‘V’ examines evil vs. evil

Forget its R rating – should “V for Vendetta” come with a Code Orange alert instead?

The movie, opening in theaters today, is a futuristic fable about a woman named Evey (Natalie Portman) living in a rigidly controlled London in the year 2020, when everyone is monitored by an oppressive government.

She falls in with a mysterious masked terrorist called V (Hugo Weaving) and becomes his willing prisoner in an underground lair. But after experiencing the kind of officially ordered torture that forced V to fight the system, she comes to embrace his view that the only way to rebel against evil is by doing evil – like blowing up buildings.

Written and produced by Andy and Larry Wachowski (“The Matrix”), “V for Vendetta” is based on a graphic novel first published in 1980. Unlike “Munich,” it’s a big-screen look at terrorism not of 30 years ago, but the kind Americans woke up to on Sept. 11, 2001.

Following “V” is April’s “Flight 93” (about the hijacked airliner forced down in Pennsylvania) and in August, Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center,” films that specifically dramatize the national tragedy.

In development is “The Counter-Terrorist,” based on the life of the former FBI agent who was head of security at the WTC when it fell. There’s also the Showtime drama series “Sleeper Cell,” which follows a federal agent infiltrating U.S.-based jihadists.

And come June, bookstores will be stocked with John Updike’s novel “Terrorist,” about a would-be Islamic suicide bomber in New Jersey.

In a more innocent time, movies like “The Siege” (1998), “Collateral Damage” and “The Sum of All Fears” (both made in 2001 but released in 2002) dealt with terrorism in action-adventure or “What if?” scenarios.

But now, less than five years after Sept. 11, are audiences ready for films to seriously tackle contemporary terrorism?

” ‘V for Vendetta’ is definitely a provocative work that inspires strong reactions,” says Portman, who shaved her head for the role. (Evey’s torture begins with her long hair being shorn.)

“One of the advantages of having it take place in an imaginative future world is that it can say many more things,” she says. “And though the graphic novel was made 25 years ago, it’s relevant today.”

Last July, the movie’s relevance was taken up a notch further when terrorist bombings in the London underground left 52 people dead. Suddenly, the story – which has always involved its title character using an abandoned subway to blow up the Houses of Parliament – became eerie.

Warner Bros., the film’s distributor, delayed its release from last November to this spring, officially because of special effects work that needed to be done.

“It felt right (to delay release),” says James McTeigue, the film’s director, who was editing the movie in London at the time of the attack. Still, he adds, “you can’t control if the real world echoes your art.

“The movie is about the individual’s right to push back against fear,” he says. “Filmmakers want to deal with what’s going on in the world, and if that’s the case, how do you not talk about terrorism?”

“We’re in a new era,” says Daniel P. Franklin, author of “Politics and Film: The Political Culture of Film in the United States” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006).

“Prior to 9/11, Hollywood dealt with terrorism in a very simplistic way,” Franklin says. “Now, these films may be where real conversations about the subject take place. But any movie that says anything except ‘it’s wrong’ runs the risk of getting negative attention.”

“V for Vendetta” also contains what could be seen as reflections of current Bush administration controversies. Though it has been in development for almost a decade, its depiction of a leadership that uses fear as a tool and engages in wiretapping and surveillance may be seen as overtly political.

“I don’t want to make propaganda – I never would,” says the Jerusalem-born Portman, who has in recent years voiced support for Israel, among other causes. “I don’t look for political works to do.

“But I was excited to make a big action movie that had actual substance to it. And `V’ has a theme that’s been always true: people fighting against unjust regimes. Here it just happens in an imaginary world.”

That “imaginary world,” unlike many of the other terrorism-related movies and projects coming up, may help audiences wrestle with tough ideas, says David Lloyd, who co-created the graphic novel 25 years ago with Alan Moore.

“A sci-fi setting has wider reach,” says Lloyd. “It can be more effective.

“There may be people who see ‘V’ as a sort of justification of terrorism and close their mind. But if you don’t talk about terrorism and try to understand why people do it, you never solve the problem.”

But ultimately, says the movie’s producer – action impresario Joel Silver (“Die Hard,” “Lethal Weapon”) – the future of films about terrorism may hinge on a very modern reality.

“This story is more important now than ever,” Silver says. “But movies are made to make money. So if people go to films like this, we’ll see more of them.”