I am currently re-watching this movie, and yes I know it's "old news", but I find it brilliant!

I'll start off the general discussion concerning it and the ideas that are portrayed through it with a quote that is very beautiful and rings true to me. It is drawn from the "toilet paper note" from 'Valerie' and I think it captures a lot of very important emotion and meaning, like most of the movie.

I passed my 11th lesson into girl's grammar; it was at school that I met my first girlfriend, her name was Sara. It was her wrists. They were beautiful. I thought we would love each other forever. I remember our teacher telling us that is was an adolescent phase people outgrew. Sara did, I didn't. In 2002 I fell in love with a girl named Christina. That year I came out to my parents. I couldn't have done it without Chris holding my hand. My father wouldn't look at me, he told me to go and never come back. My mother said nothing. But I had only told them the truth, was that so selfish? Our integrity sells for so little, but it is all we really have. It is the very last inch of us, but within that inch, we are free...it wasn't long till they came for me. It seems strange that my life should end in such a terrible place, but for three years, I had roses, and apologized to no one. I shall die here. Every inch of me shall perish. Every inch, but one. An Inch, it is small and it is fragile, but it is the only thing the world worth having. We must never lose it or give it away. We must never let them take it from us. I hope that whoever you are, you escape this place. I hope that the world turns and that things get better. But what I hope most of all is that you understand what I mean when I tell you that even though I do not know you, and even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you. I love you. With all my heart, I love you.

Anyone else love this quote?

Not bad...

Yes, I love that part - "I apologized to no one."

I watched it in the theatre 3 times. I guess you can say, that I enjoyed that film quite a bit.

Yeah, it was one of the better parts of the movie, brilliant writting, and spot on, but what confused me, is that...

When she was reading that she wasn't really in a jail, she was being held by V. So does that mean V wrote it? Does that mean that in the movie it was fiction? Or did V move into a former jail?

num1cubfn wrote:Yeah, it was one of the better parts of the movie, brilliant writting, and spot on, but what confused me, is that...

When she was reading that she wasn't really in a jail, she was being held by V. So does that mean V wrote it? Does that mean that in the movie it was fiction? Or did V move into a former jail?

The explanation is given later in the movie:

V was a prisoner in a similar prison and he received the same message via the same means from his cell neighbour. So the story written on the toilet paper is actually true, but it had originally been delivered to V

Great movie and quote. But the movie came out after 9/11, if I recall, so the american public was conflicted over identifying with "terrorists." And the movie did not do well, as well as it might have.

Sorry to everyone who thought it was great, but I'm trying to be nice to you here, it's one of the best comics ever written, the movie is a pale and flacid comparison, they ruined the letter, and they ruined the relationship between Evey and V.
Actually they fucking shit all over Evey, the comic version of her is one of the best female protagonists I've ever read.
I actually quite enjoyed the movie, but when I start to compare it to the comic, it just makes me mad tbh.

Ps, it was written by Alan Moore who also wrote Watchmen, the same goes for Watchmen as V for Vendetta, and Alan Moore is by far the best comic author of all time.
If you've not read the comics of these and enjoyed the movies, go buy the comics you're in for a treat, and the endings are subtly but extremely different, well worth the fifteen or twenty quid price tags.

shh wrote:Sorry to everyone who thought it was great, but I'm trying to be nice to you here, it's one of the best comics ever written, the movie is a pale and flacid comparison, they ruined the letter, and they ruined the relationship between Evey and V.
Actually they fucking shit all over Evey, the comic version of her is one of the best female protagonists I've ever read.
I actually quite enjoyed the movie, but when I start to compare it to the comic, it just makes me mad tbh.

Oooh... I have never read the comic. But, without the comparison, I can only judge it on it's own, which I thought was pretty good.

I might look into the comics... but, I've never really gotten into comics that much.

Alan Moore is beyond what you're expecting from comics trust me. Think of everything that was good in the movies, then imagine it was several factors better. Even compared with most sci-fi/thriller type books they're well ahead of the curve.
If you liked the movie go buy the comic, I promise it's twenty quid you won't regret.

From Hell is another fabulous work of Alan Moore about Victorian London, Jack the Ripper, and one hell of a plot. It's thoroughly researched and Alan chronicles the theories in existence leading up to his novelization of it.

The great thing about most of Alan's work is it demands to be reread. Either entirely or just flipping back through. You'd be hard pressed to find any detail inserted that has no purpose or follow-up.

I know Alan himself was displeased with the movie but I thought it was a good adaptation. The book was huge though (they all are, and even if they're not long his work is dense). I rather they left in V's depth of control over things (I'm being vague on purpose). But I'm pretty sure that letter is word for word from the book.

Did you read the graphic novel? it's awesome. the movie alters from the novel, and it's devastating, the girls is a whore and in the end she becomes the V. we need another adaption.

mikey wrote:From Hell is another fabulous work of Alan Moore about Victorian London, Jack the Ripper, and one hell of a plot. It's thoroughly researched and Alan chronicles the theories in existence leading up to his novelization of it.

The great thing about most of Alan's work is it demands to be reread. Either entirely or just flipping back through. You'd be hard pressed to find any detail inserted that has no purpose or follow-up.

I know Alan himself was displeased with the movie but I thought it was a good adaptation. The book was huge though (they all are, and even if they're not long his work is dense). I rather they left in V's depth of control over things (I'm being vague on purpose). But I'm pretty sure that letter is word for word from the book.

Almost, it's cut down a bit, but I don't think they added anything.
The full letter is awesome, I'm hardly the cry-at-stories kind, but I did get a lump in my throat when reading that.
THe thing about the movies of Moore's work is that his only stipulation for those who want to make movies of his work is that they never contact him about it, he's a comic author and so he reckons that any adaptation is going to fuck it up a bit, no matter how hard they try, and I'd have to agree, that's what pissed me off about V and Watchmen, although it seems they did try to make them very close, there's nuances you're just not going to get in there. (Although Evey and V's relationship they shouldn't have changed imo, and in Watchmen, they ruined Rorschach for no reason imo by turning him into just a psycho, where in the book, he's not actually a psychopath, he's just uh, morally committed. )

Watchmen is probably his one work I can't imagine getting a film treatment. The one part of the story where Dr. Manhattan is on Mars giving his view on time and how he keeps referencing the past, present and future as almost one piece I can't see happening in film and having the same effect. The rest could be done (I think), but it couldn't be handled in a movie. Like I said before his work is too dense and at 12 issues difficult to condense even into a 3 hr movie.

I love the monologue:

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villian by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengence; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

The brilliance of the English language.

mikey wrote:Watchmen is probably his one work I can't imagine getting a film treatment. The one part of the story where Dr. Manhattan is on Mars giving his view on time and how he keeps referencing the past, present and future as almost one piece I can't see happening in film and having the same effect. The rest could be done (I think), but it couldn't be handled in a movie. Like I said before his work is too dense and at 12 issues difficult to condense even into a 3 hr movie.

Uhm, Watchmen came out last year?
It's not bad, but they turned Rorschach into a run of the mill psycho instead of the complex character he was, I don't want to put in spoilers, but the final conversation with Dr. Manhattan just doesn't happen at all.

shh wrote:

mikey wrote:Watchmen is probably his one work I can't imagine getting a film treatment. The one part of the story where Dr. Manhattan is on Mars giving his view on time and how he keeps referencing the past, present and future as almost one piece I can't see happening in film and having the same effect. The rest could be done (I think), but it couldn't be handled in a movie. Like I said before his work is too dense and at 12 issues difficult to condense even into a 3 hr movie.

Uhm, Watchmen came out last year?
It's not bad, but they turned Rorschach into a run of the mill psycho instead of the complex character he was, I don't want to put in spoilers, but the final conversation with Dr. Manhattan just doesn't happen at all.

I feel, like you do, that the movies are but a pale reflection of the graphic novels. However, given the limitations of the medium, I found both V for Vendetta and Watchmen were passable adaptations. From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen were shite, IIRC.

Has anyone read his recent (and first) novel, Voice of the Fire? It's set over a period of 6000 years in what is now Northamton and follows several characters in seqential chapters, with the language changing according to the era. I recommend it highly.

The final charater in the book is the author himself.

shh wrote:
Uhm, Watchmen came out last year?
It's not bad, but they turned Rorschach into a run of the mill psycho instead of the complex character he was, I don't want to put in spoilers, but the final conversation with Dr. Manhattan just doesn't happen at all.

Yea I know. My mistake. I meant to say a good film. I think that issue with Manhattan on Mars looking at his past and future while moving through the present is impossible to do with a movie and have the same impact it did as the comic book, where you can see the panels on the same page. The movie did ok. I thought Adrian had the worst treatment in the movie. I thought his costume in the film sucked. The actor never really had the certainty and arrogance I'd expect the character to have. They left out the Pirate story altogether. A lot of the secondary characters get cut out. For a comic book I love to read, the movie sits in my dvd collection. I've watched it maybe once or twice since I got it, and I got it out of boredom.

I liked V for Vendetta. For never seeing the main character's face Hugo Weaving did an excellent job at emoting beyond the mask. I thought the guy who was "the voice of God" didn't have the voice I imagined the character having. I honestly don't remember the book as well, I only read it weeks before the movie came out because I wanted to know the original story before I saw the movie.

I haven't seen From Hell. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a dud.

Agree with pretty much all of this, but they also removed Rorschach's second (real) origin, which was the most important part of the book for me.
As to the Mars bit, I agree completely, so does Moore, he does that kind of thing a lot, and it only works in comics, that's why he has nothing to do with the films. The LSD scene in V was the same thing really, just not as central maybe.

I was deeply disappointed with V for Vendetta, the central message of the original text was about self responsibility and overcoming the fear of death in order to be liberated. The Movie was a pile of bollocks about how good democracy is.

Pish.

Watchmen was much better except for it being rushed, the missing Ozymandias origin, which made the reveal somewhat less than climatic and the fucking awful awful awful music.