1) V for Vendetta

The right wing hates this movie, and it isn't hard to see why: it explodes all their pretensions about being the party of "freedom," and it pretty clearly parallels the hypocritical cant of the War Party as it pretends to battle "terrorism" while engaging in a campaign of state terrorism that far surpasses anything a small band of amateurs could possibly hope to dish out. They must find particularly galling a subplot in which evidence emerges that a deadly series of biowarfare attacks attributed to "religious fanatics" (and we don't mean George W. Bush and Jerry Falwell) turn out to be the work of a sinister cabal inside the government – the perfect excuse for a crackdown. All of this – economic collapse, political turmoil, the dictatorship of "the Party" – is clearly identified in the film as the product of a series of wars, stretching from Iraq to Syria to Iran and beyond. I was particularly intrigued by references to "the former United States of America," and hints of a future history in which imperialism has drained the once mighty U.S. until it is a pitiful husk of its former self, crippled by economic dislocation and embroiled in civil war. -- Excerpt from Justin Raimondo: Go See V for Vendetta

It's almost embedded in our DNA, this knee-jerk shock at enactments of social conscience. Churchgoers are lectured about the brotherhood of man, the quality of mercy and the Golden Rule: do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. Yet the minute they step outside, they are greeted by the world of cold-blooded patriarchal capitalism, embodied by the Rule of Greed: do others before they get a chance to do you.

Centuries, if not millennia, of hectoring by the ruling classes against those who question authority, against those who would prefer a world where cooperation replaces bloodshed, have left us a fragmented species, not knowing whether to believe what our hearts tell us is good for us or what they tell us is good for us.

V for Vendetta is a wakeup call, a reminder of the wretched little men who stand over us like giants because they own the governments we think we have installed. They have sold us for a dollar with their lies and nationalisms and then bought us back for a penny with their somatic consumer delights. Everyone has their price, and the price of the mass of men and women has been their pride in the ability to think for themselves.

This is not a film that advocates terrorism, but a film about terrorism. It's also about heroes and their opposite: mercenaries. Mercenaries are the assassins of dissent, who act on behalf of governments who remain in power by activating the worst traits in their citizens as if the latter were robots. Heroes act on behalf of the simple decency stolen from people by the great deceivers. They are the legends that never die because they stand for freedom, not slavery.

V for Vendetta will have you cheering, if you have a heart, that is.

2) The Da Vinci Code

Is this a good film? A bad film? Who cares? It certainly isn't awful. Dan Brown may have "borrowed" the central theme from others, but that theme is vastly important to what may be a terminally duped species.

Many people like to call this film (and the book) a fiction, some requiring it to be capitalised and italicised … FICTION. But is it? Why is this idea of Jesus and Mary Magdalene getting married and having children any more fictitious than the "official" version handed down all these years by a patriarchy frightened and hateful of women?

The version of Christianity we're stuck with has done little but promote war and repression. A matriarchal Christianity would have worshipped the mysteries instead of armaments and the stock exchange.

The Da Vinci Code is essential viewing mainly for the twenty minutes or so of dialogue between Langdon, Neveu and Teabing in the latter's study. See it and then take another look at Da Vinci's Last Supper (click on the photo). Given what we know about those who have ruled since the time of Jesus, and especially after Constantine, it's hard to discount the far more plausible theory that Jesus did in fact marry Mary Magdalene, but that his simple humanness was never going to be good for the business of religion.

Imagine what Christianity could have been. And look at what it has become.

-- Benoît Balz