Complex but heavy-handed action film. Adults only.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 18+?
Any Positive Content?
Violence & Scariness
a lot
Violence includes a hanging, explosions, knife and martial arts attacks, shootings, and scenes of torture, invasions of homes, war scenes on background televisions; bloody smears on walls; police are threatening and militaristic; threatened rape; murder by poisoning; man's figure appears burning during building fire; image of girl's mother dragged away by bad cop); discussion of epidemic fatal virus.
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An elderly bishop arranges to have sex with underage girl (the actual girl is only pretending to be that young; gay character discusses being closeted as "wearing a mask."
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Primary terrorist justifies his violence as resistance to the completely corrupt state.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that this film includes recurring and explicit violence, including explosions, martial arts fights, knifings (with bloody results quite visible), shootings, and torture inside prison cells (where one character shares her space with a rat). The film opens with a flashback to a 1605 hanging, and then, in the present, an imminent rape (stopped by V's violent intervention). The film includes scenes of war and police state tactics, including the brutal incarceration of race and sexual minorities in Britain. A young girl sees her mother kidnapped by government flunkies, then witnesses a similar brutality as an adult. When a bishop arranges for sex with an underage girl (apparently a regular practice), he's killed as punishment (but not before he pushes his would-be girl victim onto his bed). Characters curse occasionally (infrequent use of the f-word, plus "bloody hell," "bitch," and the s-word). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
This movie's rating is way too low. 2 stars is ridiculous. The photography, dialogue, intrigue, action, musical score and special effects are excellent. That said, I would recommend it for older teens for the following reasons:
1)Complicated politics: involving corruption, intrigue, sabotage. Themes that might be harder for kids under 14 to understand. (But if your child is interested in these topics he/she may really enjoy it.)
2)Sexual violence/Torture. There isn't any on-screen sexual violence, but the threats of it are present, as in real life. The torture is emotionally intense, but limited. Showing this in the political context is important. Ugly, but important.
3)Bloody violence. There isn't alot of it. Some of it is generalized, like what you would see in any action film or video game with guns, and some of it is up close (the context is revenge), so, its disturbing, but not gory (some blood, no guts).
Ultimately, it's a political film about extreme governments and their players: from the head of the government on down public workers. It explores the actions people take (supporting it, accepting it or resisting it or fighting against it).
First of all, the only reason this should be R is because of the storyline that is probably too complicated for younger kids. But if you are rating the content, this movie could be PG-13. Seriously guys? Whoever thinks you should be 17 and older to watch this film are WAY to protective over there kids... Anyways, great movie worth watching if your 13 and over so you understand this movie.
What's the Story?
More generic action movie than philosophical investigation, V FOR VENDETTA focuses on a young woman's political education. The underlying, irresolvable question has to do with terrorism: why and how are people pushed to commit it, and what might it achieve, aside from fear and oppression? Can calculated violence, ever, as its proponents argue, lead to "freedom"? At the center of is masked terrorist V (Hugo Weaving), who battles against a very corrupt British regime. Out after curfew, Evey (Natalie Portman) is about to be raped by some bad cops when V appears, kills them, and initiates his instruction of the vulnerable Evey in his anarchistic plot. V's rage is fueled by the usual superhero's past trauma. While the movie allows that torture only reproduces terrorism and violence, it also presents V's scheme as revolutionary and effectively symbolic. While V is hunted by a decent cop Finch (Stephen Rea), he keeps Evey at his secret lair, where he makes her tea and eggs for breakfast. Her eventual escape only leads her to a more awful place, imprisoned and tortured. At last, she admits, she is no longer afraid to die. And in this, she finds what V calls "freedom."
Heavy-handed pronouncements exemplify V for Vendetta's distrust of viewers to interpret what they see, making the film's political and social commentary seem more cartoonish than insightful. Yes, imperialism is really bad, and yes, Nazi-ish iconography is a sure sign of a regime's need for change. What's less clear, and could use some reflection, is how V's violent acts will or will not produce more victims and vigilantes. "Freedom and justice are more than words," he says, "They are perspectives." And as such, they need rethinking at every step.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the film's presentation of terrorism as reasonable response to state oppression. Is violence ever an appropriate response? How do the evil chancellor's raging and V's tragic background (abused and institutionalized as a child) make V's cause seem sympathetic, even if it's illegal and aggressive? How does Evey's own childhood loss of her parents make her ready to be V's protégé? For fans of the book, families can discuss the differences between the film and its inspiration.
MPAA explanation:
strong violence and some language
Last updated:
August 13, 2024
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