The Workermonkey

Monday, March 20, 2006

As the fore most expert on such topics around here.. 

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 3/20/2006 11:35:00 AM

i'd like to throw my two sense in about the movie "V for Vendetta" which i saw yesterday and read a while back. Quck background; V was written by a famous comic writer named Alan Moore who wrote this story in the 80's during the cold war. Like most of Moores stuff it didn't catch on right away but became a classic very quickly. Moore is kind of nuts, He's a firm believer in magic and some other strange sudo-sciences but very smart none the less. He's also written other great works such as The Watchmen, From Hell, League of Extrodonary Gentelmen, Batman; The Killing Joke and many others. Most of Moores work is owned by DC comics where it was first published, and now Time/Warner owns the whole lot. Moore never expected the kind of movie/liscening deals that could have been struct for his work because he never really wanted to see them as movies or TV shows. He believed his comics were the first and last medium these stories would appear in because thats the medium he chose to tell them with. He signed a contract with DC decades ago, giving them the movie right to his stories until his books were out of print, at which time the rights would revert back to him and the artists who drew the books. Well, DC wasn't real cool with that so they've just kept his books in constant printings to hold on to the right. its just a bonus that they happen to be good and sell.
"V for Vendetta" isn't the first adaptation of Moores work for the big screen. From Hell was i think the first and he hated it. Everyone loves Alans work, but he hates the things he does to them. From hell wasn't so bad, it was fairly accurate to the text, but off by enough to soure Moore on Hollywood. His next baby, League of Extrodonary Gentalmen, was horrific. They took his nice little work, and shit all over it. It was a bad script, conbiuned with bad movie making and too much money, plus someone had to kidnap sean connery to get him to appear in it. (odd aside, connery re-edited the movie after it was completed himself because he was embarassed by it, his version was released to the theaters (that's hollywood power for ya)).
Alan Moore has been so pissed off at DC and hollywood, he's demanded that they take his name off of any of his work that the produce. He's even refused to take the royalties given to him for the stories that have been adapted. He istead gives the money to the artist who drew the books.
V was made by the Wochowski brothers who did the Matrix movies. they tried to get Alan Moore to help with the movies production and help with the script because they know of his story and why he's so pissed about this stuff. Moore refused to help and did not give the movie his blessing, he's been burned to many times. I happen to notice in the credits that they honored Moores wishes and instead gave credit to David Loyd who drew the book with a tag line that said "inspired by the graphic novel drawn by David Loyd". Classy.
The movie was excellent. well adapted with only minor variations on the core story. I'd like to go back and skim the original book now but i remember most of it. The movie was visually stunning, something that the book wasn't. Symbols and ideas were one of the central themes of the book, so at times the drawing was secondary to getting the proper information across. I'd love to see how republicans react to this movie because i could hear the screams of liberal hollywood as i was walking out of the theater. I wish there had been more of a build up reguarding how britan had been a totalitarian state, it could have used more fleshing out but not nessecary. I think too much and this would have seemed more like a 1984 knock off (i just finished reading that and it was excellent) . overall a great movie and a good choice for adaptation. with movies like this,A History of Violence, Sin City and other sweet films actually making good money, maybe film execs will start looking at comic adaptations other then superheros. The Watchmen has been under development forever but doesn't seem to be getting any close to film. i can't wait to hear the phrase "Who watches the Watchmen?" on the big screen. The little poem "remember, remember, the fifth of november" was realy cool and sounded great with that voice they used.

in conclusion, i know too much about this crap. V for ventdetta was very good. Alan moore is crazy, like a fox.

4 comments

You do know too much about it, I only made it through the first paragraph of your post.

By  Damon, at Monday, March 20, 2006 2:15:00 PM  

that about as far as i figure most people will get.

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Monday, March 20, 2006 3:14:00 PM  

haha, i read a bit more. but your topic sentences were fantastic. they helped me decide which paragraphs to read. good work.

By  josh, at Monday, March 20, 2006 4:59:00 PM  

I was actually very impressed. "V for Vendetta" actually covers alot of political breadth. I read an interview with Moore and he said he "wrote it about post-Margret Thatcher Britain when they were shifting further to the right and the arms race was still in effect. He said if they want to compare that situation to the U.S.'s, it'd be stupid. The US is too pussy to write a serious movie against itself anyways. They could've used a Paul Revere mask for V instead. " (paraphrase)

I can still see why they didn't, though. They make some pretty serious accusations and parodies in "V for Vendetta." Without spoiling anything, I'll just say "it's too soon." If you want an advance idea, though, try to Google "Operation Northwoods"

By  DJ Booze Piñata, at Monday, March 20, 2006 8:04:00 PM  

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