You may call me V

This past Saturday night, Jen & I caught a showing of V For Vendetta. It was quite an interesting movie that mixed politics, religious oppression, the need for justice, freedom, etc, all wrapped up into a comic book movie with blood, violence and pithy little comments.

A few things struck me in a good way after I processed this film and I’ll list them below.
(which means if you don’t want spoilers, don’t read what I am about to say)


The first thing that really hit me was the condition of the people. They knew things weren’t right, but didn’t know how to make them right or who to turn to in order to make things right. They were oppressed and content to be so in the way they were presented. They did not realize they needed redemption. They were in slavery and bondage and not looking to anything or anyone to make things right. I think that captures the natural state of humanity in a sense. We can see society move in its ebb and flow and people know that things are not right, but in a sense many are content to live in this state and just “bide their time”. This was London, this is humanity. People in bondage need to be shown the way to true freedom, they need a hero.

The second thing that struck me is that people need a hero. I think this is evident in the way we are inundated with comic book films – we love stories that involve a hero, even one who’s not the best role model such as V. The people in V For Vendetta were not different. Once the hero came and proclaimed when he would begin his liberating work, hope began to spread throughout the land. We read in the Prophets of a great hero who was promised to come and bring real hope to an oppressed people in need of redemption. V was the hero who came to save Britain in her time of need, but V is a shallow and empty hero compared to the real hero who came to deliver humanity from slavery and bondage.


The third thing that impressed me was the idea that redemption is bloody. V willingly spilled blood, his own and others, and ultimately gave his life for the redemption of Britain. Redemption by blood is all over Scripture. Yahweh required the blood of animals in certain instances for salvation. Think of the plague of death that covered the land of Egypt and Yahweh would only save those in the houses of the bloody doorways. Think of Leviticus and the requirements of blood sacrifices. Even greater than those types and shadows was the perfect sacrifice that Jesus made – His own blood and body. True freedom costs something.

It’s interesting to me that even though V For Vendetta can be accused of having a “liberal slant”, was written by a pagan comic book author who lived with his wife and their girlfriend, and was made into a movie by two godless brothers who are surely not Christian, yet even though there was godlessness that created this story and presented this story to the masses – eternal truths were still there. I’m not saying the Gospel is there, but I am saying that there are elements in this story of a greater story – the true story of freedom and redemption. That story has a hero much, much greater than V, or any comic hero for that matter, and that story offers more than mere entertainment, relaxation, special effects, karate, and intellectual fodder.