Random Thought

I got hooked into watching "V for Vendetta" on FX the other night, and was reminded of what I like about movie so much. It's a somewhat above-par "thoughtful" action flick (the kind for which the Wachowski brothers are known) except for the very middle of the movie, the part in which Evey is captured and tortured by what appear to be agents of the High Chancellor, in what is a ruse by V himself. And it's not so much Evey's story that compels us (at least for those of us familiar with the comic who know she'll be freed) so much as the story of Valerie, the woman whose notes V discovered while he was in prison, who was imprisoned and tortured by the government apparently for the crime of being a lesbian. Valerie's story is compelling primarily because it serves to remind us of the extent to which human beings will torture and murder out of prejudice and intolerance, and the horrors that can be perpetrated when that prejudice and intolerance becomes state policy. It is also compelling because you can be assured that right now, in many places in the world, people are being tortured and murdered for who they've slept with, what they believe in, what they've dared to say, or for being so bold as to demand justice and fair treatment from those in power.