V for Vendetta
In the opening scenes of "V for Vendetta," the viewer watches two people ready themselves for an evening out. One of the people is clearly a woman (Natalie Portman's Evey, we later find out) and seems to be getting ready for a date--she puts on make-up, a dress, heels. The other person mimics her movements, but puts on a mask, gloves, boots. The gender of the second person is unknown, but when I watched the film, even though I knew that V was a man (something of which I was reminded quite a few times in the film's opening voice-over about Guy Fawkes), and suspected that the second person was V, the second person still felt female to me. Something in the ritual of getting ready was feminine, and nothing in the mask or costume demanded a male reading. In this first segment, the juxtaposition between Evey and V lulls the viewer into thinking they are, in some way, equal.
It doesn't take long, however, for this equality to break down. Only a few minutes later, Evey is in trouble, being sexually threatened by agents of the government, and V (brilliantly portrayed by Hugo Weaving) saves her in a campy, riddle-filled take on a classic damsel in distress scene. And the female viewer is reminded, not for the last time, who she's supposed to consider the hero.
The pattern of these opening scenes repeats ad nauseum in "V for Vendetta." The film is full of ass-kicking metaphorical heroines, symbols of femininity tied up with justice, independence, creativity. As the literal heroine, though, Evey is never quite satisfying, and the strides she does make are made only after she is symbolically de-feminized in V's fake imprisonment, complete with requisite head-shaving (because for girls to kick ass, they apparently must have short hair--it's some sort of weird Samson reversal). No matter how appealing V's sometimes genderless rebellion is, or how tempting it is to point to V's own radicalization through the letters of the imprisoned and tortured lesbian actress Valerie (Natasha Wrightman) as evidence of a true heroine in the film, the fact is that the story centers around the radicalization of Evey, a woman, at the hands of V, a man. Though Evey eventually takes up V's fight, it's always V's fight, and even post-mortem, he calls the shots.
Many reviewers of this film have fallen into the trap of comparing the relationship between V and Evey to that of the Phantom of the Opera and his protégé/prisoner, Christine, or, worse yet, Beauty and the Beast. These comparisons are not fair, doing neither V nor Evey justice. The Phantom lives vicariously through Christine, then kidnaps her. V has his own agenda, and though he does take Evey prisoner, he also lets her go. Unfulfilling as she ultimately may be, Evey never lowers herself to the level of a storybook sex object like Beauty. While she never assumes the larger-than-life, almost supernatural power needed for a true heroine in this type of film, Evey consistently portrays the citizenry in general--scared and confused and wanting to go with the status quo, but unable to because of what V has forced her to see. V is undeniably the hero, and Evey is, in many ways, his foil, but she's not his foil in the sexualized way these comparisons imply. Further, even though the film does occasionally fall into the trap of equating masculinity and bravery (too many "Hamlet" quotes will do that), V's sex is never all that important. While both the Phantom and the Beast had to be men, V's character is given an intentional sexlessness that implies, at least at the film's best moments, that the rebellion knows no gender.
Ultimately, the heroine content of "V for Vendetta" has nothing to do with Portman's Evey. While V's constant Shakespeare quoting is predictable bordering on irritating, there is also a fantastic nod to Emma Goldman. The premise that a homophobic government is a fascist government, underscored not only Valerie's story, but also by gay TV personality Gordon (Steven Fry) is one I didn't expect and much welcomed. While "V for Vendetta" lacks a true heroine, it is still a movie whose politics fall very much in line with the feminist, anti-racist, and anti-homophobic films we want to highlight here, so I give it three stars and unreservedly recommend it.
