barman
Charles Cork	Barfly
John Ringham	Old Man
Oliver Bradshaw	Old Man
Jack Schouten	Middle Class Boy
Caoimhe Murdock	Middle Class Sister
Juliet Howland	Middle Class Mum
Brin Rosser	TV Executive
Raife Patrick Burchell	Studio Technician
Joseph Rye	Jones
Adrian Finighan	News Anchor
Malcolm Sinclair	Major Wilson
Bradley Steve Ford	Evey's Brother
Madeleine Rakic-Platt	Young Evey
Selina Giles	Evey's Mother
Carsten Hayes	Evey's Father
Derek Hutchinson	Bureaucrat
Martin Savage	Denis
Grant Burgin	Operator
Gregory Donaldson	Operator
Imogen Poots	Young Valerie
Jason Griffiths	Biology Teacher
Laura Greenwood	Sarah
Kyra Meyer	Christina
Paul Antony-Barber	Valerie's Father
Anna Farnworth	Valerie's Mother
Mary Stockley	Ruth
Simon Newby	Tube Station News Poppet
David Merheb	Young Man
Daniel Donaldson	Young Black Detainee
Dulcie Smart	Civil War News Poppet
Ben Posener	Water Shortage News Poppet
Ian T. Dickinson	Avian Flu News Poppet
Sophia New	Quarantine News Poppet
Julie Brown	Three Waters News Poppet
Gerard Gilroy	Surveillance Man
Eamon Geoghegan	Surveillance Man
Matthew Bates	Finch's Fedco Man
David Leitch	Convenience Store V
Matt Wilkinson	Little Glasses Girl Fingerman
Martin McGlade	Victoria Station Fingerman
Richard Laing	Parliament Lieutenant
Michael Simkins	Parliament General
William Tapley	Radio Man
Micaela Haslam	Singer
Benjamin Wallfisch	Conductor

Technical Credits

Andy Wachowski

Larry Wachowski

James McTeigue	Director
Jessica Alan	Associate Producer
Adrian Biddle	Cinematographer
Jan Böhme	Stunts
Daniel Bohn	Stunts
Annette Borgmann	Casting
Michael Bornhütter	Stunts
Dietke Brandt	Costumes/Costume Designer
Steve Bream	Art Director
Stuart Clark	Stunts
Talila Craig	Stunts
David Cronnelly	Stunts
Nicolas De Pruyssenaere	Stunts
Yvonne Dietzel	Stunts
Oliver Fritsche	Stunts
Michael Gast	Stunts
Eduart Geber	Stunts
Sascha Girndt	Stunts
Thorsten Gliewe	Stunts
Siegfried Gordes	Stunts
Martin Göres	Stunts
Uwe Gösche	Stunts
Wanja Götz	Stunts
Matthias Gunther	Stunts
Alexander Hardt	Stunts
Udo Harnach	Stunts
Cyrille Hertel	Stunts
Grant Hill	Producer
Timo Honsa	Stunts
Sarah Horton	Art Director
Eunice Huthart	Stunts
Rob Inch	Stunts
Tomas Jester	Stunts
Heiko Kiesow	Stunts
Alex Kirby	Asst. Director
Adam Kirley	Stunts
Sebastian Krawinkel	Art Director
Mathis Landwehr	Stunts
Stefan Langel	Stunts
David Lietch	Stunts
Wolfgang Lindner	Stunts
Isabell Logen	Costumes/Costume Designer
Marcus Loges	Production Manager
Mike Luft	Stunts
Udo Lüttich	Stunts
Roberto Malerba	Co-producer
Dario Marianelli	Score Composer
Henning Molfenter	Co-producer
Alexandra Nazahn	Stunts
Terry Needham	Asst. Director
Uli Nefzer	Special Effects Supervisor
James O'Dee	Stunts
Jason Oettle	Stunts
Markus Papiernek	Stunts
Thorsten Papst	Stunts
Owen Paterson	Production Designer
Christian Peterson	Stunts
Swen Raschka	Stunts
Reelsound	Sound/Sound Designer
Katja Richter	Stunts
Thierry Saelens	Stunts
Armin Sauer	Stunts
Tom Sayers	Sound/Sound Designer
Katrin Schaake	Stunts
Petra Schaumann	Makeup
Matthias Schendel	Stunts
Babette Schimanek	Stunts
Bernhard Schirmer	Stunts
Karsten Schmidt	Stunts
Rene Schobess	Stunts
Andreas Schulz	Stunts
Sammy Sheldon	Costumes/Costume Designer
Joel Silver	Producer
Andy Smart	Stunts
Mark Southworth	Stunts
Wolfgang Stegemann	Stunts
Matthew Stirling	Stunts
Lucinda Syson	Casting
Rocky Taylor	Stunts
Steven Thiede	Stunts
Andreas Tietz	Stunts
Ralph Tillman	Stunts
Vladimir Vilanow	Stunts
Andy Wachowski	Producer,Screenwriter
Larry Wachowski	Producer,Screenwriter
Benjamin Waisbren	Executive Producer
Martin Walsh	Editor
Rainer Werner	Stunts
Joerg Widmer	Camera Operator
Oliver Wiesner	Stunts
Carl L. Woebcken	Co-producer,Executive Producer
David Worley	Camera Operator

Editorial Reviews

Despite some heavy-handed allegory, this melding of action film and political thriller succeeds marvelously as rousing entertainment. It begins in an England of the near future, where a dictatorial Grand Chancellor (John Hurt) wields supreme power and enforces his self-made laws with the aid of secret police. He is opposed by a mysterious avenger calling himself "V" (Hugo Weaving). Wrapped in a cloak and wearing a mask of Guy Fawkes -- an Englishman who plotted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in the early 1600s -- V uses terrorist tactics against the Chancellor, who assigns a dogged police inspector (Stephen Rea) to run the miscreant to ground. Enter Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman), a young woman mistakenly identified as V's accomplice after he rescues her from some government thugs. Much more intricate and character-driven than the average popcorn movie, V for Vendetta boasts a superior script by brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski (of The Matrix fame), based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore. James McTeigue's direction is unusually well modulated; he eschews the overuse of fancy camera moves and showy special effects in favor of shrewd story development. He also shows restraint in the handling of his principal characters. Daring, flamboyant, and stylish, V for Vendetta is the very model of a suspenseful action movie that takes itself seriously without surrendering the obvious entertainment value that makes it so irresistible.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

V for Vendetta could have easily been a cliché dystopian fantasy set against a stock totalitarian backdrop. It could have also been a heavy-handed warning about the power of fear in the post-9/11 world or, still worse, a wordy treatise on the philosophy of government. In actuality, V for Vendetta manages an almost impossible compromise between these options. Those banking on the Wachowski brothers' trademark balletic action sequences and epic explosions will not be disappointed, while those worried about the brothers' tendency to get lost in their own exposition (a la the Matrix sequels) can have no fear. This movie is fun, enthralling, and thought provoking. Hugo Weaving's meticulous voice acting and deft gesticulations rival the movements of trained dancers as he brings V to life, while Natalie Portman provides a full range of emotion and believable development as we watch her transform from frightened speck within the masses to fully liberated citizen of her own mind. The two find a strong dynamic on which to build their both tangible and symbolic onscreen relationship, and this is the same dynamic that provides the story itself with such a strong backbone. V himself acknowledges that he is a man acting as a symbol, summarized best with V's own exclamation, "Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. There is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof." As a result, the symbolic quality of the story itself is not at all difficult for the audience to understand. By the end of the film, legions of masked and caped citizens descending on the houses of Parliament in improbably perfect formation come off not as unrealistic, but as a beautifully stylized illustration. V for Vendetta succeeds where the Matrix sequels failed because despite its disinclination to answer all of the questions it poses, it holds tight to a focused, cohesive theme. This can be attributed to first-time director James McTeigue's ability to place a coherent story at the heart of his philosophizing. There is no simple answer to what role vengeance should play in a revolution, but V for Vendetta leaves to the audience not only the question but the option of whether or not they want to answer it.

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