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This will be a quick one -

I just got out of V for Vendetta, and earlier today I saw A Scanner Darkly.

Both films:

- involve a future where our government watches us constantly, where electronic surveillance is ubiquitous
- have a protagonist that wears a mask
- have a protagonist that suffers severe damage from an attempt by others to achieve a greater good
- involve a world where dissenting citizens are dissapeared
- involve betrayal on a massive scale by those with power against those without

As movies, I enjoyed them both. I felt depressed and glum about our future after Scanner Darkly, and at least V for Vendetta had an upbeat ending.

But both are blunt messages criticizing our current administration and it's practices.

During V for Vendetta, the audience actually burst out applauding, en masse, when V says "People shouldn't be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." As I sat there and heard the first person start applauding, I had a moment of pause, where I wanted to applaud it but was afraid to - would people think I was seditious or something? Would anyone think less of me or think me weird or a freak for doing so? It was that exact moment of fear that the movie was talking about - we shouldn't be afraid to let our voices be heard. It's that inch that matters (reference to the film). YES, it is a big loud Hollywood film with 'splosions and ridiculous amounts of fake blood, but it's got a point that resonated with me. Probably 75% of the audience sat quietly in their seats as the credits rolled through to the end, far more than at most screenings (especially so since the film started so late).

As an added touch of irony, it was at THIS film, and this film alone at the festival, that security was the tightest. No cameras (not even camera phones) allowed in the theater, and we got the full metal detector wand search on each and every person who came into the theater. What an unintentional bit of irony that our personal space was invaded and compromised so that the distributor (the one with power and money) could feel safe while watching a film discussing the risk of surrendering power for safety. As a result, the film was almost an hour late to start as they had 4 security guys to wand all 1200 or so people getting into the theater.

I hope both films are successful and that people take their messages to heart.

More later, just wanted to write that down while I was thinking about it.

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - Ben Franklin.

-mike

PS - also saw Before The Music Dies, and that was great. More later.