V-Man

This movies first begins with Evey being rescued by V. He is a masked man who is very skilled in fighting. As the movie goes on, Evey and V become really close and start to bond with one another. Evey begins to find out about the past of V and the background behind his life. Evey becomes V’s ally and helps him to achieve freedom and justice within the corrupt society. V is the only one that is willing to stand up against the government. Part of it has to do with what the government had done to him a long time ago. He starts to search for people one by one and quickly take them all down, in his attempt to overthrow the Great Britain government. In the end, he kills all the people that he set out for, but dies.

The movie really reminded me of Batman. It reminded me of Batman because they both wanted revenge for what happen in their past, so they become this masked vigilante in order to achieve this. Along with that, everyone in the society was corrupt and there were very few people you could trust. Also there was a woman involved in both movies that each masked man wanted to be with.

I read everybody’s blog and it didn’t really seem like anyone enjoyed it very much. I thought it was awesome. The storyline was great and it really made me want to keep watching the movie. I think that it is definitely a movie worth buying.

Villan or Hero?

When I walked into class on Monday morning I was very surprised to find that we were watching the movie “V for Vendetta” I thought maybe we would watch a movie more familiar like Spiderman or Batman. I did not know that “V for Vendetta” was based off of a comic book and was very surprised to find out so.

The movie states out with a young women walking over to one of her friends houses, one night and on her way she is stopped by men working for the high chancellor. She is put into a life and death situation when out of nowhere a man in a mask who calls himself V rescues the young woman Evey Hammond and an unlikely bond between the two emerges which results with Evey becoming Vs ally. Evey learns a general summary of V's past and, after a time, decides to help him bring down those who committed the atrocities that led to Britain being in the shape that it is in.

The movie is set in Britain which is filled with torture cells, unfair punishments, and prejudice against minorities. However in the mist of all this chaos, one man known only by the name V dares to stand up to the government and is said to be as a terrorist. V has a passion for justice and he also is bitter and has his own personal hatred of the government for something they did to him long ago. As November the 5th, the day V says he and those who will follow him will stand up to the government once and for all approaches, a detective named Detective Finch becomes more and more determined to uncover the truth about V, however his search leads him to ask to question whether or not he is on the right side.

The movie ends with V convincing Mr. Creedy to bring him the High Chancellor by offering up himself in exchange. After V has Creedy promptly kill the Chancellor, Creedy then orders his men to kill V. V, having worn the armor breastplate from the suit of armor survives multiple gunshots, and proceeds to kill all of Creedy's men, finally killing Mr. Creedy. At this point V have been viciously wounded and there is no question wither or not he was going to die from the attack. V staggers back to Evey, only to die in her arms. Evey places his body on the London Underground Tram, surrounded by roses, but just as Evey is getting ready to pull the switch to send V’s body and the explosives towards parliament Inspector Finch reaches the abandoned station and tries to convince Evey otherwise. However, he has a revelation, and allows Evey to send the train. Outside, the citizens of London are all wearing V’s costume and rapidly advancing towards the Parliament building. The military, now at a loss after Mr. Creedy's death, does not stop them. The explosive tram collides with the Parliament, and completely destroys the building. Evey and the Inspector watch the fantastic explosion, and Evey tells the inspector how V truly is an ideal, and can never truly die, as long as all of mankind longs for freedom.

I can’t say I liked this movie all too much, I did find it interesting however. I was a little disappointed that the movie was rated R because I do not watch rated R movies. I had seen this movie on T.V. so I found little desire to watch it again.

The Villian V

I would have to say that the movie, “V for Vendetta” was not one of my favorite movies. The movie starts out with a man by the name of V saving a girl named Evey and tells her to come and watch a symphony with him. V says that it is going to be magnificent! Evey says that she should be getting home, but V talks her into it and she goes. Evey and V walk out on a roof top and V starts conducting music, which Evey doesn’t hear for a little while until a building blows up. Evey is very startled and doesn't really know what to do at this point. This opening scene really sets the stage for the rest of the movie.

V’s character is an escapee from an insane asylum that is run by Norsefire. V is badly treated and ends up getting severely burned all over his body. He is seeking revenge from those people who treated him this way and most and his final plan is to free the people by blowing up the Parliaments. He is recognized by wearing a white, smiling mask with long black hair, and a cape. Evey, I guess you could say is sort of a side kick to V’s plan, but like most movies both V and Evey end up falling in love at the end of the movie, before V is brutally shot and dies in Evey’s arms. Evey tells V that she doesn’t want to live in fear anymore from her awful experiences as a child. The only way that V knows how to fix this problem is make her go through the some of the same processes that he had to go through in the insane asylum. In the end, what V did to her worked and she was no longer afraid of what was going to happen to her and if she was ever going to get caught for working with a terrorist. V’s plan worked, in the end he ends up killing the high chancellor, Sutler and all of the rest of the people who tortured him in the asylum. V dies before he can finish his task of blowing up the Parliaments. Evey decides that she needs to finish it for V and to give the people hope. Parliament is blown to pieces and V’s life work is accomplished, the people make a stand, wearing V’s same mask as they storm parliament’s grounds.

I have honestly never heard of this movie and was not really impressed. I wish that there was a little bit more to V’s background and of what happened at the insane asylum. I am not quite sure why he does exactly what he does. Yes, I understand that he is seeking revenge, but there has to be more of a reason to kill everybody that he does. I think that most of the time the colors in the movie were so dark that I couldn’t really see the fight scenes or some of the action that is taking place. I kind of don’t understand the story, but am glad that I have seen it and will probably only ever watch it this one time. I don’t know if I would really recommend it to anyone.

V for Vendetta the peoples villain

The movie V for Vendetta is a great villain movie. It is about a man they they only know by his mask. He wears a white Halloween type mask. It is very mysterious because we never see his face, but the one thing we do see are his red hands. They look to be extremely burnt because of a fire to the insane asylum. V, the mysterious villain, is looked at as a terrorist to the government. He has the people rally behind him in his quest to overthrow the Great Britain government. V fights for the rights of the people. He can easily be seen as a convict because he does kill a couple cops, but they deserved it. What I mean is the people of Great Britain are not given the freedom they deserve. Evey, Natalie Portman, plays the role of V's sidekick. In the end when V dies she carries out his mission and blows up a historic building to show his disapproval of the government.
I had never seen this movie before and I liked it. It was a nice change from normal hero movies. The hero is a bad guy in a sense but he fights for the people. I would compare this movie to Robin hood because both men fight for what is right.

3 out of 5 star movie

Watching movies isn't exactly my forte, and hardly am I ever willing to sit through a movie without getting nervous and begin talking about irrelevant topics that hardly relate to the movie. However, even though it's hard for me to watch movies, I have always wanted to watch V for Vendetta. When I first saw the previews of a masked man, with a mischievous smile, killing government officials, I could hardly wait for it to come out. Of course, though, I never made the effort to watch the adventure movie. Only now, after I have watched the movie from beginning to end, I can't say I regret waiting so long to watch the film.

As the movie is a production from the comic book "V for Vendetta", written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd, the story follows a terrorist, also known as "V", who is seeking revenge from being tortured in a concentration camp controlled by Norsefire. Not only is Britain being led by Norsefire's high chancellor, Adam Sutler, but Britain society is turning into totalitarian, of which V is trying to bring to an end. In order for V to apply his aspirations of freeing Britain, he claims that on the fifth of November he will destroy the Houses of Parliament and he advises the people of Britain to rise against the government so they can gain back their independence. Alongside of V is Evey, who helps save V's life on the occasion and of course every movie needs a love story. The two not only help each other with their fears but they fall in love; however, they will never be able to be with one another as V dies after being brutally shot. The movie ends with fireworks spreading across the sky while Evey explains that V is in every one of us, as we are all him.

V for Vendetta is a good film. Actually, I think the story is much better, but isn't it always? I wouldn't recommend the movie by saying it is the best action/adventure movie, but I'd suggest it is a good movie to watch on a Friday night when you have nothing better to do. The acting was alright, Evey, played by Natalie Portman, did a fine job and probably the best job; although, I think she could work on her British accent a little bit. Overall, I'm glad I didn't watch V for Vendetta in theaters because I would have been disappointed. Watching it on DVD was enough to say, "That was an alright movie."

Maus is really a mouse.

The story of the mouse named Artie is pretty interesting. It is about a mouse who has written a comic book and his dad finds it. The dad is going through some rough times because his wife is being a real pain to him. The comic that Artie had written made the father remember his late wife Anja. There is a story within the story because Artie's comic book is presented. It is about a man in prison who finds out his mother killed herself. The mom had slit her wrists and bled to death. This comic was very creepy and gloomy. All the characters were black and white and their facial expressions were almost unseen. But back to the story of Artie. In the story the mice are portrayed as Jews and the Nazi's are seen as cats chasing after them. I like the connection the writer makes here. Even the artwork was very gloomy making the tone of the story seem sad.
The art in both the stories is mostly black and white stencil. The facial expressions of the mice were very simple. But in Artie's comic, the characters have very creepy expressions. The comic is very abstract and the black and white colors enhance the expressions.

Better Late Than Never--A Tragedy of Maus

Lately, we’ve been assigned to read “Maus,” an autobiographical comic book about the history of the Holocaust through the eyes’ of the author’s (Art Spiegelman) father, Vladek. In chapter five, through a third person’s point of view, we watch (and I say watch because I felt as though I was watching Spiegelman’s story unravel) Spiegelman meets up with his father to learn another portion of his father’s effort of survival as a Polish Jew. Vladek explains to his son how he and his wife, Anja, went through obstacles to get away from the ghettos while leaving behind and losing family. Tragically, Vladek and Anja suffer through mind afflicting events that happen. Yet, regardless of their misery, they survived the holocaust only with detrimental effects that follow them for the rest of their lives.

“Maus” is comparable to “Our Cancer Year” since the art is in black and white. But that’s it. The particular art in “Maus” is well done and clear. Each character is easily identifiable considering “Our Cancer Year’s” art has dark ink and a lot of lines where I couldn’t tell the character’s apart. Also, I noticed that the art in “Maus” didn’t have any emotion; there weren’t any tears rolling down the mice’s face and I wouldn’t have been able to read any emotion if it weren’t for their hands covering their faces when they were sad. It isn’t a bad thing because I suppose that helped the clarity of the pictures. Which reminds me, I remember in class Professor Villarreal mentioned animal metamorphoses…at least I think that’s what the word was, “metamorphoses.” Well, while I’m on that subject I’ve been thinking why on earth would Jews be represented as mice and the Natzi be represented by cats? As I began to think more deeply, I came up with the idea that perhaps the Jews were considered to be mice because they were seen as a plague to the Nazi. Cats chase mice because they want to eat them. A cat chase mouse sort of game; thus, maybe Spiegelman was trying to add emphasis on the superiority that the Nazis wanted to have over the Jews. I could be way off here, but there’s an idea that I’ve wanted to get off my chest.

Anywho! “Maus” stood out from the past comics we’ve read not only because I got emotionally attached but also because the story had a nice flow and there was a lot of depth. The autobiography told a story that wasn’t boring or hard to follow; unlike past comics we’ve read, I understood everything that was happening and I didn’t find myself getting bored. I’m disappointed it was only chapter five that we were assigned to read. I know “Maus” won the Pulitzer Prize for a reason, but in order to see that reason, reading more will only help accomplish that.

The Cautious Maus

Maus is a comic different from most that we have read this semester. Its facts with down about a man's journey through the Holocaust as seen through the eyes of his son. His son is a up and coming comic artist. Art is the young man's name. His father apparently is a loner since the death of his wife because he calls his son in the beginning at 7:00 am for help. When Art comes over, his father declines his assistance. His father becomes upset about a comic detailing the death of his wife.

The comic goes into the past to 1943. It begins to tell the story of the transporting of the Jew to the concentration camps. The Nazis began to take Jews to a ghetto in Srouda. Anja becomes informed of this by her brother-in-law and is asked to be moved. Art's father, Vladek, moves his family inside a empty home. However, Vladek and his family is caught due to the probability that another Jew snitched on him. But, Vladek is smart by befriending some of the Nazi soldiers. Finally, Vladek is released by the soldier for a randsom paid by his cousin Haskel. However, Haskel is sneaky and corrupt and gets Anja's family killed.

Vladek and Art arrive at a bank. Vladek claims Art as his heir to his valuables after he dies. The story ends with his father crying of his dead wife. Maus was a very orginial tale. It is an exact account of the war for the Jews. I thought it was great and refreshing orginial. The idea of Jews being mice was very different. This is also a very somber story when refering to Art and his father Vladek. I could definitely read more of this story.

Survivors Tale

This comic is an autobiography on one of the people that was a survivor of the holocaust. The comic first starts out by Artie roller skating as a young kid. His roller skate broke and his friends rolled off without him. He came in crying to his dad and his dad asked him to hold the wood he was sawing and made a comment on friends. The start of Chapter 5 shows Artie sleeping and getting a phone call from Mala saying that his dad needed him to come over to help fix the drainpipe. Artie expresses his frustration with his dad to his wife and how his father drove him crazy when he asked him to fix things. About a week later, Artie comes over to see his dad and Mala tells him that his dad might have read his comic about his mom committing suicide. The comic is called Prisoner on the Hell Planet. It is about Artie blaming himself for his mothers death and how he had to comfort his father instead of him comforting Artie. Next Artie and his dad walk to the bank and Artie’s dad starts to tell Artie about his experiences in 1943. Vladek starts with telling Artie about being moved to the ghetto and having to live in a small cottage. Other people in the ghetto had to sleep outside. Vladek had to make a decision on whether he would send his young son away with someone else so he would be safer or keep his son there with him. Vladek decided to send his son with Persis so his son might have a better chance of living, but he found out later that his son died.
I can’t imagine this happening to anyone. I really liked this comic because it was about something that really happened. I’m not very good in history classes, but I think I would enjoy learning history through a comic rather then reading regular history books. I thought this was the best comic we read so far because it addressed real issues that made the reader want to continue reading

The Mice in the Holocaust

The comic was actually quite interesting and made me remember what I had been taught in history class about the holocaust. It was awful, the things that people did to hide and survive. At the beginning of the comic, Vladek calls his son Artie and asks him to come and help him fix something on his roof. Artie tells his father that he will be over the following weekend to help fix the roof. Artie finally shows up to help and finds out that his father had done the job already. When Artie goes inside to talk to his father’s new wife, Mala he finds out that Mala had found a story that Artie had written about his mother when she died. After Artie is finished looking at the story, his father walks in and tells Artie that the story made him sad and that he really missed his sweet wife, Anja.

Later, Vladek and Artie begin walking to the bank when Artie asked his father “what happened to you and Anja after the big selection at the stadium?” His father’s response was: “Well, for a time it was everything quiet. Then in 1943 came an order: All Jews what are left in Sosnowiec must go to live in an old village nearby called srodula.” Srodula was a holding camp for the Jews that were going to eventually go to Auschwitz. Artie and his father began talking about what happened and how his father had to make hide-a-ways for his family so that the guards wouldn’t find them and haul them away. Vladek talked of how they had no food and how the Germans would take the small children and those who were crying they would throw them against the wall to make them stop crying. The conditions were horrible.

Even though Vladek and his wife Anja paid off the guard to get their nephew, parents and each other out, only Vladek, his wife and his nephew were saved. Anja’s parents were taken and immediately put into the gas chambers. As time went on, Vladek and Anja were saved because they were taken to a bunker by Vladek’s cousin and decided that they would rather starve then go out and give themselves to the guards or get shot. They waited for a long time and decided that it was safe to leave. Those who had waited with them went their separate ways and survived the holocaust. Anja killed herself years later and Vladek remarried. Vladek gave all of his savings to Artie because he was worried that he was going to die of a heart attack. The story ends with Artie and his father leaving the bank and going home.

This story really touched me. I really like that the Jews were represented as mice. It made the story seem a little lighter, then so serious but it was still very depressing. The art work was well done, but the thing that stood out to me the most was how the words were put together. It made Vladek seem quite illiterate, but also proved the point that he had grown up living in the ghetto and had no time to properly learn how to speak and read. It made the situation seem more real and trying.

Maus??

This reading is about Artie and his father, Vladek. As they both walk to the bank Vladek began to tell Artie his story about his experience of being a Jew in the 1940’s. In 1943, an order was issued for the Jews in Sosnowiec to move to a village called Srodula, the ghetto. In the ghetto, Vladek and the other Jews were marched to work and marched back after work, then locked in after being counted. Vladek shares his story about him and a few others intrusting their children with a man called Persis, so that they could maybe be spared. His son Richieu was one of the children that went with Persis to Za wiercie. The Germans decided to finish the ghetto they were in, so Tosha decided to poison herself and the children because she didn’t want herself or the children to die in the gas chambers. Vladek and Anja didn’t find out until much later what happened to their son in Zawiercie. Vladek also draws out different bunkers for Artie so he can see the bunkers made that enabled him to survive and hide from the Gestapo. Vladek was caught and then escaped with the help of his friend because he still had valuables to pay for help. After staying in hiding Vladek and Anja finally are able to sneak out without being caught and head towards Sosnoweic. Vladek and Artie arrive to the bank and are getting an extra key for Artie. Vladek shows Artie a few of his things from his deposit box and some of them are valuables that he had since his time hiding in the bunkers. They were valuables that he retrieved after the war ended. The last part of the reading was about Vladek breaking down about missing his first wife Anja and regretting remarrying Mala.

I really liked this comic. I think I read the sequel of this reading. I liked that Art Spiegelman used mice to represent the Jews. I think it softened the harsher parts of the comic. One of the parts I thought were really harsh to read about was the part when the Gestapo men took the small children and smashed them against the wall. I think it is easier to imagine this happening to animals rather than humans. I also think this is a children’s book and I think they would understand the terminology of cats preying on mice and be able to relate it to the Gestapo preying on the Jews. Something I was thinking…Maybe Art Spiegelman used animals to represent the Germans and Jews because it is easier to imagine animals treating each other like how the Gestapo treated the Jews, rather than human beings treating each other that way. It’s hard to imagine people treating other people like how the Gestapo treated the Jews. It almost seems unreal and something that would be made up for horror stories. Maybe Jews running around hiding and how they were treated also made the Jews relatable to animals. I don’t know, these are just some of my thoughts. I would like to know why Art Spiegelman used mice and cats to tell his story…

Prisoner of the Hell Planet reminded me of My Year of Cancer. I didn’t like the art in the Prisoner of the Hell Planet, just like I didn’t like the art in My Year of Cancer. The people look weird and crazy. I think the art compliments the mood of the comic just like in My year of Cancer reading. It helps to tell the story and set the tone of the reading. They still look weird and crazy though...

I liked the combination of words and pictures in this comic, I think they complimented each other well. I felt like the words were the dominant medium telling the story.

Maus

The comic "Maus" starts off with a story from Artie's childhood. He goes off to skate with he is friends, but accidently falls an they leave him, laughing and taunting him. Artie's father is near by and needs his help holding something. Vladek (Artie's father) asks why he is crying and Artie tells him why. after that the really story begans. we flip the page to Artie waking up to a phone call from Mala, who is telling him that his father is actign like the usual old man. He is wanting to fix things around the house. Vladek is becoming to old to be doing the work around th ehouse so he thought it would be a good idea to call his son to help him with the drain pipe. Artie doesn't reslly want to go so he makes up an excuse and give a solution to his father. Artie tells his father to call a repair man, but his V;adek hads already called a neighbor to help him. The next week, Artie goes to visit his father and Mala. He finds his father in the garage and asks him what his doing. Vladek answers with kind of a sour remark, "such jobs, i can do easily by myself" (Artie p. 98). Aertie takes the hint and leaves to greet Mala. He asks her if his father is mad, becuase he didn't want to help with the drain the week before. Mala doesn't think thats why. Then she tells Artie that his father had found and read the comic about his mother. "Prisoner on the Hell Planet," is about how Artie's mother committed suicide, and how it looks as if it were Artie's fault. Right when asrtie and Mala are done talking about the incident, Vladek walks in. Artie doesn't hesitate and asks his father about the comic adn him reading it. Valdek tells him that he found it when Artie asked him to find some stuff for him. Vladek says that he read it and that he cried after. artie tries to apologize for it, but his father insists that it was good for him to get it out of his system (Artie p. 104). Then it seems like Vladek wants a subject change, so he asks Artie if he is ready to walk to the bank with him. On the way to the bank Vladek tells the tale of him and Anja, Artie's late mother, and their survival through WWII. He tells him of how horrible it is to live, even in the better ghettos. Vladek tells of how Jews turned on their own within the camps and the very horrible loss of their family.

I really liked this reading. It pulled me into it, because it was something so real. There wasn't any, "sugar coding" as there is on usual stories of this sort. I really liked how he let us know how Tosha had to take the childrens lives. That part in the story really grabbed me and pulled me further into the story. I also liked the way his father would speak. His sentence structure is really someting else. However, my favorite thing in the entire story is the quote from Hitler. "The Jews are undoubtly a race, but they are not human" (Artie introduction). This automatically blew me away. It is a, truelly a great comic.

Small Sad Mouse Story

This comic starts off with Artie rollerblading with his friends but then breaks his skate and gets ditched. He tells his dad, Vladek, what happens and he tells Artie, "If you can lock them together in a roo for a week then you could see what it is, friends." Then the story flashes forward to the future with Artie getting a phone call from Mala, his step mother complaining about his father fixing a drain on the roof. His father gets on the phone and asks his son to come over to help. He doesn't. A week later Artie goes to his father's house and notices he's acting strange. He finds out from his step mother that Vladek read a comics that Artie made a long time ago about his life. It was a very person comic about his mom's suicide and the things he and his dad went through. Vladek read it and got all the bad memories back that he went through with Anja, his dead wife. Artie and Vladek go for a walk to the bank and on the way Vladek tell his son the story of what they experienced during WWII. He told him of all the hiding, moving, deception, hunger, killing, and most importantly the loss of all Anja's family. She lost everyone. When they arrive at the bank, Vladek tells his son that he's making an extra key to his belongings in case he were to die. In there he has a diamond that he gave to Anja and some other things that he managed to hide during the war. He wants him to have it instead in Mala, who wants all the money for herself after he dies. He tells him that she's already made him change the will four times. He then starts crying and calling out Anja's name.

I enjoyed this comic so much. I really got into it. I feel for them when they have to hide out. I can feel their desperation and fear. I can imagine what I would do in those situations. It must have been so hard. It makes me appreciate the freedom I have. I also feel for the father and son. I can relate to Artie because I sometimes feel the same way about my father. This comic was great.