The Vendetta Behind 'V for Vendetta' (writer of comic weighs in on the movie)

The NY Times ^ | March 12, 2006 | David Itzkoff

[Chiapet]

I really can't see Watchmen being turned into a movie and retaining any of the book's genius. It'll get dumbed down like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the movie) really was terrible.

[Potowmack]

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the movie) really was terrible.

It was truly painful. There was some eye candy in terms of the sets and costumes, though.

I really got off the ride when they sailed the Nautilus through the canals of Venice. Who knew you could sail something bigger than an Ohio-Class submarine right up to St. Mark's square?

[kenth]

Did it? I hadn't heard. Thanks for letting me know. Potowmack is probably right anyway. No amount of budget nor time constraints will allow justice to be done.

[Heatseeker]

"It is important to me that I should be able to do whatever I want," he said. "I was kind of a selfish child, who always wanted things his way, and I've kind of taken that over into my relationship with the world."

Spoken like a true baby-boomer.

[ctdonath2]

"V for Vendetta" and "Watchmen" are not comic books as you know them. They are literature with pervasive illustrations.

(Yeah, go ahead & laugh. Then go borrow a copy and read.)

[finnman69]

Which isn't true to the graphic novel. The original was set wholly in the UK, with no American characters and only a passing reference or two to the US.

Which is exactly how this one was.

There was more than a passing reference to America. In fact I thought the movie blamed the Iraq War and subsequent biological terrorism as one of the main factors that led to the rise of the Norsefire party/British fascist state depicted in the movie. There was a strong bashing of America and the Boston Tea Party (the obvious suggestion, terrorism was ok in 1773, then ok on 9/11/01, and ok in 2020). America was debicted as feeble and footage was shown depicting "civil war in the midwest".

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Which isn't true to the graphic novel. The original was set wholly in the UK, with no American characters and only a passing reference or two to the US.

One of the parts that stuck with me from the graphic novel was when atomic war broke out, and President Kennedy was crying on TV - Teddy?!?

[Borges]

In a 2 hour plus film there were slight references to America having fallen apart and becoming a Leper Colony. All the other war related issues had to do with the UK. If you think the U.K. was used as a stand in for America that's a different issue.

[discostu]

But remember the subsequent biological terrorism was done by the British government. One of the interesting things of the movie, as far as political interpretation is concerned, is that all the serious America bashing comes from the fascist British government and their controlled media. I'm sure the movie makers didn't mean for their America bashing to all be easily dismissable as lies of a fascist British government but they are.

[finnman69]

I caught in some of the flashbacks that there were bio terror outbreaks around the world and in Britain, not just the staged St Mary's massacre and the other two locations.

It was very clear that 'America's war came to Britain.'

[JamesP81]

Which isn't true to the graphic novel.

Enter Hollyweird.

[tallhappy]

Moore's work is quite literary actually. The Watchmen won the Hugo award.

I don't buy it.

That people feel this is my point. Of course what wins literature awards these days is nothing to think highly of either.

[steve-b]

Mr. Moore says he was objecting to language in his contracts that would give him back the rights to "Watchmen" and "V for Vendetta" when they went out of print — language that he says turned out to be meaningless, because DC never intended to stop reprinting either book.

Why on earth was he stupid enough to agree to language that would cause the rights to revert to him if, and only if, the market for them had dried up (why else would a rational company stop printing them)?

It's hardly DC's fault that he agreed to a crappy contract.

[steve-b]

Why does the NY Times neglect to explain why Moore thinks the screenplay is "rubbish"?

It doesn't take much reading between the lines to discern that -- Moore is miffed about the terms of the contract he signed and therefore inclined to bad-mouth any use of the rights he signed away.

[Chiapet]

"V for Vendetta" and "Watchmen" are not comic books as you know them. They are literature with pervasive illustrations.

Neil Gaiman's Sandman series is pretty far up there too. Of course, his actual novels are also quite good. American Gods is one of my most recent favorite books.

[ActionNewsBill]

It was pro-terrorist, pro-Gay, and anti-Christian. 'Nuff said.

Funny...I viewed it as a pro-freedom, anti-tyranny film.

Did we see the same movie?

As far as the pro-gay aspect, homosexuality was a crime in this Big-brother hell-on-earth, and the government executed homosexuals.

I would think that a few of the "conservatives" here would find that a plus.

[JamesP81]

Funny...I viewed it as a pro-freedom, anti-tyranny film.

Except that it was trying to paint conservatives/traditionalists/Christians as the tyrants. It's trying to say that Christians, given unlimited power, would round up gays and have them executed. And don't talk about the medieval RCC as an example; that wasn't an example of religious extremism as much as it was an example of what happens when the state is allowed to meddle in the affairs of the church. The resultant relgious extremism was the symptom; it wasn't the cause.

[Trinity5]

"Portman should have retired after The Professional & Heat."

Hard to retire after a movie that she wasn't even in. What part in Heat (BTW one of my top ten favorite movies) did she play?

[Trinity5]

I stand corrected. She was the daughter. Very small part.

[TET1968]

In the professional,some would say she shared the lead.

In Heat she played the suicidal daughter of Al Picino's girlfriend...small part, but a stirling performance.
Watch the scene where she can't find her hair beret.