Remember, remember the 5th of November, the gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.

V For Vendetta, an adaptation of Alan Moore's and David Lloyd's classic tale, directed by James McTeigue and written by The Wachowski Brothers of Matrix fame, is a brilliant, stunning movie. Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving give outstanding performances as the leads, and the film is solid in ways cinematic creations rarely are. Given the theme, it's no surprise to find it topping viewing charts. Given the theme, it's also no surprise to find rightwing partisan hacks skewering it as "irresponsible," "glorifying terrorism," "treasonous," and, my favorite, "anti-American."

It's easy for shallow Republican media whips to peg the puppet Chancellor Sutler of V For Vendetta as representing George Bush, because Bush himself has been exposed for what he truly is: a cardboard cutout of a leader symbolizing all the greed, foulness and inhumanity shown in the movie. Mr. Bush and his administration slot perfectly into the larger concept V opposes. One hack explains the movie's popularity by claiming it's being marketed to those who like explosions. Explosions? You're damn right we like explosions, especially when they mean something other than several thousand dead American soldiers, one hundred thousand dead Iraqis, trillion dollar deficits and government sponsored hate.

If you wanted to create a movie about the political environment in America, without winding up in jail or monetarily destroyed by lawsuits, you could set it in a future vision of another land, referencing another culture's historic tale of opposition. V For Vendetta, reclaiming the failure of Guy Fawkes to blow up Parliament in 1605, could be such an allegory, but is much more than this simple reading.

V For Vendetta is set in near future London, in a Christian dictatorship right around the corner from our own moment in time. The movie places the origin of this dictatorship in "America's War" coming to Britain. This war is not Iraq, Iran, Syria or North Korea. The war referenced is the war between freedom and oppression, the war between those who believe a citizen can think for themselves and those who believe they must be thought for, the war between living and living in fear.

It's a war going on right now, here in the United States. The Neocons play the media as if it's a war between Left and Right, Liberal and Conservative. I've come to realize it's not. There are genuine differences of agreement between political factions here in the United States, but not a war. The war is between those who would own us, control us, enrich only themselves by selling us, and those of us who do not want to be owned.

The world of V For Vendetta is the world we're currently creating. Within the dictatorship in V, violence is the only method left to counter fascism. A crucial point the modern Neocons and their talking heads continue to ignore: if you deny a voice to people, if you work to silence and demonize them as the Bush Administration has worked to smear everyone other than the Religious Right and Corporate Money, you eventually leave them with no choice but the one made in V.

People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.

V For Vendetta is about rebellion and responsibility. It's about taking action to create change, about standing for what is right even if it makes you uncomfortable, scared or places you in danger. This movie is not a simple reaction to current events. It's a rebellion against any and all forms of oppression. It's a taste of the self-responsibility of anarchism, self-governance, self-reliance.

A violent rebellion? We're not there, yet. We don't yet need to blow up Parliament or the White House to trounce the evildoers. Our freedom is integral to us, we always have it, no matter what Bush says, or what he may do to us.

We must use it.

In V, blowing up Parliament is a symbol of hope for a populace who can no longer believe in positive change. A million people standing up and simultaneously saying "No" to injustice and fear may be just as effective.

Don't give money to your oppressors. Don't give them your vote. Don't give them your silence, which they want most of all.

Freedom! Forever!

"Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. 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 vengeance; 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 vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."