I Feed Upon Morsels You Haven't Yet Dropped

Congratulations to Mr. Ben Grant for correctly naming "Theme from the Bottom" by Phish as the Sunday Song of the Day.

Well, here's the moment you've all been waiting for.....................my thoughts on Munich and V for Vendetta. If I were Dan Carlson, each movie would get its own separate review but guess what? I'm not, so you are getting two reviews/thoughts for the price of one. I'm pretty sure that none of you would pay for my reviews, but I felt the need to use a common cliche.

All in all, V and Munich were some of the more interesting movies that I have seen in the last year along with Syriana. Granted, I have not seen that many films in the past year but those three stand out. What made the films special? I was drawn to their ability to address difficult questions.

In Munich, I was struck by the transformation that Eric Bana undergoes throughout the film. As a viewer, it is hard to imagine how the mindset of constantly seeking others in order to bring about their deaths does not somehow harm a deep section of one's psyche. Even though many people around him lauded him as a hero for their nation, Bana's character could still not wonder if there was not something deeply and inherently wrong about solving their disputes with the Palestinians in the same way that the Palestinians sought to deal with them.

In V for Vendetta, the deep questions of what must a society do to deal with something as deeply ingrained as a corrupt government. In my class this quarter on "Law and the Legal Profession" we read an excerpt from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, which is one of the most stirring pieces on civil disobedience that I have ever read.

In the letter, King states that during the process of civil disobedience, the protester shows the highest respect for the law by breaking the law and then dealing with the consequences of their actions. This seems odd to our way of thinking that breaking the law somehow shows respect for the law, but King believes that those who selfishly break the law never intend to pay for the consequences of their unlawful actions, but the peaceful protester knows that their actions will lead to punishment and fully accepts that punishment.

How does this relate to V for Vendetta? Just as V justifies his actions by attempting to bring a just society through sometimes violent action, he understood that there comes a time when some societies have simply been led down the wrong path for so long that they must be shaken out of their slumber by outlandish acts. I do not mean to disrespect the work of Martin Luther King, Jr., by comparing him with the character V, but they both functioned as beacons in their societies to call attention to troubling practices that simply had to end.