4. V For Vendetta
The government in V For Vendetta are hardly good folk. They murder and oppress their way across British society with precious little subtlety, backed by the intense fizzog and no-nonsense oratory of Chancellor Sutler, leader of the Norsefire party and all-out dictatorial leader of post-apocalypse Great Britain. In the movie world, Sutler's party aren't the most tolerant bunch they'll lock you up for anything from the wrong nationality to the wrong faith, and they're not exactly tolerant about differing sexualities or political ideologies either. It's a bit of a hellhole, and into this hellhole strides V, Guy Fawkes mask-wearer and anarchist extraordinaire. V's plan is to overthrow the entire rotten system, but he can't really do it himself as the former subject of heinous medical tests, he's pretty damn conspicuous. To this end, he recruits Natalie Portman's Evie, a much more normal-looking person who can help him advance his ends. Yet how does he convince her? Why, in the same manner as the government, of course! He re-enacts every single aspect of a close-monitored government torture, from the inhospitable accommodation to the probing question-and-answer sessions and the emotional and physical abuse which come as part and parcel of Norsefire's and V's philosophy. I suppose you can understand why he did it he needed to create people he could trust. Yet to me, there's something troubling about an anti-oppression unit which begins with oppression, because it's only from there that fanaticism and troubling ideologies can develop. Frankly, even if desperate times call for desperate measures, it still seems like hypocrisy to me.