Word: v
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Alan Moore, probably the greatest writer in the history of comic books. In 1982 Moore--who also wrote Watchmen and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen--began publishing an almost unbearably dark series of comic books set in a dismal, dystopic future Britain ruled by an oppressive Orwellian government. V for Vendetta starred, instead of a superhero, a bitter, brilliant, at least half-insane resistance fighter known only as V, whose face was permanently hidden behind a grinning mask that, if you're English, you recognize as the face of Guy Fawkes. (Who--again, if you're English--you know...
...V had superhuman strength--he was the product of a monstrous government medical experiment--mad fighting skills and a cruel sense of humor, and he used them to manipulate the media, assassinate officials in creative ways, stab people with big shiny knives and blow up buildings. Early in the comics he rescued a woman named Evey from government thugs, and she became his sidekick; later on he tortured Evey, to "help" her see his point of view. V was a freedom fighter, no question, but Moore never let you forget that he was also a terrorist, and as such...
...this would have appealed to Larry and Andy Wachowski, the band of brothers behind the Matrix trilogy. In the same way those movies did, V for Vendetta melds big ideas about power and liberation with futuristic blowuppy thrills. "I've made a lot of stupid action films," says Joel Silver, a producer on V. "But when we made the Matrix, we saw that people wanted more than that." In the mid-1990s, back before Keanu knew kung fu, the Wachowskis wrote a screenplay of V for Vendetta. When Matrix mania finally subsided in 2003, they had the time...
Here's another tough question: whether V for Vendetta is the movie that will start that conversation. The kind of delicate ambiguity that Portman talks about is hard to achieve within the narrow constraints of a popcorn movie--morally speaking, they tend to be shot in black and white--and V may come off as a bit too noble for the movie's good. As both the product of violence and its perpetrator, he should be doubly twisted. "What was done to me was monstrous!" V snarls. "And they created a monster," Evey replies. But if V plays...
...Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's--wanted $65 million for such equipment as sophisticated nightscopes and computer-mapping systems, but the Administration refused the request. The Marines are still flying around Iraq in Vietnam-era helicopters--yet $1 billion was cut from the program for the choppers' only replacement aircraft, the V-22 Osprey. The Marines were able to establish the long-awaited first squadron last week but say they need more funding to replace aging aircraft. "It is unconscionable," says a military officer, "that the one new aircraft that could clearly help them in Iraq is getting...