The Dark Knight

“Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

Many people think of comic books and the characters included in them to be superficial and child-oriented. However, there are some very complicated and intricate heroes and villains in traditional comic books, the most interesting being Batman and the Joker. The Dark Knight explores these characters with more depth and intensity than we have seen before. This film flips between good and evil, morality and immorality, being selfless vs being selfish, and a multitude of other dichotomies.

The Joker is the most twisted, psychotic character in this film. He creates chaos for the sole reason of seeing how people react when they are in life or death situations. The joker assists in creating the tone of the film, with his horrific stories and his cunning plots, or with his agitated mannerisms and his completely alien nature.

Dialogue is tremendously important in this film. The way the Joker provokes Batman in the interrogation scene drives Batman into a rage that we haven't seen in this movie. There are many phrases used as motifs in the film that are very meaningful and have multiple meanings that extend past the film and into the real world; phrases which discuss the true nature of people, how society reacts when everything is going according to plan, and what individual's true nature is in the most dire of circumstances.

The character progression Bruce Wayne (or Batman) experiences is an amazing thing to experience. First we have a confident, even arrogant billionaire that thinks he has criminals all figured out. Not every aspect of his life is perfect, but at the beginning of the movie everything is manageable. Then along comes the Joker, and Batman's world is thrown into chaos. He starts making more risky choices, putting more people in danger, and having internal conflicts about whether he should show his face. Towards the end of the film, he morphs from the slightly honorable but mostly mysterious superhero to the scapegoat for the city and its corruption and crime. His morality wins the internal battle, even if it isn't in the way that the Joker intended.

This movie is an excellent portrayal of the internal conflicts that lie in all of us and of the power of emotional relationships. Some scenes make us doubtful of the good that humanity is capable of, but others restore our faith in the people around us.

From Hell

Jack the Ripper is the most iconic serial killer that has ever lived. His gruesome and public murder scenes and the eternal mystery that surrounds him make this twisted individual the perfect Hollywood villain. From Hell, one of many Jack the Ripper movies, does an excellent job of portraying the time period from the confusion and social issues that plagued London in the late 19th century. Inspector Abberline, an opium addict with a knack for dreaming the Ripper's murder scenes before they happen is the main character in this bloody film. He fights to expose the serial killer amidst the slums of the east end, the anti-Semitic riots threatening to break out, and the rigid classism that London is subject to. The fuzzy, short scenes and quick takes in the inspector's 'dreams' contribute to the hurried tone and the crazed, violent acts. Overall, From Hell is an excellent movie that did more than just showed us the crimes Jack the Ripper committed; it also demonstrated the situation and the social climate that allowed these horrific murders to be perpetrated.

Born on the Fourth of July

Ron Kovic is a paraplegic Vietnam War veteran, and Born on the Fourth of July is the story of his life. He is an All-American boy, patriotic and proud to serve his country in the Vietnam War. After enduring horrific treatment in Vietnam and back home in the veteran hospitals, his adoration for his home country dwindles and he returns to his home town a changed man. Kovic is under the pressure of a progressive brother who supports the Vietnam protests and an overbearing, hyper-religious mother. He goes through periods of his life when he is an alcoholic, a protester, and then a successful author. There are many film techniques used to signify Kovic’s damaged mental state and his fragile psyche. For the first half of the movie, every scene change was quick and dramatic, as if Kovic was always waking up suddenly from a bad dream. Once the protagonist came to terms with himself and his predicament, the scene changes began to happen slowly and calmly, as if his life was on track and whatever was to happen next was supposed to be coming up. Film music plays a large role in tying together all of the parts of Ron Kovic’s life. The song ‘You’re a Grand Old Flag’ is played the first time Kovic sees a Fourth of July parade with Vietnam War veterans. At this point in the story, he is a young boy with a lot of love for his country and tons of respect for the soldiers that fought in their wars. He idolized these veterans, and it conflicted him to see the men broken, with their eyes vacant, jumping at every sound of a firework. The second time this song is played, Kovic was a disabled veteran himself and he was speaking at a Fourth of July celebration in his home town. He has an incident on stage when the sound of a helicopter reminds him of a very vivid memory of the war. This is one of his most damaged moments. The last time ‘You’re a Grand Old Flag’ is played is at the end of the film, where Kovic is being pushed down a hallway towards a stage, where he is about to introduce his memoir. He is adored and respected, and he mentions in a quick interview that he finally feels as if he is home.

Shake Hands with the Devil Documentary

There are two Shake Hands with the Devil movies, one documentary filmed ten years after the Rwandan genocide and one feature film that came out thirteen years after the conflict. The documentary was very personal as we followed Romeo Dallaire through the different sites where the genocide had happened. We got to experience his feelings and thoughts about being back in what he called a beautiful country. As well, his wife was there to talk about how he had changed and how his PTSD had affected their home life. Dallaire still blames himself for many of the incidents that happened, and explained why he was so eager and optimistic to stop hell on earth in Rwanda. Dallaire describes the sights, sounds, and smells of the massacre, and how he can still remember specific conflicts to this day. We see just how evil some humans can be, and yet in the midst of all of this evil how one brave man, self-described as not a hero but a humanist, can stay hopeful and just barely stay sane.

Ghosts of Rwanda

Ghosts of Rwanda was a documentary about the Rwandan genocide of 1994. There are scenes from the real sites of massacres by the Hutu extremists, and extensive interviews with UN, United States, and Red Cross officials. It was a very conflicting look at the officials' opinions about their inaction, and as we know, hindsight is 20/20. The fight between humanitarianism and national interests was never more apparent than when the interviews with important officials in the United States Department of Defence. There is a lot of deference to authority when we hear these officials speak. Every single one of them claims that they did not have enough power to effect change, so they did nothing.

As well, we see how different aid organizations responded to the effort, and how much of a difference having support makes. The head of the Red Cross mission to Rwanda was much more calm and did not have any of the negative after-effects that Romeo Dallaire experienced, being backed by the UN. The head of the Red Cross did his job, which was to save lives, and experienced just as much horror if not more than Romeo Dallaire did, being up close and personal with thousands of victims. Even through these experiences, the help that his organization gave him made the difference between coming back from Rwanda shaken but mentally stable, and coming back from Rwanda with post-traumatic stress disorder and suffering from self-blame and suicidal thoughts.

I believe that this documentary provided a lot of professional insight that we did not receive from the Hollywood-produced movies, although they were surprisingly accurate. It may not have been thrilling and moving in the way Hotel Rwanda was, but it carried a lot of weight and was an excellent film in its own right.

Apocalypse Now

“Do you know that ‘if’ is the middle word in life?”

            Apocalypse Now is a remarkable movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola (the director of the Godfather movies), starring Martin Sheen. It is an appropriation of the Joseph Conrad novella Heart of Darkness to the Vietnam war.

            There were many ingenious uses of lighting and contrast in the film. For example, Kurtz’s face was always seen in some semblance of darkness, with only sections of his face illuminated. The only time we saw Kurtz’s face in full (albeit dim) light, it was disguised with camoflague paint. This represents the fractured psyche that Kurtz has and the fact that we only see parts of him, but never a whole man.

            The phrase ‘fog of war’ is used very literally in this film. There seems to always be a coloured haze covering part of the scene. This accompanies sections of the film like the playboy scene where the army men are starved for female attention under the ‘fog of war’, the scene on the boat where Willard’s friends are wary of a Vietnamese boat they suspect is smuggling weapons. As well, the fog of war could apply to the rampant drug problem the soldiers experience in Vietnam. Everyone seems to be under the influence of acid, marijuana, cigarettes, or alcohol during the movie. All of these actions can culminate in bad decisions made while under the thumb of wartime.

            When Kurtz spoke his last words, ‘the horror’, I think he was speaking about not only the horror of the Vietnam war, but also the horror that is thrust upon every soldier that has to fight and for whom killing becomes an everyday action. I think Kurtz is mourning the loss of innocence for these everyday people torn out of their sheltered lives and placed at the front of a battle, as much as he is mourning all of the lives lost in the war.

He is also commenting on the chain of command and the narrow path soldiers are allowed to walk in the army. I see his going rogue as a testament to how repressed the army can be, and I believe this is why he converts every soldier that tries to assassinate him into one of his followers: the soldiers gain a sense of autonomy and freedom if they follow Kurtz. They start to subscribe to the primal instincts of human nature instead of the very orderly, secretive society that is the army.

            As for the discussion about whether this film is pro- or anti-war, I believe that it is primarily an anti-war film. As much as the affiliation with or against war may be irrelevant to the themes shown in the film, I think that the character of Kurtz and his immense accomplishments within the army and his complete separation from his past self in favour of being an unbridled, self-determined man. We also see how dependent people become on the thrill of war, and how they even get used to the feelings they get while out in the field. None of these have positive outcomes, so I would say that Apocalypse Now is an anti-war film.

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is one of the most universally well-loved movies of recent times. Its simple storyline and endearing characters, along with an easy to understand version of all of America's recent history make it an instant hit for the general public.

The symbolism of the feather floating in the wind from the beginning to the end of the movie was a cute motif that added depth to the introduction and conclusion of the film. The feather represents Forrest, floating whichever way life takes him, not affected in a positive or negative way by all of his successes, famous encounters, business breakthroughs, or tropical storms. He floats on by while other people are weighed down by multiple presidential assassinations, name-calling, and prejudice. It is his calm acceptance of the tide of life that brings him back to his hometown and the people he loves.

The one constant in Forrest's live is his love for his childhood friend Jenny. He is always thinking about her, he continues to do things for her even though she treats him badly and tells him to stay away from her, and his sole motivation is to find her again and stay with her. This is one of Forrest's characteristics that sets him apart from the other people in the movie, who are interested in money or power. He is only interested in love, and he knows where to find it.

This film is different from every other biography-like film because it has a freshness, an optimism, and an emotional maturity that most people interesting enough to be the focus of a movie are lacking. Most stories we see are about an amazing person who was somehow tortured by their inner demons and now it is taking over their professional life. Here we have someone who can not even comprehend evil, let alone use it to manipulate people around him.

Some people are spoken about as having 'not grown up yet'. If this is what not growing up entails, being innocent and optimistic and pure in heart, then I would love to stay a child.

Shake Hands with the Devil

“We're going to stay to bear witness to what the rest of the world doesn't want to see.”

Shake Hands with the Devil is a realistic tale of Romeo Dallaire’s tireless efforts towards stopping the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Against insurmountable odds, Dallaire and his marginal peacekeeping force did all they could to prevent the mass slaughter of the Tutsi people.

When the UN sent Dallaire in as commanding officer of the UNAMIR force, they believed it was a cheap and easy fix to end the conflict in Rwanda. They entered the country believing this peace treaty was a realistic goal, and that the government was committed to executing this plan, instead of its plan to rid the country of the Tutsi people.

The UN back in New York City were running on a tight budget, and saving a whole ethnic group was apparently out of their price range at this point. As well, international politics and bureaucracy caused certain countries to refuse UN troop requests and to refuse, as well, to call what was happening in Rwanda genocide. Their refusal to call this atrocity a genocide was due to two factors: the confusion (mainly stemming from ignorance) about the fact that there was a civil war going on at the same time, and that all of these deaths were part of the fighting, and that if countries labeled this conflict as a genocide, they would have been forced to act under the Geneva Convention which was established after the Holocaust. This Convention decreed that we would never forget the acts that were committed against the Jews, and that we would not let that level of hatred and horror be repeated. This was fairly useless, as the most simple way to get around this decree was to simply avoid using the term genocide. Of course, this is the kind of bureaucracy that the Convention never accounted for, but has proved to be very detrimental to world issues since.

The brave but unarmed peacekeepers with dwindling supplies stayed to save the few civilians that they could. However, their orders were not to shoot unless shot at, and they were forced to stand by as almost a million people were butchered in 100 days.

This film was very moving, as it followed Dallaire in his efforts to save Rwanda and the terrible aftermath and mental illness he suffered because of his time as commanding officer. In the psychologist’s office, the lighting was very harsh and it conveyed a sense of the separation between his experiences and the rest of the world, including his psychologist. The blue colour of the room represents the immense sadness and depression that Dallaire is going through.

The camera moves with Romeo as he drives past bodies strewn on the road; we get a very documentary-like view of the aftermath of the conflict. As the camera looks from side to side on the road, we realize how it must have felt to be surrounded by this level of conflict and desperation.

The dialogue in this movie is engaging and serves to illustrate the difference in character between many of the UN peacekeepers and Romeo Dallaire. For example, when Tutsi refugees were trying to get into one of the UN stadium area, one of the peacekeepers was obviously confused and did not know how to handle the crowd. When Dallaire arrived, he said ‘they want you to help them. Why don’t you act like it’, and gave these Tutsis refuge in thee stadium controlled by the UN. His force of personality and commanding voice inspired the other peacekeepers to save whoever they could, even if the higher-ups would  not send help.

Hotel Rwanda

“The goal of the film is not only to engage audiences in this story of genocide but also to inspire them to help redress the terrible devastation.” -Director Terry George

April 1994. Kigali, Rwanda. Tensions are high, because the Rwandan president has just been assassinated by Tutsi soldiers. A genocide is stirring.

Meanwhile at des Mille Collines hotel, manager Paul Rusesabagina checks on his powerful and influential guests. He presents them with the very best food and drinks, while outside of the hotel walls hatred and blame are growing, multiplying, and taking over the Hutu extremist population.

Using his money and knowledge of people in high places, Paul housed over a thousand Tutsi and Hutu refugees in the hotel while the genocide occurred. With the help of the UN, the people he housed got out of the country safely and he fled to Belgium with his family.

Hotel Rwanda, even though it is an excellent movie with very experienced actors and a large budget, is still a Hollywood movie at its core. The storyline is easily accessible by a wide audience, it focuses on one person in a supremely anomalous situation while not focusing as much on the atrocities that outnumbered the one story of a few lives being saved. We see the atrocious acts of genocide being committed, but then we retreat back to the safety of the hotel, a haven in a dangerous world. The scenes are a temporary unhappiness, a tear in the fabric of our artfully crafted reality, affecting us as deeply as the genocide affected the people around the world while it was occurring.

That being said, Paul Rusesabagina showed a tremendous amount of power and courage in this retelling. He faced the tormentors of his wife's people calmly and rationalized with them. He always displayed a collected and respectful manner, no matter what the situation was like. He also had massive amounts of influence, even over soldiers who used brute force and the threat of guns to get their way. For example, Paul was once woken up at the hotel by a pistol that was nudging his face. He responded in a manner that did not convey how frightened he was internally for his wife and children. Paul calmly offered them a drink downstairs and took time to make himself look presentable, despite the dire situation.

With the exception of one actor (Nick Nolte), I believed that the acting in this movie was excellent. The intensity of the fear and confusion that Tatiana Rusesabagina portrayed and the calm and collected protagonist balanced each other excellently. Paul was a normal person put into a very demanding situation, and this powerful, commanding character blossomed. The journalist and his cameraman also brought a lot of emotions to the film that the viewers can relate to, because they felt shameful and powerless as the powers that be determined they could not help this destitute country.

Overall, Hotel Rwanda is a moving story about how one person can effect change and save many lives in the face of grave danger. However, it focuses much more on Paul Rusesabagina's journey to save the lives of his family, and eventually thousands more people who would otherwise have been killed. The major criticism of this film is that it did not focus enough on the actual genocide. This film was made to appeal to the masses, and once I watch Shake Hands With the Devil, it is possible that I will favour something toned down and more positive.

Godzilla

We all know the horrifying, scaly monster that emerges from the sea and terrorizes Japan. But how well do we know Godzilla? We paint him as the epitome of evil, the embodiment of terror, the very basis of all the horrible things that happened to Japan.

However, this character is largely misunderstood. He does wreak havoc on the land, he is big and terrifying, but all of the fear and destruction is not his fault.

The writers of Godzilla described this character as a beast that has been lying peacefully for millions of years, and was only awakened by the radiation of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

With this information, someone must have awakened this murderous, angry Godzilla. And who was that? The Americans, of course. Postwar Japan was rampant with the horrors we see in this film. Destroyed houses and cities and powerlines, people displaced from their homes, health risks and a frightened country of wary civilians. In this day and age, the parallels between Godzilla’s path of destruction and the post-WWII state of Japan are glaringly obvious, but at that time the Americans did not realize the deeper meaning this movie conveyed.

As well, the era in which this movie was made (the mid-1950s) is very obvious when watching. The most apparent characteristic is the gender roles in the film. The women are portrayed as very weak, and constantly going out of their way to help the men in their life. They are very deferential and do not have developed personalities or a high tolerance for conflict. Female actresses in the present take a much more active role in the films they star in.

If we look at Godzilla superficially, we see a movie intended for any sort of audience, especially one that is enthralled by violence and action and destruction. So namely, a younger audience of teenagers. However, if we begin to search deeper into the film for the real, underlying meaning, we see that maybe the intended audience is older and more intelligent, and more aware of world issues so they can fully appreciate the symbolic meaning of Godzilla.

The mood of the film is very fearful. The characters are living in a constant state of worry and the whole nation is in distress over this large, powerful object that they have no control over. As well, the only way they were able to stop this terrorizing madness was to sacrifice one of their own people. This represents the larger need in the country for the Japanese people to sacrifice part of themselves in order to move past the destruction that the US had caused.

The acting in Godzilla was comically exaggerated. This may not have been intentional, but it served to emphasize the horror that the Japanese people were experiencing when Godzilla was terrorizing their towns. The lighting, dialogue, and music were all simple as to not detract from the main character, the giant scaly monster. The special effects were used to demonstrate Godzilla's insane power and the size of the villages and cars and people compared to this scaly horror.

Overall, the film was very well done for its time period. The special effects were quirky and the effort put into them was very cute. It is refreshing to see something that is not computer animated, but rather a real model of a city with toy cars being knocked over.

Godzilla was a well made film that is entertaining while telling us a lot about history through a fresh viewpoint.

Children of Men

There are many dystopian films and movies, and all of them portray a different, bleak future. I would argue that Children of Men presents one of the most unhappy visions of the future because of the eventual demise everyone knows is upon them. They also know that there is nothing anyone, even the people in power, can do about this situation. Even in an apocalyptic situation, as long as the human race can reproduce, there is some sort of hope because the buildings can be rebuilt and hope can be regained.

I think the premise of our current environmental state causing these issues that we sometimes take for granted provides an important perspective on what might happen at any time if we continue to change and abuse our living conditions. Because our population is rapidly expanding and we have inhabited almost every part of the earth, we do not think about infertility being an immediate or pressing issue. In fact, we ourselves create permanent and temporary infertility as a form of birth control. To set this movie so close to our current era makes these worries much more real

The unification of the army and the rebels in the refugee camp when everyone found out about the baby was a very inspiring. Everyone set aside their weapons and was respectful and in awe as the baby, Theo, and Kee made their way to safety. All of the turmoil and anger and hatred was put on hold for one ephemeral moment, and then the fighting continued. I think this says a lot about the human condition than it seems. This infertility problem had been going on for so long that it became more about people's vested interest in their side of the fight than about the actual solution. Yes, people stopped and stared, but they were so scared and worn down and out of hope that no one actually helped. In the end, with the future of the world in her arms, Kee was still refused help by people who were waging war on the issue she was fixing.

As in V for Vendetta, there are many hidden parallels to modern-day issues. There are many people worrying about whether scientists should 'play God' and delve too much into genetic experiments and expose people to so many radioactive materials. Pollution could have also been a cause for the infertility in Children of Men, and we all know that there are more toxins in our food, air, and water than any time in history other than the Industrial Revolution. However, the most terrifying and well hidden comparison is that of the refugee camps to Abu Ghraib, a torture facility in Iraq which was used to 'prepare Iraqis for interrogation'. The methods were not specified, and many human rights abuses were committed there by US soldiers. Many of the scenes in Children of Men mirrored footage from inside Abu Ghraib, such as people with bags over their faces, in various states of undress, and being forced to stay in uncomfortable positions for long periods of time. The general distress and the treatment of the refugees by the guards, who considered the fugees as less than human, reflected the treatment of suspected Iraqi criminals by treating and referring to them as dogs.

The shaky camera movements, the blood on the film, the panicked change of perspective during the penultimate scene conveyed the terror and confusion that was present in the fighting between the army and the Fishes. The colour scheme of a bleak gray and the dirty, grimy setting that is common in dystopian movies paints a vivid picture of the dark mindset and lifestyle that the residents are living in. When this setting is conflicted with the pristine high life one of Theo's friends lives in, it emphasizes the general disarray of the rest of the world.

I liked the optimism at the end, but I do realize that it came as a price. There were sacrifices made in the name of progress, and one of them was Theo's life. He helped save the human race from ruin, which is more than anyone could have imagined. Although he did not survive to see fertility completely restored, he can rest knowing he made a huge contribution.

Children of Men was an excellent movie, artfully displaying an alternate future that, for all we know, could be a very near reality. The realism mixed with the very specific, sacrificing brand of hope that it portrays makes for a bittersweet but very engaging film.

V for Vendetta

 'Ideas are bulletproof,' proclaims V, the protagonist of the 2006 dystopian film V for Vendetta. His bulletproof vest; however, did not stand up as well to guns. 

                500 years before the oppressed, fearful Britain represented in the film, Guy Fawkes planned to blow up the English parliament under the rule of King James. It was the fifth of November. In 2100, in the same time and place, the masked V blows up the justice building to the tune of Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture.

                Evey Hammond, daughter of activist parents, gets caught up with V and his anti-government actions. In a staged arrest, Evey is tortured and imprisoned. When she learns to be fearless, she is released and finds out that V was behind her suffering.

Evey is given the choice to blow up the parliament building with the train of dynamite V has gifted to her.  She decides, because of her new fearless personality, to go through with the bombing. All of the characters in the film were present to see the bombing (and the fireworks display) to the tune of the same overture heard at the beginning of the movie. The last scene is a symbol of the unity and hope that the society has after the destruction of their oppressive government.

                It is easy to identify the visual parallels between communist party leaders and dictators of our past and the High Chancellor of future Great Britain. His Hitler-like rallies, his picture on every wall in the style of Kim Jong-Il, his Stalinist hate for everything American. Judging Chancellor Sutler based on events of history is no difficult feat. Noticing the similarities between our current world state and this faraway dystopian society is much more difficult. All of the clues are in front of us. The persecution of homosexuals, the disdain for Muslim people, the fear of terrorism, biological warfare, neverending wars, these are all issues we face in the world at this very moment, but it is difficult to come to terms with the fact that Hollywood represented life accurately. More scary, in fact, is the realization that the beaten down, oppressed, fearful climate in the V for Vendetta society is one that bloomed out of the fear and confusion of the present. One of the sensational news headlines on the 'news' network reported ongoing civil wars in the United States of America. This is believable, considering the amount of unrest and the amount of polarized, sensationalist opinions that exist in the USA.

                V, the protagonist, is a very mutifaceted character. Despite his anonymity and secretive nature, he is more than just an anti-government terrorist trying to shake up the daily routine. He was very human despite his violent actions, and displayed great affection towards Evey. He was empathetic and intelligent and realized the true state of his country at a time where people were too afraid to even think about rebellion. V ignited the spark in the population that had been missing for as long as they were under this oppressive dictatorial regime, and in doing so he unified the struggle for acceptance.

I think the film was trying to inspire hope and free-thinking in people. We spend most of our day following somewhat arbitrary rules that are put in place by the government, and we are much to complacent about the restrictions put on media and the way that the government uses propaganda to direct our attention to certain areas. This is all while societal issues bubble underneath the surface that the government may want to keep quiet for their own personal reasons. At some points in the movie, it was very peaceful and everyone was accepting their fate for the choices they had made. However, at other times V for Vendetta inspired strong negative feelings in the watcher. One scene that stood out as completely unjust was when Evey was imprisoned in the completely crafted jail and tortured so she would become fearless. The injustices that she suffered and the fact that this is even an option due to the world V for Vendetta takes place in makes the viewer insatiably angry, but with no real person to direct their anger at.

                The colours used in this film (mainly red and black) signified the very dark and angry mood of the film. The lighting used (or lack thereof) is very skillful, hiding everything in darkness on screen matched the secrecy of the government and the need for ordinary, upstanding citizens to keep up appearances in order to stay alive or to defer suspicion. For example, the tv producer had to invite young women to his house in order to keep up the appearance of heterosexuality, which was the only acceptable sexual orientation. He also hid many works of art and religious texts that would be considered treasonous if the government found out that he possessed them. The majestic music played during the destruction of the government buildings in the beginning and the end of the movie objectively seems conflicting, but once the viewer understands what the buildings stand for and what kind of response is unavoidable with their downfall, the triumphant soundtrack makes a lot more sense.

                This film is very well made and is one of my favourite movies. I enjoy it because of the excellent acting, the wonderful music, and the meaningful message of hope and revolution that permeates every scene and represents itself in powerful symbols and ideas that, as V argued in one of the most climactic scenes of the film, are bulletproof and immortal.