V for Vendetta

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*WARNING: CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS*

So last night my wife and I went to check out "V for Vendetta" at the good ole' Opry Mills 20 movie theatre. Great movie!! There is some language and some violence (especially at the end), but still worth the viewing, in my opinion.

I'm not big about movie recaps here at this blog, but to quickly summarize this one: the year is 2020. America has crumbled into a civil war. Britain (where the movie is set) is ruled by an extremeist monarch who drives hard the machine of propaganda. Horrible things have been done in the name of science to our main character, "V", and a host of other victims from which we only see in brief flashbacks scattered throughout the movie. The corruption of the government he once loved and it's leaders' total disregard for human life and the well being of it's citizens has driven him to what he has become. His feeling on government can be summed up by a single line of his in the film, "people should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people."

V is quite an interesting character. The nobility of his cause and compassion for others (except the ones he may be killing at any given moment) almost make you feel as if he is totally justified in his means. He has a love for literature, arts, film, and fine music of all sorts--many of which have apparently been banned by the British government in this film. He constantly quotes poetry and other beautifully constructed philosophical thoughts throughout the picture. As for the story line with Evey (Natalie Portman), I shall leave that absent for now. You'll just have to see it yourself.

There is a line at the very end of the movie that struck a nerve close to the surface in my life as of late. Evey tells a detective, who is very active in the entire picture, that she is fixing to carry out the end of V's plan--to blow up Parliament. When the detective inquires as to why, she says, "because people need hope more than a building."

"Hmmm," I thought to myself, "that sounds a lot like what the Church needs too." Is it possible that we have so fallen in love with our buildings and the events that take place there that we have forgotten that we carry with us the message of hope to a scared and confused world? Do we leave it up to someone else to love our next door neighbors or our co-workers because they don't worship at the same building that we do (or anywhere at all, for that matter). What happens when the constructions that symbolize what we live for become instead, themselves, what we live for? What would happen to the Church if all the church buildings where destroyed?
"People need hope more than a building." Wow. Good words.